Make Me Love You by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online

Brooke said nothing. She had taken one glance at him and lowered her eyes as she was accustomed to doing with strangers. But in that glance she’d seen a tall man with short blond hair, cut in the current fashion that her brother favored, and light blue eyes. A handsome man, dressed nattily in buff breeches, a neatly tailored coat, and a thick cravat. It was not how a servant would dress. If this was Lord Wolfe, she’d be pleased, indeed she would. Her stomach stopped feeling quite so knotted.
    But then she heard him say, “I was in a quandary of sorts, so I was not going to open the door until you knocked.”
    “Do you realize how long we’ve been waiting out here?” Alfreda demanded.
    “No longer than I’ve been standing in here waiting for your knock.”
    Brooke was incredulous. Logic like that boggled the mind. Alfreda swore, then, sounding exasperated, asked, “What was your quandary that you chose to ignore us?”
    “I would never do that! You are immeasurably unignorable, ’deed you are. I just wanted to make sure the halls were cleared before I invited you in.”
    “Cleared of what?”
    “Furious encounters,” Brooke thought she heard the man say, but he’d spoken so softly she wasn’t sure. Then he added, “Do please come inside.”
    Alfreda complained, “If you’re the butler, I’ll see that you’re fired.”
    “I’m not, and you won’t,” the man said cheekily. “You’ll warm toward me before long. You’ll love me.”
    “In your dreams, puppy. Show us to your lord.”
    “No, but I’ll show you to your rooms.”
    So he wasn’t Lord Wolfe. How disappointing! But Brooke glanced up at him again only to find him staring at her now as if he’d only just looked her way. And continued to stare for a long time. Alfreda cleared her throat loudly at his rudeness.
    He heard it but didn’t blush. He did grin and say to Brooke, “If he doesn’t love you, I will. You already have my heart, ’deed you do. At your service, M’lady Whitworth. I am Gabriel Biscane and so very pleased to meet you.”
    The lighthearted, silly remarks brought a brief, courteous smile to her lips. She wasn’t used to meeting young men of anysort and had certainly never experienced this reaction from any of them.
    “So you were expecting us?” Brooke said.
    “Not this soon, but you and your mother should come inside.”
    Alfreda growled, “I’m not old enough to be her mother—well, I am, but I’m not, and if I catch you staring at her again like you just did, you’ll think I’m your mother, I’ll box your ears so hard.”
    Alfreda was definitely annoyed by the welcome they were receiving from Gabriel Biscane. But he wasn’t the least bit cowed by her. With a wink he said to Alfreda, “See? You already love me.”
    He stepped back from the doorway so they could enter the house. “Come along, then. I will show you to your room, though in my opinion it’s not a room. Very well, you might not think it a room either. Oh, bloody hell, it’s a tower.”
    Brooke didn’t like the sound of that and reiterated Alfreda’s previous request. “Perhaps you should take me to Lord Wolfe?”
    “I can’t do that. When he’s ready to see you, he will request your presence.”
    “Today?”
    “Possibly not.”
    Another reprieve, and this one brought a sigh of relief, another smile to Brooke’s lips, and the last of the knots in her belly dissipated. He had to have been joking about the tower, she decided. But if he wasn’t, tower be damned, she wouldn’t mind it at all if it meant she wouldn’t have to deal with the lord of the manor anytime soon—well, as long as the tower had a bed. Surely it would have a bed. Alfreda was about to protest, though, but Brooke shook her head at the maid, who had donetoo much complaining already. And Mr. Biscane had already turned about and was heading down the hall.
    As they walked past two Grecian columns that bordered the foyer, they entered a gray-marble-floored hallway that