Amy Lake by The Marquess Takes a Fall Read Free Book Online Page A

sounds of Sir Irwin’s carriage faded.
    Thank heavens the man was gone. She looked at Dee. “Thank you,” said Fiona, knowing that he had come outside specifically to rescue her.
    “My lady,” smiled the doctor, with a bow.
    “I believe he visits with the particular purpose of annoying me.”
    “As do we all.”
    She laughed. Dee always said that Ampthill was as shrewd as they came, but Fiona wasn’t convinced. This was Barley Mow, not the city, and if he expected to be flattered and fawned over as some baronet-in-residence he was a birdwit. The villagers were having none of it.
    “Thinks he’s a prince,” had been Hobbs’ assessment. He and Sir Irwin had once nearly come to blows over a report of the manner in which Ampthill treated his horses; Dee intervened, but not before the baronet had been pushed to the ground. The man cursed and threatened Hobbs, to no effect, and Fiona was a little surprised when, afterwards, he continued his visits to Tern’s Rest.
    “He smells funny,” said Maddie, to which Dee snorted, because the baronet did, in fact, wear an overpowering amount of cologne.
    “Funny in a good way?” asked the doctor.
    Madelaine wrinkled her nose. “He smells like . . . bad pudding.”
    Which only made Dee laugh harder.
    Ampthill demonstrated a particular antipathy toward Dr. Fischer. Dee claimed to have no idea why, but Fiona thought she knew. Deandros Fischer occupied a position of respect in the community, a place that the baronet thought should be his. Not to mention her own relationship with the doctor because, for reasons that remained entirely mysterious, Fiona Marwick was something else that Sir Irwin seemed to feel belonged to him.
    After ignoring her when he’d first moved into the area—she’d sent a small pie as a welcoming gift, and the tin had been returned empty, without remark—he had begun to call on her regularly during the past year. Neighborly visits, he called them, since the land attached to Marsden Hall was unfortunately bordering to that of Tern’s Rest. Fiona never encouraged him. She felt an aversion to the man and his foppish airs from the start, and attempted only to be polite when making her lack of interest clear. This indifference seemed to embolden Ampthill, and he had become increasingly insistent during the past few months, going so far as to suggest that they should be married .
    Fiona remembered the first time he had used that word, and her astonishment at the proposal, which had been advanced without the least concern—so it seemed—for her own feelings.
    They should be married very quickly, Sir Irwin had said; the child needed a father, and it wasn’t right, Mrs. Marwick living on her own, with that doctor visiting the house near anytime he pleased. The villagers were starting to talk—
    Fiona very nearly laughed at that. Hobbs had balked at Dee staying the night, true enough, but as for the rest, her reputation in Barley Mow was spotless, and marrying Sir Irwin would, if anything, do it harm.
    During their most recent conversation on the subject the baronet had attempted to kiss her. Fiona had pushed him away smartly, and seen the spots of anger rise to his cheeks.
    “You’ll give in eventually, my dear,” said Sir Irwin, almost snarling.
    He stalked off. Later that afternoon Fiona received an effusive note of apology, and two days later Ampthill left on one of his occasional trips. She had hoped not to see him for at least a month, but now he was back, talking as if nothing untoward had occurred between them, and worse, curious about Lord Ashdown.
    I hear we have a visitor, indeed!
    It had been too late to claim that there was no injured gentleman staying at her cottage; still, Fiona felt an immediate disinclination to involve Sir Irwin. Colin Ashdown had nothing to do with the baronet. She put him off, claiming that ‘her guest’ was probably asleep and not to be disturbed. When Dee arrived Ampthill finally left, after directing a meaningful