The Accidental Mistress by Kate Harper Read Free Book Online Page A

across the head. Although, it had been a very hard crack across the head. She could remember the unpleasant thunk the bottle had made as it connected with Roxburghe’s skull.
    Mrs. Chambers came forward and knelt on the floor beside Sophie. With far more assurance than Sophie had shown, she tilted the Marquis’ head to one side and probed the back of his skull with competent fingers. As if objecting to this rough handling, the man on the floor groaned and relief surged through the girl. People who were verging on death did not groan, did they? Perhaps she hadn’t damaged him nearly as much as she thought.
    ‘There’s a nice lump back there,’ the housekeeper said, gently releasing his lordship, ‘but I daresay he’ll survive. I’ll have him taken up to his room and put to bed.’
    The words reduced his lordship to the status of troublesome schoolboy. Sophie climbed back onto her feet and returned to the chair, relieved beyond measure that she wasn’t a murderess. She had no idea what would happen to her now and was suddenly aware that she was famished. While hunger might be the last thing a girl possessed of delicate sensibilities should be feeling, Sophie had to conclude that she was devoid of them. For one thing, she had behaved like a complete hoyden, allowing the Marquis to kiss her. And now her stomach was making the most unladylike noises imaginable. It was hardly surprising; her last meal had been at dinner the night before and she had been so preoccupied she had merely picked at her food. She watched as the housekeeper summoned two men, his lordship’s valet and a burly groomsman brought in for his strength. They picked up the Marquis, Mrs. Chambers’ supervising the undertaking. She followed the two men from the room but was back within five minutes. Sophie had remained in the chair, too listless to move. Not only had she not obtained Roxburghe’s help in returning to London, she had compounded her folly by bashing him into insensibility. It seemed reasonable to assume that he wasn’t going to be coming to her rescue any time soon.
    The housekeeper regarded Sophie, eyes resting on the torn bodice of her gown. She gave the kindliest smile Sophie had yet seen from the woman. ‘You must be half starved. Sit yourself at the table and I’ll wait on you myself Miss.’
    Sophie blinked up at the woman, bemused. ‘But… his lordship…’
    ‘He’s resting,’ Mrs. Chambers said firmly, ‘Don’t you worry. Master Dev will be feeling more the thing in the morning. He’s got a hard skull and it’s not the first time he’s knocked it.’
    ‘He’s been hit by other women?’ Sophie said incredulously.
    Grey eyes twinkled down at her. ‘No, but I daresay it was overdue. I was more talking about him coming off his horse and all the other mischief he used to get up to. Master Dev was a right tear-away when he was young and not a deal has changed since Miss. Now let me fix your gown and then we’ll get some food into you.’
    Sophie rose obligingly and allowed herself to be fussed over by the housekeeper. She fetched a workbasket and had Sophie’s gown tacked together in minutes. Her expression changed a little when she saw the bruises around the girl’s throat, a frown gathering but she didn’t comment and Sophie was grateful. She was seated at the table and, as promised, the woman served the meal herself. At the end of it, pleasantly replete, Sophie felt as if she were far more capable of facing up to anything. When Mrs. Chambers came to clear away the dishes she eyed her curiously. ‘Mrs. Chambers?’
    ‘Yes Miss?’
    ‘Has his lordship no family here?’
    The woman sighed. ‘None. His father died three years ago and his mother when he was but a child. Terrible sad it was, seeing her go like that. He was nine at the time and it did the lad no good.’
    ‘I see. And does he have no brothers or sisters? Cousins? Aunts?’
    ‘Nobody. His father was the last to go apart from a remote connection in