The Deception by Joan Wolf Read Free Book Online Page A

help you dress, my lady,” she said.
    “I don’t have a maid, Mrs. Noakes,” I said, “and I am very used to doing without one. Please don’t bother Nancy.”
    She stared at me in amazement. “It is no bother, my lady.”
    I sent Nancy away, however, and when I was alone I walked around the large room, admiring its comfortable chintz furniture and faded rug, and looking for a connecting door to another bedroom. Aristocratic married couples, I knew, had adjoining bedrooms with a connecting door. There was no such door in this room. My heart lightened a little when I realized that Adrian had not put me in the master bedroom suite.
    I went over to the old mullioned window and looked out across a wide expanse of the Downs. There was a window seat tucked into the window bay, and I sat down, folded up my feet, and regarded the peaceful vista of gentle hills and rolling turf. My heart lightened a little more.
    I knew I had done a terrible thing, and certainly I was feeling both guilty and ashamed. On the other hand, the horrible, sickening fear induced by my uncle’s presence was gone. Guilt and shame were better than fear, I decided ruefully, and went to wash my face in the basin of warm water that Mrs. Noakes had provided.
    Greystone and I sat in the pretty dining room, with its carved moldings and beautiful old Persian carpet, and made conversation while dinner was served. Nothing but cool courtesy showed in his face the whole while, and foolishly I began to think that perhaps what I had done was not so bad after all. Lambourn’s spell had already begun to trick me into feeling that I was safe.
    It was nearly ten o’clock when we finished, and Grey-stone said to me, “Go upstairs. I will join you after I have had a glass of port.”
    I felt as if someone had just punched me in the stomach. I could feel my eyes enlarge. He saw my look and raised an inquiring eyebrow. “Y-yes, my lord,” I stammered, and fled.
    Mrs. Noakes once again offered the services of Nancy, and once again I refused. I waited until she was gone before I ventured out of my room to inspect the rest of the bedrooms on the corridor.
    What I saw did not alleviate my alarm. I had not been put in the master bedroom suite because there was no master bedroom suite. The room I had been given was by far the largest on the floor, and with a sinking heart I realized that it must be the bedroom that was used by the earl.
    Greystone’s brushes were laid out on a bureau in the small room that lay next to mine, but I was under no illusion that he planned to spend the night on the room’s chintz-covered chaise longue. This was his dressing room; he was probably planning to sleep with me.
    You married the man, I told myself as I stood once more in the center of my pretty bedroom, staring at the wide, comfortable bed. What did you expect was going to happen?
    The truth, of course, was that I hadn’t thought ahead at all. When one is running away from something, one often doesn’t take the time to consider what one is running to. This was the uncomfortable reflection that was in my mind when I heard the doorknob turn behind me. I whirled around in time to see the heavy oak door open and Adrian walk in.
    The polite mask he had worn for the servants’ sake was gone. He was very angry, I realized, and my stomach muscles began to tense. I straightened my back, lifted my chin, and braced myself for what was to come.
    He crossed the floor until he was standing in front of me. God, but he was big. I was tempted to throw myself on his mercy, to whimper that I was as much a victim of my uncle’s scheme as he was, but I could not get the words to come. They were untrue, anyway. We both knew that I stood to lose nothing by this marriage, while he had lost everything.
    He looked down at me, his face hard, his eyes narrowed. My stomach tightened even more. It was not the same feeling my uncle gave me, however, and I realized that I did not feel threatened by Adrian in the