Mad About the Major by Elizabeth Boyle Read Free Book Online Page B

looked about this time, she saw the streets in an entirely new light. And when a pair of sharp-­eyed looking men stepped out of the alleyway, she didn’t hesitate to scramble up into the seat beside her own ruffian.
    The devil she knew, as it were.
    Before he had a chance to laugh at her again, Arabella sat up, smoothing out her skirts, and then paused, her bare hands held out before her. “Oh, no!”
    â€œWhat is it?” he said, picking up the reins and moving the curricle into the flow of traffic.
    She turned her hand this way and that. “That little imp not only managed to take my gloves, but my ring as well.”
    â€œWas the ring of value?”
    Arabella paused, looking down at the white telltale reminder of where it had been, the indentation where it had sat so coldly and heavily for the past few years.
    â€œNot much,” she conceded. “My aunt gave it to me when I—­”
    She very nearly said “made my presentation at court,” but stopped herself. For then he would know she wasn’t just some cit ’s daughter.
    As it was he was looking at her, his dark brows cocked up like raven’s wings, suspicious and searching for any bit of information.
    â€œMy birthday. Last year. Rather ugly, actually,” she finished. The latter part was true. It had been an ugly stone in an even uglier setting, but she’d worn it because it was about the only gift she’d ever received from her mother’s side of the family.
    A mother she’d never known. And her mother’s sister only in passing.
    Arabella knew why—­ her mother’s family blamed her, and in turn her father, for her mother’s death.
    If not for her birth, her mother’s life would not have been lost.
    Such was the guilt and burden that had lain upon her since she’d heard the first whisperings of the servants as to why there was a duke, but no duchess.
    Her aunt, on the other hand, had never concealed her feelings for her niece, looking upon Arabella as a poor recompense for the loss of a beloved sister.
    And no matter how many times Papa had told her that her mother’s passing hadn’t been her fault, the ring had been a daily reminder that the rest of the world thought otherwise.
    â€œYes, well, with it gone, I needn’t worry about losing it,” she told him.
    Because indeed, her hand and her heart did feel lighter without it.

 
    C HAPTER 4
    â€œS o I have saved you from a reckoning,” her rescuer observed as he picked up the reins and began to drive again.
    â€œYes, I suppose so.” It nearly did Arabella in to admit as much.
    â€œThen you owe me a boon.”
    Her head swiveled. “A what?”
    â€œA boon. A favor.” He waggled his brows at her, his eyes filled with mirth. It gave him a boyish charm that he didn’t deserve. For it made him altogether irresistible.
    Arabella looked away. “I know what a boon is, but I hardly see how you’ve earned one.” Truly, he was as insufferable as he was handsome.
    â€œI saved you from certain doom,” he pointed out as they drove past the now disappointed pair of sharps.
    â€œYou didn’t save my reticule,” she pointed out.
    â€œI told you to stay put,” he reminded her.
    â€œI would think as a gentleman—­which you claim to be—­that such an act would be done without expecting a favor in return.”
    â€œI am a gentleman—­” he insisted.
    â€œIf you say,” she muttered under her breath, still smarting from his earlier comment about her own standing as a lady.
    As it was, the rogue ignored her. “Gentleman or not, I think I am due a boon. Rescuing you from the street could very well have put me in harm’s way.”
    â€œYou did nothing more than sit in this carriage and laugh at my misfortune,” she pointed out.
    â€œBe that as it may, I was here if you truly needed me. And I might point out, you