The Beautiful One Read Online Free Page A

arrive,” Anna said. “But perhaps there is some relative who might help? An aunt? A sister?”
    â€œThere is no one from the family here but me, and thus, she could not possibly be comfortable here. She must go to an inn and await a new situation. My butler will provide funds.”
    Anna saw something die in Miss Tarryton’s eyes right then. How he could reject his niece so blithely, Anna couldn’t comprehend. But then, he seemed to be a man whose heart had gone missing.
    He turned to the girl, and Anna glimpsed again some hint of torment behind the hardness in his eyes, but it was quickly shuttered. “Miss Black will take you away,” he said.
    Anna’s spine stiffened. Oh no you don’t!
    â€œOh,” Miss Tarryton said, blinking. Her lower lip trembled for a moment before she got control of it.
    â€œWhy, thank you,” Anna interjected. “You’re quite right that what she needs most now is a room in which to relax.”
    â€œThat’s not—” he began, but Anna cut him off.
    â€œHow very kind of my lord to wish for his niece’s immediate comfort,” she said, walking toward the rope hanging on the wall and praying he wouldn’t stop her—she didn’t want to consider how such a man might try. “Of course she will be too tired to do anything but rest now, after hours in a carriage.”
    She pulled the bell that would summon a servant and babbled on without meeting anyone’s eyes in a desperate effort to drown out the tension in the room.
    â€œWell, it was certainly a long journey,” she said, forcing a cheerful tone and feeling like a ninny. “And such rain! Why, it’s still raining now,” she said, sweeping her eyes toward the windows, where sheets of water blurred the glass in the early evening gloom. The sight made her realize that no matter what happened, she and Miss Tarryton could not reasonably set out from Stillwell that night. She didn’t, however, intend to leave with the viscount’s ward at all.
    It was perhaps not the most proper thing to leave a young woman alone with a gentleman, but he was her guardian after all, and her uncle, and he would clearly waste no time in finding some woman, whether a relative or a governess, to see to Miss Tarryton.
    The butler arrived then, saving Anna from launching into an impromptu poetry recitation.
    â€œMiss Tarryton will need a good fire,” Anna instructed the startled butler, “as we met with rain. And a tray ought to be sent up to her room so she can retire in peace.”
    The viscount grunted his acquiescence, and the servant led Miss Tarryton out and presumably to a chamber. Though how long she might stay in that chamber would depend on Anna.
    What did this man have to be so bitter about anyway, with his massive grounds and his numerous servants? She stiffened her shoulders and turned around to face him.
    She was met with dark eyebrows slashing over midnight-blue eyes that were not dead now, but alive with anger under their thick black lashes. With his height and his broad shoulders, Lord Grandville looked capable of anything. Dangerous.
    In a heartbeat he had come closer on those long, muscular legs and stopped before her. She tipped her head up only slightly, knowing she couldn’t afford to let him see the effect he was having on her. Besides, he wasn’t the only one who was angry.
    His hard eyes glittered down at her. “You have to take her away.”
    â€œThis young woman is your niece, and you would send her from your home?”
    â€œStillwell is no place for her.”
    â€œAnd what is the best place for her?”
    â€œYou seem well suited to discover that. Find her another school and I will pay all the expenses of her travel and yours.”
    Another man making plans for her. After what had happened with the marquess—after enduring the shock of seeing that book of drawings of herself and having to leave her