How to Treat a Lady by Karen Hawkins Read Free Book Online Page A

he’d first thought. Up close, he could see that she was delicately made, her nose perfectly drawn, her eyes thickly lashed, her body whip thin, but gently curved.
    She was, in fact, quite fetching. It was a pity she was a virgin. Chase avoided innocent women like the plague; they were far too prone to nervous twitters for his liking. He loosened his hold, and she instantly scrambled out of his arms and off the bed. Her feet thumped on the floor, and she whirled to face him, her eyes flashing fire.
    She was even prettier mussed and upset, he decided. Her eyes shone with indignation, the velvety brown depths sparkling gold. Her skin, an unfashionable tan, was now touched with pink.
    For some reason, Chase found himself grinning. “That’s enough pleasantries for now. I am, after all, a wounded man.”
    â€œPleasantries?” She sounded as if she was about to choke. “You call that a pleasantry?”
    â€œAmong other things.” He nodded a greeting. “’Tis time for an introduction. Who are you?”
    â€œI was going to ask you the same question,” she said. “Who are you ?”
    â€œI asked first,” Chase said gently. “So you have to tell me first.”
    She smoothed her skirts, the gesture amazingly calm, considering she was a virgin and had just been sitting in his lap. By his reckoning, she should be…upset. Instead, she eyed him with something ridiculously near disgust, even though her lips were still plump from his kisses. “I am Miss Harriet Ward. And you, sir, are in Garrett Park, my home.”
    So she wasn’t a housemaid, after all. Garrett Park…the name meant nothing to him. “Where is this place?”
    â€œNorth Walton. Near the coast.”
    The coast. His memory came flooding back. He’d been on his way to catch a ship. He’d left his home, his family, everything. Not because he’d wanted to, but because he’d had to. Because he’d lost the right to be a St. John.
    The thought tightened his throat, and it was withdifficulty that he managed to say, “How did I come to be here?”
    â€œWe found you, in the forest.” Her gaze flickered to his forehead and back. “Remember?”
    Chase touched his forehead gingerly. It felt curiously tight, almost as if—his fingers found the bandage. He closed his eyes and let the thoughts flood over him. The attack. The robbery. The sight of Mother’s ring falling to the ground…
    He opened his eyes and found his companion watching him narrowly. What was her name? Ah yes. Harriet. Harriet Ward. Miss Harriet Ward.
    Her voice broke his musings. “Do you remember?” she asked again, softly insistent.
    Chase opened his mouth to answer, then stopped. If he told this woman who he was, considering that his brother Devon owned a house somewhere around here, word was bound to leak out. And the last thing he wanted was the sight of his brothers, all four of them, arriving to bundle him back to London. He’d made his decision and he was not about to waver, even with this little setback.
    He glanced from under his lashes at the woman who stood beside the bed. She gripped her hands together, her body erect, her shoulders set. She looked as if she was ready for the firing squad, though he detected the faintest tremble to her soft lips. A smile tickled the corner of his mouth at the sight. Inexperienced she might be, but she possessed her own passions.
    â€œWell?” asked Miss Harriet Ward, her silken voice edged with a shred of prickly lace. “What is your name? I gave you mine.”
    Chase leaned back against the pillows, aware that besides a great ache in his head and a general overall weariness, he really didn’t feel all that unwell. “Miss Ward, I would tell you my name if I could, but I cannot.”
    A flicker of disbelief crossed her face. “You don’t know your name?”
    â€œI don’t remember