So Wild a Heart by Candace Camp Read Free Book Online

this dim light, but they were warm and compelling...and, at the moment, somewhat unfocused. He swayed a little, and Miranda grabbed his arm to steady him.
    "Sir? Are you all right? Beldon..." she called to the coachman, and he came up to close his large hand around the man's other arm.
    "Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Just a moment's dizziness, that's all."
    "Perhaps you ought to let us take you home," Miranda suggested. "My carriage is right there."
    "Miss..." the driver said warningly.
    "Yes, yes, I know," Miranda said impatiently. "It wouldn't be the thing for me to give a stranger a ride. But I don't think he is going to harm me. I mean, really..."
    "You are a woman of warmth and courage," the gentleman said, "but you need not worry. I can make it without help. I am only going another block or so, to my mother's." He looked in the direction from which Miranda had come, then frowned and said, "Well, perhaps not. I am a trifle late. I fear I stayed too long with my friends. And in this condition... But it isn't far back to my house, either. I shall be fine."
    "I insist on driving you. You have received some blows to the head, I warrant, and even with a hard head, that is bound to affect you."
    He smiled faintly at her jest. "Perhaps you are right. I must admit, it is beginning to pound—though I'm not entirely sure if that is due to fists or to too much brandy."
    He went with them to the carriage, but, agreeing with the driver that it would not be seemly for the lady to ride with a stranger, he opted to climb up beside the coachman. They drove the few blocks to the address he gave them, and as she rode in the carriage, Miranda considered the situation. He had said he was going to his mother's and had pointed in the direction of Lady Ravenscar's house. Could the man she had rescued be the man she had been supposed to meet tonight? Was it possible that this handsome, rather charming man who was good with his fists was the Earl of Ravenscar? It made sense. And his state of inebriation would certainly explain his tardiness, as well as match what she had heard of him. And Elizabeth had said he was charming and handsome — though mere words could not convey the intensity of his roguish appeal. There had been a strange moment when her entire being had thrilled to him, when she had thought that she belonged with him... This was the sort of man who could make a woman forget all else.
    They came to a stop in front of his house: a small, graceful abode in the fashionable district, just the sort of house a bachelor of means and name might live in. The gentleman climbed down with the coachman's help, and Miranda opened the door of the carriage and leaned out.
    "Good night, sir." She was reluctant to let him go, she found, another odd sensation for her. If only she knew if he was the Earl of Ravenscar... But she did not want to introduce herself to him. If he was Ravenscar, she did not want him to know that she was the heiress he had spent the evening drinking to avoid.
    "Madam." He bowed again, but she noticed that he was rather more unsteady now. "You are an angel from heaven."
    "That is a rather large exaggeration, but I thank you," Miranda replied wryly.
    He turned and made his weaving way up the steps of the house. A moment later, the door opened, and he went inside.
    "Let's go home, Beldon," Miranda said, and the carriage rolled forward.
    As she drove home, her thoughts circled around the man she had just rescued. Was he Ravenscar? And what would have happened if he had not been late to the party tonight? One thing she was certain of: if this man had been there, she would not have left early.
    Chapter 3
    “Good evening, sir." Carson, Devin's valet, opened the door. He took in his employer's disarray, more alarmed by the rumpled cravat and the rent in his coat than by the marks of fighting on Ravenscar's face. ' 'I say, my lord, are you all right? Did something happen?''
    "Bit of a dustup," Devin admitted. "A cold cloth for my face would be