The Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl Read Online Free Page B

sank onto the cushioned chair’s seat.
    Mrs. Knightsbridge poured Jamie a steaming cup of…tea?
    “How do you take it?”
    “Cold and sweet, preferably.” Jamie eyed the cup. She was a Southern girl. She’d never had tea above fifty degrees before.
    Mrs. Knightsbridge laughed. “The warmth will do you good.” She spooned some sugar into the cup and gave it a brisk stir. “There. Drink up, and we shall have a little coze.”
    “What’s a coze?” Jamie warily picked up the teacup and gave it a sniff.
    “A conversation.” Mrs. Knightsbridge settled into the chair across the table and smiled kindly. Jamie was really beginning to like this lady, vile-smelling medicine notwithstanding. She’d done that to help anyway , Jamie thought.
    “What did you mean when you came in and said it doesn’t work that way?” Jamie took a sip of the tea. The warmth was extremely disconcerting, but the taste was pretty good.
    “The portal. It was spelled one way.”
    Jamie’s jaw hit the floor and she stared at the smiling woman. “What the hell?”
    Mrs. Knightsbridge’s pleasant expression slipped. “Language, miss. Ladies do not use that sort of coarse talk.”
    “Ladies? What are you talking about? I’m not a lady. I’m a regular woman. Female. You know what I mean. All liberated and stuff.”
    The housekeeper sighed and smoothed her skirts before reaching onto the tray. “Scone?”
    Jamie took the golden-brown crumbly goodness from the outstretched hand and munched, all the while looking across the table distrustfully.
    “My sister, Wilhelmina, is an expert in the Old Ways.” Mrs. Knightsbridge whispered the last words, as if afraid someone would hear. “She agreed to help me search for the perfect match for his lordship.”
    “Mike?” Jamie nearly sprayed scone crumbs across the table, but she clapped a hand to her mouth just in time. Mrs. Knightsbridge looked at Jamie like her first grade teacher used to. Like she’d screamed out the F-word in church.
    Jamie used the fabric napkin from the tray to wipe her face before speaking again. “Mike? Why does he need help finding a match? He’s completely delicious; he should be able to get any woman he wants.”
    Mrs. Knightsbridge shook her head sadly. “Lord Dunnington is a fine man, a good man. That whole business with his dead mistress was not at all what the gossips made it out to be…”
    “Wait a minute. Dead mistress? Dead as in, ‘call the cops there’s a body on the floor’ dead mistress?” Jamie’s voice came out in a strangled whisper as she stared at the closed door. “Did he kill her?”
    “Not at all,” the housekeeper assured her. “’Tis only that Louisa died in such an odd manner. In any case, he has finally broken it off with that tart who snagged him next, Collette. I was quite relieved when he released her from his protection.”
    “Well, good for him. Gotta jump back on the bike, after all.” Jamie wasn’t sure if the sarcasm in her voice had been detected. The housekeeper continued as if she hadn’t even spoken.
    “That is not the worst of it. He is courting a young lady now. It would not disappoint me so were I not certain that she will disappoint him and break his heart. Miss Felicity Lyons is all wrong for his lordship, a spineless, simpering miss.” The housekeeper’s pinched lips and tight eyes confirmed her opinion of the unfortunate Miss Lyons. “She only desires the wealth and position that comes with the earldom.”
    “So, where do I fit into all this? Wrong place, wrong time kind of thing?” Jamie gestured with the remnants of her scone.
    The housekeeper shook her head at Jamie, and her smile brightened. “Not at all. You are the one that is perfect for him. Wilhelmina said so. You are going to be his bride, and the Countess of Dunnington.”

Four
    Jamie had always prided herself on her levelheadedness. When Bobby Gillespie drew on her Wonder Woman comics in the first grade, she didn’t lose her cool; she