The Devilish Mr. Danvers: The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series by Vivienne Lorret Read Free Book Online Page B

a continuation of your quest for Greyson Park?”
    “I made an offer, and it was accepted.” There was no point in denying it. “The only problem is that, apparently, when I paid a good-faith sum and signed a contract, I was not aware that the estate had been settled upon a different Sinclair as an inheritance.”
    “A different Sinclair?”
    Rafe was still disgusted with himself for being so blinded by victory. After so many years of waiting, why hadn’t he taken the necessary precautions of having his own solicitor oversee the contract? “The younger daughter inherited the property.”
    “I wasn’t aware there was another daughter.” His father looked wary, as if the possibility of having two women like Ursa Sinclair on this earth was two too many. And he would be right.
    “Neither was I. Although, I had met her on a prior occasion,” Rafe added, the memory sparking anew.
    Hedley’s hair had been braided that day, in a thick golden plait that nearly reached the fingertips she’d kept clasped behind her back. With her green shawl and brown dress, she’d nearly blended in to the garden shrubs and trees around her. But when she’d turned at the sound of his voice and that startled gaze had alighted on him, he’d realized his mistake—she hadn’t blended in at all.
    For a moment, he’d thought he’d snared a wood sprite, and all from a single comment about her shawl. Then, hearing Ursa, he’d turned away. And when he’d looked back, the sprite had disappeared.
    He’d convinced himself that she hadn’t been real after all. Then, upon seeing her again, he realized that she had been—and still was—all too real. And regrettably, another Sinclair.
    “It had never occurred to me,” he continued, “that the young woman I’d noticed in the garden was the Sinclairs’ other daughter.”
    His father tapped the tip of the pipe against the side of his mouth. “The sisters hold no similarities?”
    Rafe shook his head. “Neither in appearance nor in design. If you can believe it, Hedley wears rags. Whereas her sister had never worn the same gown twice.”
    “Hedley?” His father lifted his brows. “You don’t refer to her as Miss Sinclair ?”
    “Surely you can understand that using that particular address would sour my stomach.” Rafe didn’t bother to explain it further. Calling Hedley by her Christian name was nothing more than a way of separating the two sisters in his mind. Not that he needed to separate them. Or that he spent time—not too much, at any rate—thinking about the differences between them. It was just a matter of convenience. Nothing more. The reason his thoughts kept drifting to Hedley was purely because of recent developments, he was sure.
    “Opposites, you say?” His father turned his head toward the sound of a soft cry up the stairs.
    Rafe followed his gaze and listened with an absent ear, his thoughts far away in Lincolnshire. “Quite. Hedley has pale features and an artless way about her, whereas her sister is both dark in her looks and in her demeanor.” He found the contrast in Hedley refreshing.
    Even when she’d attempted to lie about having an ailing grandmother and four elder brothers, her cheeks had turned pink, betraying her. Ursa, on the other hand, had been able to lie directly to his face for weeks without batting an eye.
    “If the girl is pale, perhaps she is sickly. That could explain why no one has heard of her.”
    Rafe dismissed that with a wry laugh. An instant image of her bending at the waist with her dress dampened against her legs flashed in his mind. “No. There must be another reason because the young woman I met was quite hale. Her unspoiled complexion is more like . . . Devonshire cream or the moon when it crests the treeline.”
    Except for when she blushed. And then her cheeks became tinged with the most extraordinary hue. He wondered if he could re-create that particular shade of pink in his glasswork.
    “Are her eyes not that unmistakable