Celeste Bradley - [Heiress Brides 02] by The Duke Next Door Read Free Book Online Page B

not remember the black, wicked lust in his eyes?
    Not to mention the answering desire in herself.
    Suddenly unable to breathe in the steamy room, she fumbled hastily at the window latch, then thrust the window wide. With both hands braced on the sill, she leaned far out into the night, taking the chill spring air into her lungs. The outside world smelled of soot and city and the acrid oil burning in the streetlamps spaced about the square.
    “I cannot do this,” she whispered. “Won’t you turn me cool and unbreakable?”
    She kept her eyes closed as she spoke, willing her plea to be carried on the night to whomever it concerned. Expecting an actual answer was mad, yet she lingered there, waiting.
    “Mew.”
    Deirdre’s eyes opened in surprise. “What?”
    “Mew!”
    There was no one in sight, although the great tree that grew before her window would obscure many things. She stepped to one side, peering into the tree. Light from the room behind her caught and glowed back at her from wide slit pupils.
    A small kitten crouched on the largest branch whose tips waved nearly to the house. It was a hideous little creature, bedraggled and damp, its dirty black fur smeared this way and that with God-knew-what. Huge batlike ears braced each side of its skull, ludicrous on the tiny, delicate head.
    It was adorable.

    “Oh heavens!” Deirdre held up both hands. “Don’t fall, kit-kit. I’ll—I’ll—”
    What? Call a footman to risk his life to save a stray? Deirdre leaned over the sill and peered straight down. It was at least a three-story fall to the hard ground below. There wasn’t even an accommodating bush nearby to give one false hope on the way down. Wouldn’t that endear her to the Brook House staff, to kill a servant mere hours after becoming their mistress?
    “Mew.” The kitten started forward at her movement, walking confidently toward her along the narrowing branch.
    “No! Stop right there!” Deirdre shook her finger vigorously. “Bad kitty! Er—stay?” Or was that for dogs? She hadn’t the foggiest idea.
    Tessa hadn’t allowed animals in the house. She claimed they ruined the furnishings, but Deirdre suspected it was because no creature on this earth had ever warmed to Tessa in the first place. Even her own mother had probably wanted to put her to bed in the mews.
    The kitten continued to lope easily along the branch, which was now no thicker than Deirdre’s wrist. She waved her hands at the creature.
    “No! Go back! Climb. Down,” she said, pointing at the ground. She spoke with exaggerated clarity, as if that would make the idiotic thing understand. The kitten stopped and sat its bony little bottom on the branch, tilting its head to gaze at her curiously from blank, baby eyes.
    Deirdre straightened, surprised. “Well, you seem quite at home in the tree. I suppose you’re in no real danger after all—”
    The kitten lifted its back paw to scratch its ear—and slithered right off the branch!

    “Oh!” Deirdre squeezed her eyes shut in horror and recoiled from the window. The poor little thing! Her stomach went cold at the thought of the limp furry beastie now surely dead on the ground.
    “Mew!”
    Deirdre whirled back to the open window. The kitten was still there, only it now dangled from the limb by a single tiny claw. Its pudgy body writhed with the effort to get a better grip as it mewled in fear.
    Before she even realized what she did—or had the opportunity to talk herself out of such madness!—Deirdre had clambered onto the sill. She stretched out her hand, but the branch was too far.
    Muttering a senseless prayer under her breath, she closed her eyes and rolled onto her belly on the sill, her bare toes fumbling to find purchase on the cold stone facade of the house. At last her feet found a raised portion of the grand embellishments that ran beneath her window. She tested the sooty and pigeon-slimed ledge blindly, finding it only a few inches deep, but enough to hold her weight