Elizabeth Mansfield by Matched Pairs Read Free Book Online Page A

“You are free to gaze at me all evening long,” she murmured, her voice a purr.
    The young man’s eyes dropped. “No, my dear, I’m afraid I can’t.”
    “What?” She felt herself stiffen, as if something inside her—a basic female instinct—were warning her, before she actually knew why, that things were not going to proceed as she’d expected. “What on earth do you mean?”
    “I’ve just had a message from home. An urgent message. I must leave.”
    She stared at him in disbelief. “Leave? Surely you don’t mean... now?”
    “I’m afraid so. My carriage is waiting. I just stopped in to explain...”
    “Explain?” Her arm slipped from the mantel, and as a wave of fury swept over her, her fingers clenched into fists. “Yes, do explain. What is so dreadfully urgent that you must go dashing off tonight?”
    “I don’t know the details. She didn’t say. But it’s urgent, right enough. It must be. Julie has never sent for me this way before.”
    “Julie?”
    “Yes. Julie Branscombe. My ... my closest neighbor. Her mother and mine are bosom bows, you see, and Julie and I were brought up together. Like brother and sister.”
    “Indeed.” Cleo’s voice was like ice. “Like brother and sister. How interesting.”
    “I wouldn’t call it interesting,” Tris said with boyish innocence, having no inkling of the storm to come. “Troublesome would be a better word. But something dreadful must be brewing or she wouldn’t have written the way she did. Please forgive me, Cleo, for this abrupt departure, but I must go.” With a quick bow and a rueful grin, he started toward the door.
    “Just one moment, my good sir!” Cleo strode angrily across the room and blocked the door. “Let me be certain that I understand all this. You are breaking off an appointment with me —an appointment which you yourself requested and to which I generously agreed, despite having to cancel several others—to dash off to Derbyshire on the whim of a young woman named Julie?”
    Tris blinked, suddenly recognizing the anger in her tone. “Yes,” he said, puzzled and defensive, “but I don’t think it’s a whim—”
    “A young woman who is no relation—not even a sister? ”
    “Yes, that’s right, but—”
    “And for an emergency the details of which you do not even know? ”
    Tris felt not only helpless but decidedly foolish. “Yes,” he admitted. “That’s more or less the gist of it.”
    “You don’t know the details, but you deem the matter more important than an evening with me? ”
    “Well, I wouldn’t put it that way, exactly...”
    “No? Then how would you put it?”
    “It isn’t a matter of relative importance. Damnation, Cleo, don’t look at it that way. You must know how important you are to me.” He took a step toward her and grinned at her sheepishly, hoping she’d find it charmingly reassuring. “I’ll return as soon as I possibly can, I promise. And then we can pick up right where we left off tonight.”
    “Is that what you think?” She stared at him for a moment in furious disbelief. Then, brushing by him, she swept across to the fireplace, her back to him. “No, my dear sir, you will not return,” she said with ominous distinctness, “not to this house. Once you cross that threshold, you will never cross it again, not as long as I can take a breath.”
    “Cleo!” He stared at her, aghast. “You can’t mean—!”
    “I do mean it!” She turned her head to him, her eyes glittering with rage. “Take a good look, Tris Enders, for once you leave this house, this is the last you’ll see of me.”
    “B-But—” he stammered, completely nonplussed.
    “If you are going, then go!”
    “You don’t understand,” he said desperately. “It isn’t that I want to go. It’s just something I must do.”
    “Then go and do it! No one’s holding you.”
    He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should forget Julie’s note and stay where he was. Cleo was heart-breakingly