Catch a Falling Heiress: An American Heiress in London by Laura Lee Guhrke Read Free Book Online

paused again, but though the silence was agonizing, she relished it. This wasn’t the only offer of marriage she’d received since Conrath, but it was the first one since then that she wanted to accept.
    But the proposal never came. Instead, another male voice spoke, one that was deeply shocked and unmistakably British.
    “Oh, I say!”
    Even before she turned, Linnet could make a fair guess to whom that drawling, well-bred voice belonged, and when she looked over her shoulder, she found her awful suspicion confirmed by the sight of Lord Featherstone standing in the doorway, his hand still on the handle of the door.
    “I’m so sorry.” His dark eyes widened in a pretense of innocence, but his knowing smile made short shrift of both his innocent air and his apology. “Have I interrupted an enchanted moment?”

 
    Chapter 3
     
    “You!” Chagrined and dismayed, Linnet stared into the amused dark eyes of the man in the doorway. “What are you doing here?”
    “It’s such a beautiful night, I decided to take a walk.” Lord Featherstone’s gaze moved to Frederick as the other man rose from his knees. “And a good thing I did, too. Otherwise, who knows what might have happened?”
    “Walk, my eye,” she muttered. “You followed me.”
    “I did,” he answered without looking at her, “though it wasn’t really necessary to do so. I’ve been staying at The Tides long enough to know this is the ideal place to choose if a man wishes to compromise a lady.”
    “That’s enough.” Frederick took a step forward. “This is a private conversation. Leave at once.”
    Lord Featherstone propped one shoulder against the door frame. “I don’t believe I will,” he said, folding his arms across his wide chest.
    “Oh, this is ridiculous,” Linnet burst out. “I am not being compromised.”
    “Granted,” he went on in blithe indifference to her denial, “I’m not all that familiar with the nuances of American etiquette, but I’ve been in your country long enough to know that the rules are pretty much the same here as they are on my side of the pond. No gentleman with honorable intentions would ask a young lady to meet him in this clandestine fashion.”
    “I said, that’s enough!” Frederick shouted, and Linnet glanced at him in some surprise as he moved to stand beside her. She’d never known Frederick to be so out of temper. Still, given the circumstances, he certainly had cause. It was clear Featherstone was needling him on purpose and taking great delight in doing so.
    “What, did I touch a nerve?” the earl asked, smiling. “Or do you intend to claim that luring a young lady out for a midnight assignation is an honorable course?”
    Frederick’s lips pressed tight together. His nostrils flared, and his fists clenched at his sides. But when he spoke, his voice was calmer. “You’re sailing very close to the wind, Featherstone.”
    “On the contrary, I believe it’s you who’s sailing close to the wind these days, old chap. Tuesday is, what, three days away?”
    The flush in Frederick’s cheeks paled to chalky white at those words, and Linnet knew there was more at stake here than notions of honor.
    “What does he mean?” she asked, looking from Frederick to Lord Featherstone and back again. “Frederick, what is happening on Tuesday?”
    She watched as the man beside her worked to keep his control. His fists opened, and his shoulders relaxed, and when he turned to her, his face had regained its color and bore its usual expression of good-natured forbearance. “I have no idea what he’s talking about, dearest.”
    “No?” Featherstone shrugged. “Given that you arranged this little rendezvous with Miss Holland, I thought certain you’d already been informed about Tuesday. My mistake.”
    With those light, careless words, Linnet’s temper flared. She didn’t know what he was talking about, but she didn’t care. Accepting a marriage proposal was one of the most important moments of a