Lady Silence by Blair Bancroft Read Free Book Online Page B

servant. A servant out for a
morning ride on one of my finest mares.”
    Almost—but not quite—a sound escaped
her lips. Katy swallowed her shock. Bastard! It was the worst word she knew. How
could he attack her so? She was his helper, his secretary. And what
right had he to tromp on the flutterings of her heart, no matter
how misguided they might be?
    Unable to defend herself, Katy sat slumped in
the saddle, head bowed, demonstrating her dejection as graphically
as she could.
    “ You think me harsh?” A tiny nod of
assent. “Come, child, do you think I attained my rank by coddling
my men and blowing kisses to the enemy?”
    Katy pressed hands and reins over her
mouth, stifling a laugh. The devil! How
dare he make her laugh? Peeping at him over her
fingers, she noted that he was once again looking grim. The
clearing was small, their horses nearly nose to nose. His dark eyes
were deep haunted pools into which she could so easily
tumble.
    “ You will recall,” he told her, “that I
did not want any distractions from my work. Therefore, I find it
easier to think of you as one of the young men under my command.
This is not,” he conceded, looking even more morose, “always
effective. When I find you wandering in the woods, all alone”—his
already disconcerting dark eyes ranged over the tight fit of her
forest green riding habit—“I am forcibly reminded that you are
female.”
    Ignoring the flush she could feel staining
her cheeks, Katy took her reins in one hand, waved the other in a
broad circle, then pointed her index finger at her employer’s
chest.
    “ Yes, yes,” the colonel responded
impatiently, “I understand you stay on my land, but, nonetheless, I
fear for your safety. You are not exactly . . . that is . . .
you—ah—tend to attract attention, Katy Snow. You are not easy to
ignore.”
    Was she not? Katy’s traitorous heart soared. Fool! That way lies disaster.
    “ If I assign a groom to ride with you,”
Colonel Farr said into the awkward pool of silence that had formed
after his last remark, “I will elevate your status beyond what is
comfortable for either of us. Yet I am reluctant to curtail your
riding, as it is a privilege granted by Lady Moretaine. One you
enjoy?”
    Yes, oh, yes! Katy nodded vigorously.
    “ Then I shall merely ask you to stay on
my land and keep a cautious eye out for strangers. If you see
anyone not known to you, ride the other way.”
    As if it were only strangers she had to
fear!
    “ You may go, Snow.” The colonel waved
her on. As she carefully guided her mare by him, he added, “And
find my copy of The Iliad .
Now there’s a war that lasted even longer than ours on the
Peninsula.”
    Wars! Is that all the man thought of? When
love was so much more satisfying. As she knew quite well from all
the years she had held his youthful image in her heart. For Damon
Farr, her savior, difficult as he now was, she would do
anything—
    Haymarket Ware, Katy, my girl. Haymarket
Ware.
     
    ~ * ~
     
     

Chapter Six
     
    Damon sat, chin in hand, ostensibly studying
the few paragraphs he had written the day before. In truth, his
mind was filled with a pert young face, kissed by a green ostrich
plume that curled against her cheek, and an exceptionally fine
figure straining so hard against a jacket of green twill that he
had thought a button might pop. It would appear his young secretary
was still growing.
    At the moment, she was on the library ladder
again, and he was making a determined effort not to look. The Farr
Park bookroom—a central feature of his Uncle Bertram’s life—was two
stories in height and ringed by a high gallery on all but the outer
wall. Although the upper story of books could be accessed by a
circular staircase, the top shelves beneath it could only be
reached by a ladder that moved on wheels.
    There was something about Katy on a ladder .
. .
    She was his employee, his mama’s companion,
an innocent child entrusted to his care. Yet the more he