An Heiress at Heart Read Online Free Page B

James’s social set might Ria have known? How many would Lizzie be expected to “remember”?
    Lady Thornborough gently moved the hair back from Lizzie’s face. “Ria, I have worried myself sick,” she said. “I have no doubt you’ve taken some ten years off my life.”
    “Years off your life, Aunt?” James repeated. “I doubt it. You’ll live to be a hundred, that’s my wager.”
    Lady Thornborough gave him a disapproving look. “Do not speak of betting in this house. I will not have that shameful language used here.”
    James tilted his chin in acquiescence. Once his aunt had turned her attention back to Lizzie, he gave Geoffrey a smile and a wink.
    The man by the fireplace did not respond to James’s playful gesture. He was studying Lizzie—taking inevery inch of her with an expression that hovered somewhere between curiosity and contempt.
    Who was he?
    Lizzie’s face burned—whether from the fever or the man’s unwavering scrutiny, she could not tell. She found herself riveted to his dark eyes as she tried unsuccessfully to regulate her breathing. Suddenly the room seemed quite close.
    Lady Thornborough’s cool hand on her forehead provided some relief. She inspected Lizzie’s wound. “And now James has managed to run over you as though you were a dog in the street.”
    “It was not I,” James protested.
    Lady Thornborough ignored him. “Why were you alone and on foot, like a common servant? And why, in all these years, did you never contact us? Do you realize what agonies we have been through on account of you?”
    “I will explain everything, Grandmamma,” Lizzie said, trying out the word for the first time. It came off her tongue easily enough. Surely this was a good sign. She was Ria now, and she would soon discover what secrets this family was hiding. The Thornboroughs held the keys to her own history, one she had never dreamed of until the day she met Ria.
    Kind, sweet, silly Ria. Given to impulsive actions, yet resolute once she’d made up her mind on something. Yes, they had shared those traits as well as their looks. When Lizzie had agreed to this plan so far away in Australia, she had thought it was a good one. Now that she was here, the magnitude of what she was doing washed over her with more force than her fever.
    Lizzie fought to keep her mind in the present, here in this room. One misstep could be disastrous. But she was so hot. Her head was pounding and the room was beginning to spin again. She sank back heavily on the sofa.
    “Ria!” Lady Thornborough cried.
    “I’m terribly sorry… I did not plan to arrive this way…”
    She was assailed by a rush of heat from her fever, followed by a rising tide of nausea. She closed her eyes, willing her stomach to stay put. Her plan was going well, she thought. Except for the fact that she had nearly gotten herself killed on the way in. And except for the man staring at her whom she could not identify.
    The room was once again spinning dangerously out of control…
    Geoffrey crossed the room and knelt beside her, his eyes fierce. “Please forgive me—I can see you are not well, but I must ask you. I have to know. I have waited ten years with no news. What is this talk of Australia? Where is my brother?”
    Lizzie pulled together a few remaining threads of thought. “You are my brother-in-law?” she asked dazedly. How tall he was. How striking. How different from what she expected. And yet… how like Edward. She could see it now; see vestiges of Edward’s confident bearing and the way he looked at people—really observed them—when he was talking to them. How odd, she realized now, to think it could have been anyone else.
    “But where is he?” Geoffrey demanded, as though he wanted to drag the information out of her. “What has happened to him?”
    “He…” She shut her eyes. Now that she saw theresemblance, it was too painful to look at him. Too many memories. Her mind was drifting, she knew. All she could say was,