BRIGHTON BEAUTY by Marilyn Clay Read Free Book Online Page A

dragged by, she grew increasingly uneasy. What if these wretched men had indeed killed Lord Rathbone? What would she tell Alayna, and Lady Rathbone? And what did the killers intend to do with her?
    Near nightfall, they stopped again to change horses, and after proclaiming a dire need to use the necessary, Chelsea was, at last, permitted to leave the coach. Both the false Rathbone and his man waited outside the privy door and quickly ushered her back to the coach. She was thrust inside and given a wedge of stale bread to eat. She wished now she had been able to eat more of her breakfast. As it was, she was so frightened she could barely swallow the morsel of dry bread in her mouth.
    As the great coach skimmed over the countryside, an ominous veil of darkness seemed to settle about her. Apparently they would not be stopping at an inn for the night. She only hoped that once they reached London, she would be set free . . . that is, once she had . . . agreed to the wretched man's plan to marry.
    Suddenly, she was startled by a deafening explosion ripping through the crisp night air. Sitting bolt upright on the bench, Chelsea peered wide-eyed from the coach window, but in the darkness could make out nothing. When another blast rang out, the huge carriage lurched forward at an even faster pace.
    Twisting about on the bench, Chelsea tried to see through the small pane of glass at her back. What she saw from this vantage point made her gasp with alarm. Five, maybe six, men on horseback were chasing the large coach. Highwaymen! They were being chased by highwaymen! The flash of moonlight gleaming on the barrels of their upraised pistols sent her heart plummeting to her feet.
    When Chelsea heard yet a third shot ring out and then the thud of a body being toppled from the coachman's platform to the ground, she screamed with terror and threw herself onto the floor of the coach, grasping for something, anything to hold onto.
    "No!" she cried, as the huge, driverless coach began to careen dangerously across open countryside. Suddenly, she knew exactly how her mother and father had felt those last horrifying moments of their lives. "Help!" she screamed. "Somebody, please help!"
    Tossing to and fro on the floor between the benches, Chelsea's bonnet toppled askew and she felt her long golden hair come tumbling down around her shoulders. Upon hearing the shouts of upraised voices, she stiffened with fear. Was she now to be robbed, or killed, by the highwaymen?
    A second jolt of the carriage told Chelsea someone had leapt to the platform and in seconds, the run-away coach was brought to a somewhat shaky standstill.
    Chelsea's eyes were wide as she raised herself to her knees, wondering what would happen next. She gasped when suddenly the carriage door flew open from the outside. Silhouetted in the bright shaft of moonlight that spilled into the coach, she found herself gazing into the dark eyes of yet another tall, dark-haired man, only this time, the man's face was full of concern as he looked in upon her.
    "Thank God, you are unhurt, Alayna!" At once, the stranger reached to pull her close to him, his strong arms folding her trembling body to his hard chest.
    "Oh, sir! You have saved my life!" Chelsea cried, pressing herself against him, her sobs of relief muffled against the man's massive shoulder.
    "Do you not recognize me, little one?" the man breathed, his deep voice just above a whisper, his warm cheek nestled in the soft cloud of her hair. "It is I, Rutherford."
    Far too overset to have heard the gentleman's words, Chelsea, at last, drew away. Her breath was still coming in fits and starts when she felt his gloved finger gently brush away a tear that lingered still on her lashes. Raising grateful eyes to his, she murmured, "F-forgive me, sir . . . I . . . "
    "Alayna, darling, it is I. Rutherford."
    "Oh!" Horror-struck, Chelsea sprang from him.
    The gentleman's lips pressed tightly together. "Well," his tone became brusque, "I am pleased