Escapade (9781301744510) by Susan Carroll Read Free Book Online

was
firm, much more so than her own bed, worn so comfortably to the
contours of her body.
    Rory stretched herself out flat, arms at her
sides, the brocade coverlet stiff beneath her. She stared up at the
canopy looming over her head. This bed would definitely not be
conducive to a good night's rest.
    But having assured herself that it was a
thoroughly wretched place to sleep, Rory was reluctant to move.
    She hadn't realized until this moment just
how tired she was. What a horror the day had been. She would be
lucky if Dutton still paid her for that disastrous balloon flight.
She would be lucky if she could mend the Katie Moira. She would be
lucky if she didn't lose her balloon company after all.
    Well, then, if luck was what it would take,
so be it. If she believed hard enough, she would always find a way.
The eternal optimism of the Kavanaughs. It was the one legacy Da
had left her that would endure forever.
    Smiling at the thought, Rory felt her eyes
drifting closed and jerked them open. She really should stay awake.
She would be embarrassed to death if anyone found her testing out
the mattress. What if it should be Wellington or worse yet Morrison
himself?
    Here she would be curled up in bed, clad in
nothing but this clinging robe. The thought disturbed her enough
that she struggled into a sitting position. She remembered that
that unexpected warmth in Morrison's eyes when he had gazed at her
earlier.
    What if he had planned this whole thing, to
get her upstairs and in bed undressed? What did she know about the
man really? No more than the rest of the world. Even the newspapers
had dubbed him a man of mystery.
    But she knew plenty about Rory Kavanaugh. For
one thing, she couldn't imagine herself the object of any man's
lust, especially not as she must have appeared to Morrison, about
as desirable as a wet mongrel fished from the gutter. And for
another, she knew she could handle any masher. Sometimes the lads
who hung about her warehouse got a little fresh and she was quick
to put them in their place.
    Dismissing her fears as ridiculous, Rory
yawned and lay back down. The thought did surface that Zeke
Morrison might not be so easy to handle as the dockside boys, but
Rory gave it only brief and drowsy consideration. Besides, it
didn’t matter. Morrison wasn't going to catch her in bed. No one
was. In another few minutes, she was going to move. In another few
minutes, she would thrust her head out into the hall and shout for
the maid. In another few minutes. . .
    In less time than that, Rory was fast
asleep.
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
    The police were gone. The officers had been
understandably annoyed to find themselves summoned out in the rain
for no particular reason, but Zeke Morrison had placated them with
a few jokes and an invitation to enjoy the hospitality of his
well-stocked kitchen. The policemen left with no further
difficulty. Zeke was not surprised.
    One thing he had always excelled at, he
thought wryly, was dealing with the police. The two hundred¬some
guests, the cream of New York's social register stuffed into his
drawing room, were another matter.
    Even from where he lingered in the hall, Zeke
could hear the hubbub of voices. The accents, normally so
well-bred, were raised in pitch, some of them even shrill with
outrage and shock. But as flustered as his guests were, Zeke
counted it an improvement. Earlier that afternoon, he had been
yawning behind his hand. All those perfect ladies and gentlemen
gathered on his lawn had displayed as much animation as the marble
statue gracing his fountain- that is until Miss Kavanaugh's balloon
had come swooping down.
    Since no one had been killed or seriously
injured, Zeke could afford to be amused by the disastrous end to
his fête. Aurora Rose Kavanaugh might be a spitfire and a little
crazy to go flying about in that contraption, but Zeke had to give
her credit for one thing. She had certainly livened up an otherwise
dull party.
    He supposed he ought to march into the