An Earl's Guide to Catch a Lady by Tanya Wilde Read Free Book Online Page B

would expect to see, Evelyn.”
    His words brought her out of her musings. She could not help but smile back at him, suspecting this wasn’t a side one often saw from him. It made her feel warm inside. His next words however filled her with icy dread.
    “You are traveling to Bath, I presume?”
    Evelyn’s heart threatened to burst out of her chest. He could not possibly have deduced that from anything she had said to him, she told herself.
    “My apologies, Evelyn,” he said suddenly, his hand reaching out to touch hers in reassurance. “It was not my intention to make you uncomfortable. I am merely curious.”
    Evelyn did not believe him. Every word uttered from his devilish mouth was calculated and served an ulterior purpose. He had his reasons for being curious; she just didn’t know what they were.
    “I am not inclined to share my story with a stranger.”
    “Am I a stranger, Evelyn? I recall us being, quite intimate.”
    Her face flamed.
    He leaned closer, the heat in his eyes setting her ablaze. “There is something here, between us. Something I believe is worth exploring.”
    She swallowed. This was exactly what she had wanted to avoid. “That would not be wise.”
    “Why? I know you feel it too. I felt it in the way you kissed me back. Don’t deny it.”
    She didn’t. “Be that as it may, it can never happen again. I’m sorry if my behavior led you to believe that there can be anything more than our shared kisses, but there cannot.”
    Matthew said nothing, only stared at her steadily. He sat back, wanting to push, but instinct and thirty years of existence warned him not to.
    “I see.”
    Their stew arrived and Evelyn heaved a sigh of relief, grateful for the maid’s timing. A moment longer under his penetrating gaze and she would have expired on the spot. The duration of the dinner past mostly in uncomfortable silence, Matthew avoided questions of a personal nature, only remarking on the food and weather and Evelyn ate as fast as she was able, refusing his offering of wine. Only later, when she was in her room alone, did her hands begin to shake.
     
    The next morning the activities outside in the courtyard were a source of obsession for Evelyn, watching it from her bedroom window. Coaches were arriving and leaving as the onlookers bustled about, their lively laughter filling the air. The drivers whistled at the women that were sashaying about, smiling provocatively at any gentlemen who caught their fancy. The rain had finally stopped pouring about an hour ago and almost everyone was outside, relieved to be able to continue on their journeys. Horses were being groomed and walked about, but only one horse in particular held Evelyn’s attention. A beast she would never forget. And he was being saddled for his rider.
    He was leaving.
    Her relief did nothing to sooth her disappointment. Where will his journey take him, and would he spare her a thought once he was there?
    They’d avoided each other since the awkward dinner the previous night. Something felt off, however. Evelyn couldn’t put a name to what exactly, but it was a gnawing feeling that would not dissipate.
    The previous day, there had been a moment when all her senses were so completely aware of  the attraction that pulsed through her veins that she would have surrendered to every inch of him, if he had asked. But it had only lasted a moment. He was not a man that would be used. And perhaps that was the off-ness that she sensed. She only wished she could make sense of him, or this attraction. There was something very tormented and soulful about him, as though he was haunted, that pulled her into his web. She could not help but be enthralled.
    But he was leaving.
    Evelyn had been certain he would insist on escorting her, or perhaps it’d never been his intention to insist upon it, perhaps he would just escort her without her consent. How like a man that would be.
    The sight of him striding purposefully to his groom caught her attention.