Suzanne Robinson by Lady Hellfire Read Free Book Online Page A

because you and Aunt Sophia have been here a whole week and his mother hasn’t called,” Ophelia said. “It’s most unkind of you to mock him when he’s only now recovered his health. He nearly got his arm blown away rescuing Mr. Beaufort when the poor man got shot off his horse in the war.”
    Kate cast a sidelong glance at the righteous Ophelia. “That was six months ago, and his arm wasn’t nearly blown off. You’re always exaggerating. He probably got a bad case of dysentery and still suffers from the runs.”
    “Katherine Ann Grey!”
    Kate grinned. “Did I turn your stomach? Sorry.”
    “Oh, hush. You’re just angry because Lady Juliana won’t call.”
    Kate sighed and shook her head. “Mama wants to be invited to the castle, not me. I told her what you said about Lady Juliana not having anything to do with Americans and that she considers Mama an American.”
    Ophelia leaned closer to Kate. “I have to have him.”
    Her cousin’s voice quivered, and Kate was surprised to see tears glistening in her eyes.
    “He thought I wanted his title,” Ophelia said. “I did, and that’s why I lost my first chance with him. But I don’t care about that anymore. After all, I’m Lady Swinburn now. But his mother hates me. I think she suspects that I’ve given myself to him. If she ever finds out for certain, she could ruin me. Please, Kate. Don’t make trouble.”
    Kate grumbled, but shrugged when Ophelia besieged her with pleading looks.
    “If it was me,” Kate said, “I’d rather be stranded in Hangtown on a Saturday night with a bunch of miners who just struck color. But if you want him, you can have him. Just don’t expect me to bathe him in that melted-sugar flattery like you do.”
    The fierce hug she got for her compliance pinched her shoulder blades together. Their talk turned to the Crimean War again; it looked as if it would never end, and the British government appeared stalled in its own incompetence while young men died by the thousands. Then they went on to discuss the latest attack against slavery in the American Congress. When Turnpenny drove the carriage down the path to the old Tower, Ophelia ended the conversation abruptly. Kate leaned back against the cushions, aware that her cousin didn’t want the marquess to catch her discussing politics.
    They arrived at the deserted Tower, and Ophelia made a great show of having the groom place her painting materials in the right spot. She and Kate climbed the interior stone stairs of the ruin to look at the view from the top. The Tower was on a bluff that commanded a lookout over the valley that lay between the lands of the de Granvilles and the Maitlands.
    As they stood shivering in the cool April breeze, a figure shot down the valley toward the Tower. Kate’s eyes widened as she beheld the speed of the horse and rider. The stallion swept through a stream as though it weren’t there, hurled himself over a hedgerow, then plunged headlong down a steep gully.
    “You’d think he’d have had enough of that after Balaclava,” Ophelia said.
    Kate winced as horse and rider jumped a fence everyone else in the neighborhood rode around. “As we say in San Francisco, the marquess is a ripsniptious rider. I’d better go before he gets here. But remember, I have to beback to meet with Mr. Poggs about the railroad shares I’m buying.”
    Alexis dismounted from Theseus and led him to the old keep. He’d walked the horse up from the valley to cool him. Removing blanket and saddle, he began rubbing the animal down using handfuls of the long grass that grew at the base of the Tower. He knew Ophelia was waiting for him inside, but he was in no hurry to join her. She’d wriggled her way back into his good graces and his bed for her own reasons, and she knew he hadn’t wanted her there to begin with.
    “Alexis?”
    His hand stilled on Theseus’s flank, but he didn’t answer her. What was he doing there? He shouldn’t have come again. It still hurt too