Disrobed and Dishonored by Louise Allen Read Free Book Online Page A

Jonathan somehow managed to keep his voice down from a bellow.
    ‘And I suppose you laughed about it with your friends,’ Sarah added. ‘It was all for a bet, I presume? The highwayman act.’
    ‘Of course it was a damn bet!’ A couple gliding past stared at him. Sarah was glaring at him as if he was some kind of libertine bent on ravishment. ‘And of course I said nothing about you to them. For God’s sake, let’s get out of this confounded dance.’
    ‘Certainly, if only to take myself out of range of your blaspheming and bad language.’ She turned on her heel and stalked off the floor, leaving him standing there, the focus of all eyes.
    ‘I trod on her feet,’ he explained to those couples within hearing and followed her, attempting to look ruefully amused when all he wanted to do was snarl.
    By the time he reached the edge Sarah had vanished. Jonathan, despite his height, could see no topknot of glossy brown curls, no slender figure in almond silk. A dark-haired beauty with a heart-shaped face and an expression of exasperation appeared in front of him. He dredged into his memories of last Season. Lady Maude Templeton. ‘She’s gone out onto the terrace. That way.’ She pointed, then walked off. Jonathan thought he heard her add, ‘Men!’ as she went.
    Jaw set, Jonathan stalked off in the direction indicated. Idiot woman, of course he hadn’t told her who he was! Couldn’t she see why? And why wasn’t she pleased to see him? He was pleased to see her. More than pleased. It upset his plans, but to hell with that; Sarah was here and he wanted her. After he’d boxed her ears.
    The torch-lit terrace held a scattering of couples strolling and flirting. There was no sign of Sarah, but he had not expected her to stop here, in full view. He took the sweeping steps down onto the lawns and glimpsed the flutter of pale skirts in the darkness.
    When he reached the same spot, treading quietly, his dancing pumps making no sound on the close-scythed turf, he could not see her. Then he realized that the shrubs that had been planted along this wing of the house had a narrow gap in them. Slipping through, he found a graveled walk between them and the house walls. Sarah had her back to one of the sloping buttresses of the old wall, her gaze fixed on a group of tumbling cherubs set amongst the greenery.
    Her head came round as he stepped onto the gravel and he felt his body tighten at the sight of her wide eyes, the rise and fall of her breasts in the low-cut silk.
    ‘Go away.’ She stood her ground, chin up.
    Jonathan kept walking. ‘No. Why are you so angry with me?’
    ‘I told you!’
    ‘Did you really expect me, when we first met and we made our extraordinary decision, to whip off my mask and introduce myself as the Earl of Redcliffe? My concern was for your protection.’
    ‘Poppycock!’ Sarah snapped. ‘Have you any idea how humiliated I feel? Had you no thought that this might happen if we met again? Or was it impossible to believe that humble Miss Tatton might move in the same circles as yourself?’
    ‘Well, you hadn’t up to then,’ he retorted.
    ‘No, and I imagine you are none too pleased to find I am now!’ The color was flying in her cheeks, he could see angry tears sparkling, and the effort not to seize hold of her and shake her and kiss her and take her was almost overwhelming.
    ‘It was certainly not what I planned. I intended—’ He never got the words out. Sarah thumped him on the chest with her clenched fist. ‘Damn it, that hurt!’
    ‘ Good .’ She did it again. ‘That’s how I feel, as if someone has punched me in the chest. I trusted you and all the time you were just amusing yourself with some silly little gentry virgin who had got herself into a pickle.’
    ‘Amusing myself? If I had been amusing myself, Miss Tatton, you wouldn’t still be a virgin, believe me.’ Jonathan grabbed her wrists before she could land another blow and yanked her hard against himself. ‘If I had