Love Is Blind by Lynsay Sands Read Free Book Online

things so bluntly. It simply wasn't done. She could hear the grimace in his voice as he made his apologies.
    "I am sorry, but I was simply trying to— Damn, someone is coming."
    Clarissa forgot his breach of manners, her heart tripping with anxiety as he stilled. "Who is it?"
    "I do not know, but I can hear . . . Come." Tugging
    her to the side, Adrian slid into the bushes, taking her with him. When he paused, she paused as well, some instinct warning her to be quiet as they waited.
    It was no more than a moment before two figures came into view, approaching from the direction they'd been headed. Unfortunately, rather than walk by, as Clarissa had hoped, the pair chose that spot to stop and embrace.
    "Oh, Henry!" the woman murmured.
    "Hazel," came a quavery little voice that made Clarissa frown. She was positive it was the voice of Lord Prudhomme .
    'You do not truly mean to marry that wretched girl?" the woman said suddenly. "What of us? What of our grand passion?"
    "I love you, Hazel," the quavery voice came again. "And I shall do so until I die, but I must have an heir. Mother is quite insistent on that point."
    Clarissa grimaced. It was Prudhomme ; she was sure now, as she had met his mother. Lady Prudhomme was a rather horrible old lady. The woman must be at least a hundred years old. Still, she was a frightening harridan for all that, and Clarissa could not blame Prudhomme for his terror of her.
    'Yes, but—"
    " Shh , my love," Prudhomme hushed. "Just let me hold you and pretend that the dreams I have each night are true. That you are mine and that all this sneaking about is unnecessary."
    There was the rustle of silk and a brief moment of silence in which Clarissa imagined the couple to be embracing; then she heard a suspicious sound rather like lip smacking or sucking. Squinting, she tried to peer
    through the bushes, but all she could see were the smears of what appeared to be a woman in a light-colored dress and the slender dark form of a man. They were very close together. Very close indeed. Their faces looked to be one large blur beneath two seemingly connected fuzzy white wigs.
    They were kissing! Clarissa realized it with dismay, and she wondered what Lord Achard would think of that. For she had recognized who the woman was the moment Prudhomme addressed her as Hazel. Lady Hazel Achard was a member of her stepmother's circle—one who was quite often sharp and cold in her attitude to Clarissa. Now Clarissa understood why. The woman was jealous of Prudhomme's courtship of her.
    "Oh, Henry, make love to me," Lady Achard gasped suddenly.
    "But we just did, my sweet," Prudhomme protested. "I am only a man. I cannot perform again so soon, but must recover from the passion you instill in me."
    "Oh." There was a long, drawn-out sigh of disappointment, then: "Were we married—"
    'Yes, were we married I could hold you in my arms every night, just as I am now," Prudhomme proclaimed softly. Then he cursed and said, "Damn your husband for his good health!"
    Yes, damn him," Lady Achard agreed. "I wish he would—"
    " Shh ," Prudhomme interrupted. But Clarissa suspected Lady Achard hoped for the early demise of her poor, unfortunate husband.
    "What?" the woman asked, sounding anxious.
    "I think I hear someone coming."
    The couple broke apart, and none too soon, as an-
    other woman came around the path. She stopped in apparent surprise at the sight of them. "Why, Lord Prudhomme . Lady Achard ."
    Recognizing the voice of Lady Alice Havard , another of her stepmother's friends, Clarissa tried to shrink a little smaller in the bushes.
    "Lady Havard ," the amorous twosome murmured innocently, as if they had not been in a passionate embrace just moments before.
    "Out for a breath of fresh air, Alice?" Lady Achard asked, sounding suspicious.
    "Yes. I fear 'tis rather stuffy inside," Lady Havard replied. Then, sounding smug; "In fact, I was just saying so to Lord Achard but a moment ago."
    "Arthur is here?" There was no missing the