Kathryn Caskie - [Royle Sisters 02] by How to Engage an Earl Read Free Book Online Page A

choice but to follow his lead and claim to be your betrothed. I was facing my ruin!”
    “You may yet.” He took another step toward her, and lud, if he wasn’t beginning to look rather red about the face. “Though Apsley denies it, I must ask if the two of you concocted this scheme together.”
    “My lord, I assure you I am not, nor have I ever been, in league with your devilish friend.” Anne zigzagged her left foot backward, andthen leaned her weight upon that leg. The additional half step wasn’t much, but at least she was not within his reach if he decided to throttle her, which, were she in his place, she certainly might have considered.
    “Will you swear to this?” He cocked his eyebrow again.
    Anne set her hands on her hips. “My lord, I am simply a victim of circumstance, a dreadful, unimaginable situation that forced me to act immediately to preserve my reputation.”
    “And was your reputation at the forefront of your mind when you crept into my bedchamber, Miss Royle?” He raked his fingers through his wavy, raven-black hair, and Anne knew at once that he was not as calm as he would lead her to believe.
    Her gaze fixed on the vibrant blue of his tired eyes and the stubble just beginning to shadow his strong, firm jaw. Tonight clearly had not been all jollity and conviviality for him. And something in the dour expression on that wickedly handsome face told her that his demeanor had little to do with her lie. As she looked into his pained eyes, her heart began to ache for him.
    Fear of his anger suddenly dissolved.
    The urge to open her arms and comfort him propelled Anne toward him without warning. Her arms rose up from her sides, and she reached for him before she realized what she was about to do.
    Perdition!
    Anne halted and snapped her arms to her sides like a soldier. Hurriedly she dropped her gaze to the floor.
    What exactly had he asked her? Oh yes.
    She gave a small sigh for effect while she rummaged through her mind for a plausible reason why she might have slipped into the earl’s chamber. Then her tongue wrapped around just that.
    “Well?” He stepped closer. Though he was not yet standing directly before her, he might as well have been. For he was so tall, his shoulders so broad—why, they were twice the span of her own, at least—that his presence seemed to loom over her like a wall of black storm clouds.
    “Miss Royle?”
    Anne raised her chin and fixed him with her most offended expression. “If you are intent on wrenching from me my purpose for enteringyour bedchamber, you will have it. Though I had hoped your manners were more refined than to force my confession.”
    “I apologize for my wretched comportment. But do continue.” As if to prod her, he moved again, and now he truly was looming.
    Anne swallowed down the second lie she was about to tell this night. But, because the scowl pinching his otherwise passably handsome face made her doubt any appeal to his sense of chivalry would be effective, she added a few more words. “I find the thought of admitting my reason for trespassing highly embarrassing. You must understand, I am naught but a common miss from Cornwall.”
    “Darling, you are anything but common, but nevertheless, I will have your explanation, since it was the impetus for our upcoming nuptials.” His voice was deep and resonant, and at this short distance, it rumbled through her body like rolling thunder.
    “’Twas the wine, my lord.”
    “The wine? Was it not to your liking, Miss Royle of Cornwall?”
    Anne knew better than to drop her mask to defend herself. “Oh indeed, sir. It was quite extraordinary, but too much for my constitution to bear. I fear I was in dire need of a…of a chamber pot…and a bit of privacy.”
    “And did you find one?”
    “Wh-what?” Anne stammered. This was maddening! Why couldn’t she seem to focus?
    “Why, the chamber pot. It is what you had come in search of, was it not?”
    “You are vile.” Anne did not have to