Capturing Cora Read Online Free

between them was exclusively on his part, and that perhaps no amount of courting would change that. First though, he needed to get her to listen and realise he wasn’t making a mockery, but that he genuinely did love and admire her. No other woman would ever accept him in the way Cora would, or be so comprehensively involved in his life.
    “You know,” he remarked, while swiping his hand through the undergrowth. The heads of several flowers toppled on to the path. “The sack idea’s not such an appalling concept.”
    “Bran, it’s a truly revolting idea. No woman’s going to want you after you’ve tied her in a sack.”
    “Then for heaven’s sake give me an alternate way of getting her alone.”
    “You don’t need me to tell you that. You’re adept at it. What was it you were saying was your favourite game the other week, that variant on hide and seek?”
    “Hugh!” Bran threw his arms around his friend and smacked a kiss upon his cheek. “Of course, you’re a genius.”
    Hugh cocked a brow. “So, you’re going to suggest hide and seek?”
    “Nope.” He bundled his friend off the bench and back onto his feet. “You’ll have to suggest it. If I announce it, it’ll just raise suspicions. Come along now, back to the house.”

Chapter Three
    Of Buffets & Games
     
    “But what if he was serious?”
    Cora tapped the tip of her fan to her pout and glared at her friend. She could only see Harriet’s back for the other woman was huddled behind the privy screen adjusting the ribbon ties of her stockings. Cora didn’t even want to contemplate that possibility. Better that she accepted it as the insincere nonsense it had been. “He made me look foolish with all that overzealous posturing and his declarations.” Her gaze strayed from Harriet to the nosegay of foxgloves and baby’s breath Bran had pinned to her bodice. Annoyed, she tore it off and cast into the nearby grate. “He only did it because Biddy told him of our contest. He wouldn’t even have thought of it otherwise.”
    “I don’t know, Cora. Doesn’t it say something that he was at least prepared to attempt to win you a prize? As for his posturing... He has always been one for flamboyance.”
    Cora shook her head refusing to let herself believe. If Bran had stripped her naked, stuck a number on her rump and paraded her around the room like a prize heifer she wasn’t sure it would have hurt so much, but to dangle something she wanted so badly before her like that… that hurt. She clenched her fists tight as the splinter of shock that still remained embedded in her heart worked itself loose.
    He simply couldn’t have been serious.
    She’d seen how he looked at Tessa de Lacy, all wide eyed and slack jawed. He’d never stared at her like that. Although to be fair, there weren’t many men who didn’t stare at Aunt Tessa in that way.
    Some folks said she and Tessa looked alike, but Cora couldn’t see it. Tessa had hair the colour of honey, like buttercups scattered across a meadow. Cora's hair was more brassy and held none of the light, nor did it curl quite so prettily.
    But what if he had been serious? And he took her at her word, and never did address her thus again. Might she have just ruined everything?
    “Are you done?” she asked Harriet. “We ought to get on with this business of hiding. They’ll start seeking soon.”
    “I’m done. Where shall we go?” Harriet emerged with her wide apple-blossom and gold skirts fanned around her. “I thought I might take the window seat next door, the curtains are of a similar fabric, so I might blend in.”
    Cora’s gaze dropped to her own outfit, deep ocean-blue with sprays of turquoise, emerald and jet. She’d be accused of not trying, which would only make her mother upset. “Go ahead, I’ll find somewhere else.”
    Harriet scampered off, and Cora turned in the opposite direction. She slipped across the corridor and stepped around the hounds in the dog-parlour, making her way to the