Loving the Marquess by Suzanna Medeiros Read Free Book Online Page B

imagine what he must be thinking.
    “I am here to see Lord Overlea.”
    The footman did not bother to hide his disapproval. “The
marquess is not in.”
    He was actually going to close the door on her. Out of sheer
desperation, Louisa stepped into the doorway. He would have to physically
remove her if he wanted her gone.
    “Could you please tell him that Louisa Evans is here to see
him?”
    She was surprised when his demeanor changed almost
instantly. He opened the door wider and stepped back to allow her to enter, all
solicitousness now.
    “Of course, Miss Evans.”
    He led her to the drawing room and retreated, closing the
door behind him.
    Louisa drew in a shaky breath. She’d crossed the first
barrier, gaining entrance, but her nerves were still unsettled. The toughest
part lay ahead. Asking Overlea for assistance she wasn’t certain he would
provide. Edward Manning was, after all, his cousin, and given the marquess’s
reputation he might see nothing wrong with the arrangement Edward had proposed.
It was, after all, very common for men of their stature to have mistresses.
    She wondered if Overlea had a mistress and found the idea
bothered her more than she cared to admit.
    Her thoughts were so full of her upcoming meeting with
Overlea that she barely took in her elegant surroundings. She perched on the
edge of a cream-colored settee and it took all her focus to keep from fidgeting.
As the minutes passed, she found herself growing more anxious. She had been
waiting a full quarter of an hour before it occurred to her that Overlea might
refuse to see her.
    She waited another quarter hour before deciding to seek out
the footman. She had just reached the drawing room door when it swung open.
Startled, she took a step back.
    She’d thought the Marquess of Overlea a handsome man before,
but the last time she’d seen him, his clothes had been rumpled from a night of
tossing and turning and dark stubble had covered his jaw. He had seemed
approachable then. Now, clean-shaven and impeccably dressed, he took her breath
away. He wore a coat of deep green that stretched across shoulders that seemed
broader now, a waistcoat in a lighter shade of that same color, and fawn
buckskins that molded to his muscled thighs and disappeared into boots she
suspected were the same ones she remembered removing from him. She was acutely
conscious, as she had not been before, of the difference in their stations.
    That Overlea was surprised to see her was evident,
especially as she was alone. He couldn’t know, then, that her reputation was
already on the verge of being ruined. That she could very well find herself
with no alternative than to accept Edward’s proposition if he refused to help
her.
    “Miss Evans,” he said, inclining his head.
    She acknowledged his greeting but found herself unable to
speak for a moment.
    “Please,” he said, indicating the settee she had abandoned,
“make yourself comfortable.”
    She sat and watched as he settled himself into a chair
opposite her.
    “I would ring for tea, but I sense this is not a social
call.”
    “No,” she said, before lapsing into silence again. Now that
she was here she didn’t know how to begin. How could she tell him what his cousin
had proposed?
     “You appear well today, my lord,” she said in an attempt to
stall the inevitable uncomfortable conversation. “I assume that your illness
has passed?”
    “Yes,” he said.
    His posture was stiff and it was clear he didn’t wish to
discuss it. She had no alternative but to get straight to the reason for her
visit.
    “I know you weren’t expecting to see me so soon.”
    “I hadn’t expected to see you at all.” He shifted forward in
his chair, a slight frown pulling at the corners of his mouth, and continued.
“You will excuse me for being direct, but what could possibly have happened in
the past two days to bring you here? You left me with the impression that you
didn’t wish to have further contact with me or my