Raven's Bride by Kate Silver Read Free Book Online

over raised in her hand ready to strike at him.
    “If you married Georgina Perkins and her dowry—” Charlotte’s voice cut into his thoughts. “—you would be able to hold a ball every night for a year, and spend a thousand pound on the dower house if you wanted to. You could even buy that piece of pasture land over on the south border that you have been wanting,” she added slyly.
    Ravensbourne shook his head. Charlotte belonged in Bedlam if she thought he would ever marry the Perkins girl, even with all her thousands. The mere thought of taking her pasty white skin and skinny hen’s legs to his bed was enough to give him a fit of the deliriums. “I have no wish to give a ball every night for a year, I bought that piece of land last week for a good price, and Miss Perkins has bright red hair and freckles.”
    Charlotte turned her head on one side and pursed her lips. “Georgina has wonderful auburn hair and beautiful skin.”
    “She is simple-minded.”
    “Nonsense. She is simply sweet-natured and kind.”
    “She bores me to tears.”
    “You have only met her twice.”
    “I have no wish to meet her a third time.”
    Charlotte was silent for a few moments. “Anna has no dowry.”
    “She does not need one,” Ravensbourne said abruptly. “She is beautiful enough that suitors will be standing in rows outside her door as soon as word gets out that she is here. She will have to fight off the men who come a-courting her.”
    “They will come courting,” Charlotte said, a little sharply. “I have no doubt of that. But will they have marriage on their minds?”
     
    Anna picked her way over the yard towards the horse market, her arm in her cousin’s, and holding her skirts above her ankle to keep clear of the mud. She had never been to a horse market before. There were so many beautiful animals to admire, so many people bustling about haggling over their purchases, such a smell of sweat and horse manure, and so much noise—the haggling of those looking for a bargain, the neighing of the animals, the shouts of the men selling hot sausages on sticks, the creaking of harnesses and the crack of ropes. She felt overwhelmed by the assault on her senses.
    Lord Ravensbourne steered her to a quiet spot where she could take her bearings, in a corner where a pretty gray mare was tethered behind a makeshift barrier of rough-hewn logs. She dropped her cousin’s arm and seated herself on the barrier. The mare came up to her and nosed into Anna’s hand, looking for a carrot or a lump of sweet sugar.
    She stroked the neck of the beautiful animal and blew softly into her ear. “You are a beauty,” she whispered, in a soft, soothing voice, not wanting to upset the delicate animal with a loud, rough noise. As pure bred as the mare was, she was bound to be high-strung and nervy. “A real beauty. You’ll make some lady a fine mount, I know you will.”
    The mare snickered and nuzzled into Anna’s neck with her soft, warm nose.
    “Yes, I know you’re adorable,” Anna said, as she pushed the mare’s nose away gently with the palm of her hand, “but I’m afraid you’re not for me, my love. Mother wants a quiet little donkey and a small cart, not a fine lady’s mount like you are.”
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lord Ravensbourne watching her as she petted the mare. His dark eyes sent an uncomfortable shiver of awareness along her spine.
    Her cousin’s eyes were as black as sin and twice as full of temptation. They made her feel strangely uneasy, hot and cold at the same time. She had never had such a confusing and complicated reaction to a man before. Her feelings had always been so simple. A man was good and kind, like her father, or he was evil, like the squire.
    At any rate, she was sure Lord Ravensbourne could not be completely a good man, or she would not feel so uncomfortable around him, as if she would be wise to flee his company while she still could.
    He had been very kind to her and her mother, she