A Lady Betrayed by Nicole Byrd Read Free Book Online Page A

short letters to her sisters, although she was able to tell them only an abbreviated version of her ordeal.
    To the twins, Ophelia and Cordelia, she wrote almost the same letter.
    Are you back from your wedding trips? I yearn to hear about the South of France, and if Italy is as picturesque as it is said to be. Do write long letters, and I hope you come north soon to see us. I have missed you so!
    Sighing, she put the pen down, blotted her somewhat messy script—they would know she had a headache just from her handwriting, she thought—then folded the pages and put them into the lap desk and pushed it aside. She lay back onto her pillow again and shut her eyes.
    She slept off and on through the night, and by the next morning she woke with the pain gone at last, and only an overwhelming sense of fatigue and lassitude hanging over her, the last stage of her headaches.
    Sighing with relief, she sat up gingerly and pulled on a robe. When she came back from the necessary, she found that Bess had brought warm water. She bathed and then was glad to sit back on the bed when the maidservant warned her not to do too much.
    It was true that she still felt very shaky.
    â€œI’ll ’ave ye a tray up in a two shakes of a lamb’s tail,” the servant told her, casting a worried eye at her mistress.
    â€œHow is my father?”
    â€œâ€™E’s right as rain,” Bess told her. “Seems to ’ave taken quite a liking to the hoity-toity lord. And I will say the fancy viscount ain’t above playing chess with our good master, nor talking for ’ours ’bout ’is books and stuff,” she finished with reluctant approval.
    Startled, Maddie stared at the servant’s wrinkled face. “Really? That is a surprise—I mean, that’s good.”
    It had not occurred to her before that her father, with his family of daughters and few male friends in the neighborhood, might be hungry for male companionship, but it was probably true. The local squire was interested in little beyond a day’s hunt and the chance of a good harvest, certainly not in books or thoughtful conversation, and the gentleman farmers were mostly cut from the same cloth. Madeline suddenly felt impatient to be out of her bedchamber and back downstairs so that she could join them and see for herself if her father and Lord Weller had struck up an accord.
    But her energy was still limited. Perhaps she would feel up to going down for dinner.
    However, to her annoyance, she found that she would be seeing company much sooner than that.
    She ate breakfast and then Bess helped her dress in a faded muslin day gown and put up her hair. Then Maddie lay back upon her bed, content to rest a little longer before venturing out. She thought with anticipation of a walk in the garden, and she found herself hungry for fresh air as well as her new fiancé’s presence.
    But hardly had Bess taken her tray away when the door to the hall suddenly burst open and Mrs. Masham, a stoutly built matron somewhat overdressed for a morning call in the country, stepped into the room.
    Madeline blinked in surprise.
    â€œOh, there you are, looking so pale, too. I declare, poor Miss Applegate, I just had to come and see about you,” the young matron declared.
    â€œI beg your pardon,” Maddie answered, knowing her tone was somewhat stiff. “I don’t believe I said I am in to callers today, Mrs. Masham.”
    â€œOh, so your maid said, but I knew you didn’t intend that prohibition to stand for your close friends, such as I!” The woman batted pale lashes over slightly protuberant eyes and smiled coyly. “And there are such stories being passed around the village—well! I just had to come and see with my own eyes that you are not at death’s door after your perilous night in the woods!”
    Translation: she couldn’t bear to wait another moment to ferret out more gossip, Maddie thought. Mrs. Masham