Gayle Buck by Hearts Betrayed Read Free Book Online

she felt sick to her stomach at how horribly wrong had been his lordship’s greeting. In her wildest, most improbable dreams of finding him alive, she had never imagined that she would be treated with such brutality. Michele swallowed against the sudden closing of her throat, and deliberately she turned her thoughts away from the hurt she felt. There was no reason that he should despise her. She had done nothing to incur his enmity. A flicker of righteous indignation warmed her numbed misery, and she latched on to it gratefully. She fed her building anger until the threat of imminent tears was gone. She would not accept such callous treatment tamely.
    Her eyes darkened nearly to black with anger, Michele sailed over to the small group and inserted herself at Lydia’s side. Ignoring Lord Randol, she smiled at the other gentleman and said in her throaty voice, “Pray introduce me, cousin.”
    Lydia’s eyes were shining and her face held a soft bloom of color. “I shall be delighted to, Michele! This gentleman is Captain Bernard Hughes, who has become a close friend. Captain, may I present my cousin. Mademoiselle Michele du Bois.”
    As Captain Hughes and Michele exchanged pleasantries, Lydia slid a speculative glance in Lord Randol’s direction. His expression was more forbidding than usual and his eyes dwelt on Michele’s animated face with uncommon intentness. Lydia smelled the unmistakable scent of a mystery. She said, “You have already met Lord Randol, of course.”
    Still smarting from the viscount’s shocking rebuff, Michele spared a scant glance for his lordship. “We have met, yes,” she acknowledged coolly. She had the satisfaction of seeing a flicker of temper in his hard eyes. She turned her gaze once more on Lydia’s military gentleman. “I believe that you indicated you were in the 33rd, Captain. I met a few of the company before Waterloo. Pray do sit with me a few moments and tell me whatever became of them.” Michele drew the captain away, catching Lydia by the arm so that her cousin was made to accompany them to the settee. Lord Randol was effectively left to Lady Basinberry’s attentions.
    That lady was astonished by Michele’s odd manners, but she marked it down to the influence of foreign society. She turned to Lord Randol and launched what she thought an unexceptionable conversational gambit. “My brother has confided to me that he favors your suit for his daughter. I am quite pleased, my lord. Lydia is a fine young woman, and for all her youth, she will be worthy of the position that you have chosen to bestow upon her.”
    Lord Randol seemed disinclined to engage in polite conversation. Indeed, he seemed irritated by Lady Basinberry’s remark. “So I should hope, ma’am. Miss Davenport’s antecedents give me no cause for concern that it could be otherwise,” he said shortly.
    Lady Basinberry was disconcerted. “Quite.” A short silence fell as she recovered from Lord Randol’s rude retort. She considered that his lordship was behaving rather haughtily, considering that the Davenport bloodline was an honorable one that stretched back hundreds of years. Indeed, when it came down to it, the Davenports could boast a few generations more than did his lordship’s own line, she thought with rising indignation.
    With an effort, Lady Basinberry swallowed back a sharp set-down. Lord Randol was undoubtedly a good match for Lydia; moreover, one who had been given her brother Edwin’s stamp of approval, and must therefore be allowed more slack. She set herself to engage the dour gentleman’s interest, but it proved a task beyond even her formidable powers. At every outbreak of merriment among the trio opposite, Lord Randol’s oddly angry gaze shot again in their direction. His attention was obviously not on Lady Basin-berry’s increasingly labored conversation.
    At some point Lord Randol actually broke across one of Lady Basinberry’s anecdotes to throw a question to Captain Hughes. “In