The Laird's Forbidden Lady by Ann Lethbridge Read Free Book Online

of panic? She wanted this. It had been all her idea. A new beginning after her accident. ‘Did Father send for me?’
    Chrissie frowned. ‘No. But I am sure he will want to see you when they have concluded their business.’
    Chrissie was as anxious for the marriage as Selina was herself. She hadn’t said anything, but she and Selina had occasionally disagreed on household matters. Until Father had finally told Selina it was no longer her concern.
    It had been a painful truth.
    She swung her feet to the ground and set her book aside. She patted her hair and smoothed her skirts, a pomona-green muslin. ‘Should I change, do you think?’
    ‘You look lovely,’ Chrissie said with a smile. ‘You always do.’
    ‘Thank you.’ Before her accident, she had taken her appearance for granted. More recently, she had felt unsure. She took a deep breath and tried to keep her steps as even as possible.
    The antechamber to the study was empty. Mr Brunelle, her father’s secretary, must be inside with her father, taking notes, recording agreements. Should she knock and go in, or wait for them to come out?
    As she dithered, the door to the study opened. She pinned a smile on her face.
    ‘Lady Selina!’ The lieutenant sounded surprised.
    She glanced at her father.
    He frowned. ‘Did you want something, daughter?’
    Blast. It seemed she wasn’t expected, or wanted, which meant they had not been discussing the betrothal after all. A feeling of relief swept through her, even as she realised they were waiting for some sort of explanation.
    Heat bloomed in her cheeks as her mind raced. ‘I heard Lieutenant Dunstan was here and came to bid him welcome.’ She hoped she didn’t sound too feeble. ‘To ask him to take tea with Lady Albright and me in the drawing room.’
    Dunstan’s face lit up. ‘Very kind of you, Lady Selina, I must say. I fear I cannot take advantage on this occasion. I have urgent business in the neighbourhood and came to discuss it with your father as local magistrate.’
    ‘Trouble?’ she asked.
    ‘Selina,’ her father said in a warning tone.
    ‘Smugglers,’ Dunstan said at exactly the same moment.
    ‘Oh, my goodness, are there really such villains abroad around here?’ she said with a hand to her throat and a gasp. She gave him a glance that said in her mind he was a hero.
    ‘Don’t worry, Lady Selina, my regiment won’t let them escape us, I can assure you. You have nothing to fear.’ The paternalistic tone made her grit her teeth. But he was only trying to soothe the feminine nerves she had put on display and there was nothing in his manner she should resent.
    She fluttered her lashes. ‘I am so glad you are in charge, then.’
    He bowed, took her hand and kissed it. ‘Until we meet again.’
    His touch left her cold, calm, uninvolved. No wild flutters invading her body—just as she preferred.
    ‘Lieutenant Dunstan is engaged to us for dinner next week, Selina,’ her father said. ‘There will be lots of time for chatter then.’
    Next week. Her future would be settled next week. The delay felt like a reprieve from the hangman’s noose, when she should be impatient for it to start.
    ‘I will look forward to it,’ she said, giving him her most brilliant of smiles and watching him blush with a sense of foreboding. Had she made a mistake in this man? Was he weaker than she had thought? She wanted him malleable, it was true, but not spineless.
    It was too late for second thoughts. Too late to change her mind. She had made her choice and must abide by it, or be deemed beyond the pale.
    Dunstan turned back to Father. ‘This will be the end of them, I promise you. I bid you good afternoon, Lord Albright.’
    With a sharp bow, he strode from the room, his spurs jingling with each booted step on the stone stairs leading down to the hall below.
    ‘The end of whom?’ Selina asked.
    Her father waved her question aside. ‘You sounded over-anxious. You have done well to catch a man from such an