Elizabeth Mansfield by The Bartered Bride Read Free Book Online Page B

sixes and sevens. The front hall was piled with luggage, several footmen and housemaids were busily running about carrying articles of clothing and household goods to and fro, and there were dust covers to be seen on the sofas and chairs of the drawing room to his right. “Are you going away?” he asked in some surprise.
    Before his host could answer, Lady Langston came down the stairs carrying a birdcage in which a beautiful green-blue cockatoo was imprisoned. “Do you think Chickaberry will stand a sea voyage, Langston, or shall I give her away to—?” She stopped abruptly where she stood on the bottom step and stared at Kittridge with something like horror. “Good God!” she gasped. “
Robbie
!”
    Kittridge, hiding his dismayed confusion, came forward and lifted her hand to his lips. “Weren’t you expecting me, ma’am?”
    “Well, the sn-snow, you s-see …” She gaped at him as if he’d risen from the dead. Then she clapped a hand to her mouth. “Oh, Robbie, my poor boy!” Bursting into tears, she turned, ran up the stairs again and disappeared from sight.
    Lord Kittridge was not expecting to enjoy this visit, but these greetings were worse than anything he’d anticipated. He turned to his host with upraised brows. “Is something amiss, Lord Langston?” he asked. “Is someone ill? Good God, not …
Elinor
?”
    “No, no, not at all,” Langston assured him. “Don’t pay any mind to Lady Langston’s waterworks. She’s easily perturbed. Any little change in routine can set her off.”
    “Change in routine? You
are
going away, then?”
    Lord Langston’s eyes wavered. “I think Elinor wants to tell you about it herself. She convinced me that you both deserve the opportunity for an interview in private, under the circumstances.”
    Kittridge eyed his host narrowly. “Circumstances? What circumstances?”
    The other man looked uneasy. “Elinor will explain. Why don’t you make yourself at home in thelibrary, Kittridge? You know the way. I’ll go upstairs and send her down to you.”
    Kittridge nodded and strode off down the hall. He found the library still habitable, with the furniture uncovered, the drapes drawn against the draughts and a fire burning in the grate. He stood before the fire warming himself as he wondered what his beloved had to tell him. Whatever it was, he realized, it would not be as devastating as the news
he
had for
her
.
    He was so absorbed in his depressing thoughts that he didn’t hear her step in the corridor. It was only when she threw open the door that he whirled around. She was flying across the room toward him. He had barely enough time to catch her up in his arms. “Elinor!” he breathed, holding her close.
    Her arms clutched him tightly round the neck, and she buried her face in his shoulder. “Oh, Robbie, my darling!” she sobbed. “I want to
die
!”
    He held her until the sobs subsided, kissing her hair and whispering soothing endearments into her ear. She was tall for a woman, so that she seemed to fit against him as if she’d been designed for him. Her body was lithe and supple in his arms. The feel of her made him weak in the knees. Whatever it was that she had to tell him could wait. All the news would be revealed soon enough. In the meanwhile he could close his mind to reality and permit himself the joy of this closeness. He’d dreamed for eight months—since his last leave—of holding her like this. As far as he was concerned, they could remain locked in each other’s arms this way forever.
    But all too soon her sobbing ceased, and she recovered herself enough to draw him to a large wing chair and settle him in it. Then she sat down on a hassock at his feet and took his hand in hers. “It is the end,” she said, her voice thickened by pain and tears. “They are taking me abroad.”
    “I see,” he said quietly, his eyes drinking in the beauty of her. Her face looking up at him was heart-wrenchingly lovely, her blue eyes still misty with