Desire Becomes Her by Shirlee Busbee Read Free Book Online

of the residence, since Luc only used a few rooms in the house, the three of them muddled along together just fine.
    Reaching his suite of rooms, he noted with approval that Hinton had left a pair of candles burning for him on the mantle of the brick fireplace. A small fire glowed on the hearth and kept the October chill from the room. In the flickering light of the fire and candles, Luc quickly undressed.
    After blowing out the candles, naked as the day he was born, he slid under the pile of blankets and quilts, sighing with pleasure when his feet touched the warmed brick Alice had provided for him. Used to being on his own, except when at home in Virginia at the family plantation, Green Hill, he’d grown accustomed to the niceties provided by Alice and Hinton. He’d decided several weeks ago that when he left the Dower House, he would take them with him. Thanks to the foolishness of several gentlemen, some well-known peers amongst them, his pockets were full and he’d even invested a handsome amount in the funds. He grinned. Nom de nom! He was almost respectable.
    Though the hour was late, sleep eluded him, and in the faint light provided by the dying fire, Luc stared at the shadows sliding around lazily overhead in the canopy. It had been an interesting night. Young Harlan would wake up with an aching head and no doubt befuddlement at his luck. His mouth twisted. Making an enemy of Jeffery Townsend hadn’t been wise, but he didn’t much give a damn about how Emily’s cousin felt about him.
    Silas’s injury troubled him, and if he could discover who had ditched the old man, he’d enjoy having a word with whoever had forced his friend into the ditch and left him lying there injured without a backward glance. Inquiries in the village might give him a clue.
    Luc frowned, thinking about the note from Silas’s niece. Until tonight he hadn’t been aware that Silas had a niece, but if she was anything like the old man’s nephew, her note didn’t bode well for Silas. Silas had never so much as mentioned a niece before now, so it was obvious the woman took little interest in her uncle. So why was she writing him now? He hoped that Silas’s initial pleasure in hearing from her didn’t cause the old man heartache down the road.
    A yawn overtook him. Have to talk to Emily and Cornelia, he thought as he drifted off to sleep. They will know something of this mysterious niece.
     
    Striding into the breakfast room at Windmere the next morning, Luc was pleased that he had caught Emily and Cornelia there lingering over their coffee. Both ladies were delighted to see him, and after helping himself to a plate of rare sirloin, coddled eggs, a small bowl of applesauce rich with cinnamon and several yeasty, raisin-studded warm rolls, he joined the ladies.
    Though it was still two months or better before the baby was expected, Emily’s pregnancy was advancing nicely, her rounded belly and fuller breasts now very evident. This rainy, cool morning, her silvery-fair hair was caught up in a chignon at the back of her head, and wearing a blue woolen gown, she looked very appealing as she smiled up at him. Barnaby, Luc thought affectionately and with no envy, was a lucky man. And so was he, he reminded himself, to have him for a brother.
    Seated across from Emily, sending him a smile as welcoming as a spring day, sat Cornelia. Cornelia, he decided, looked particularly fetching today in a rosebud-pink gown embellished with cream lace. Emily’s great-aunt had celebrated her ninetieth birthday in August, but the lively sparkle in the hazel eyes belied her age, and except for a few curls near her cheeks and a fringe across her brow, she wore her gray hair swept back. The style revealed the elegant bones that had made her a stunningly attractive woman in her youth, and the chiseled cheeks and jaw still served her well, as did those large, penetrating eyes. Tall for a woman of her generation, her spine was as ramrod straight as a maid of