Lady Catherine's Secret: A Secrets and Seduction book Read Online Free Page B

shadows and directing her mount onto the softer, snow-patched grass next to the gravel carriage path. Since there was a full moon tonight, she wished the warm, black cloak that enveloped her could also make her invisible.
    While she lingered in the gloom, Charles pushed open the door to the stables. Billy, their twelve-year-old stable boy, snapped awake. As usual, he’d waited to assist Catherine rather than retiring to the sleeping quarters in the rooms above the horses’ stalls.
    “Good evening, m’lord,” Billy said to Charles. Catherine slipped in behind her brother.
    The sweet scent of hay already awaiting their horses in their stalls greeted her as she entered the stables, and it tickled her nose. The smell mingled with that of saddle oil and leather and permeated the boards of the building.
    “Good evening to you too, m’lady. I’ll take care of Wildfire for you.” Although she was certain Billy had been sound asleep moments before, he appeared clear-headed, even at this late hour.
    “Thank you, Billy.”
    He hurried about his work, removing the saddle and bridle from her mount while Charles performed the same tasks for his own horse.
    Catherine rubbed Wildfire’s head below his ear and then patted his neck. Her father had presented him to her as a gift three years ago. When she wore her black cloak while mounted on the black horse, she blended into the darkness. Trust Papa to consider those sorts of details. Thank goodness she didn’t have to hide her fencing from both of her parents. Only Mother stood firmly against it. But her father had never been a conformist, much to Mother’s despair.
    Catherine pulled a carrot from the pocket of her cloak and held it out. Wildfire snapped off the end with his front teeth. A second bite took most of the remainder. She held the last two inches of the orange treat on the flat of her hand and felt his velvety lips tickle her palm as he took the rest of it.
    While Billy finished taking care of Wildfire, Catherine removed her cloak and set about altering her disguise.
    She opened a trunk she kept locked in the stables and pulled out the garments she had stored there. First she slipped on the overdress portion of her costume, hiding her masculine attire. The ingenious design was her own creation. She had devised a wraparound dress that she could slip on without any assistance. Her solution incorporated petticoats in its construction, and they provided the bell-shaped skirt that was currently in fashion.
    Next she removed the false scars from her face, scraping at them with her fingernail and peeling them away. Then she pulled the snug white skullcap from her hair and stroked the crushed strands back into place. She glanced into the small square of mirror she’d hung in the stables for just this situation and rubbed off a tattered remnant of her scar. Her transformation was complete. Alexander Gray was again Lady Catherine Williams. Albeit an unkempt and unfashionable Lady Catherine, without a dreaded corset to cinch her waist.
    Catherine retrieved a grimy scrap of grayish cloth from the bench and wiped the black dust from Wildfire’s head, uncovering the hidden white blaze, thus removing his disguise as well.
    Billy threw a blanket over Wildfire’s back. “He’s all done, miss—I mean, m’lady.” His face flushed as he corrected himself, still not used to the change in her title and status.
    The additional demands she faced as an earl’s daughter weighed heavily upon her, and Billy’s small blunder served to remind her of this new set of problems. When her uncle and then her grandfather had died, her father’s title had changed first to viscount and then to earl, and her own form of address had changed from Miss Williams to Lady Catherine. She now merited a “my lady” rather than a “miss.” The entire convoluted mess was a bother, and their mother insisted they all adapt to their new roles in society without delay.
    Catherine hated it all. She’d much