The Ransom by MaryLu Tyndall Read Free Book Online

her, but she was nowhere to be found.”
    “Forsooth! You went to that haven of pirates?” Lady Anne shrieked, though her tone brimmed more with excitement then fear. “By yourself?”
    “My footman was with me but he … he … got lost.”
    “Lost? My dear, how utterly terrifying!” Lady Anne took the last gulp of wine and set down her glass. “Were you accosted?”
    Eyes full of anticipation sped toward Juliana as if they all wished it were so, if only to relieve their boredom.
    “Nearly, but someone … a man came to my rescue.”
    “A man?” Margaret asked.
    “A pirate, if you must know. I believe he might have been the Pirate Earl.”
    “Do say!”
    “This is most exciting!”
    Miss Ashton leaned toward her, a twinkle in her eye. “I hear he’s quite handsome.”
    Juliana stared at the silly woman, aghast. “He’s a pirate . What does it matter if he’s handsome?”
    They all frowned at her declaration. She wouldn’t tell them that he was, indeed, very handsome—dangerously handsome.
    “Oh, dear, you do have such grand adventures.” Lady Anne sighed.
    Too many adventures to Juliana’s way of thinking.
    “Miss Dutton, I couldn’t help but overhear.” Captain Nichols stepped beside her, drawing quite a few gazes—feminine gazes. Juliana had to admit, the man was dashing in his blue cambric coat with gold braid, white breeches stuffed in tall black boots, and his cocked hat atop a curled brown periwig. Yet his face was anything but handsome at the moment, as his brown eyes were aflame with incredulity. “You encountered that scurrilous Pirate Earl all alone? He is a reprobate of the fiercest kind!” He seethed, barely acknowledging the other ladies. “’Tis unheard of! A lady wandering the streets at night. Does your father know of this?”
    Juliana opened her mouth to tell him ’twas none of his affair, when he shook his head in exasperation. “We shall address this later. Lady Stevenson is asking where you are. She wishes to dance a minuet with us.” Without awaiting her response, he took her hand, forced it on his arm, and escorted her back into the ballroom. As they passed the entryway, an odd awareness brought her gaze up to see Lord Munthrope in the midst of regaling his sycophants with some embellished narrative.
    His stark blue eyes followed her every move.
     

 
    Chapter 5
     
    Lord Munthrope finished his parody with mock precision, sending the crowd into a tumult of laughter.
    “Munny, you are too much, too much, I say,” one of the bystanders announced, hardly able to contain himself. The fatwit. Pasting on a smile, Munthrope bowed elegantly and excused himself, much to everyone’s dismay.
    In the ballroom, his eyes grazed over the pearl-laden coiffures and plumed castors, seeking the object of his interest, Miss Juliana Dutton. He’d noticed her the minute she’d entered the room on the arm of that buffoon, Captain Nichols. He’d watched her as she’d ducked away from the man and hid in the corner, saw her join her goose-brained friends, and then he’d followed her onto the portico. Why? He couldn’t say. Mayhap because her skin glowed like amber amongst the pasty white faces of her powdered friends. Mayhap because her golden waves warmed him like sunshine. Though it could be because when he’d gazed into those blue-green eyes of hers that reminded him so much of the sea, he’d found courage and kindness.
    Yet ’twas more likely because he hadn’t been able to force her from his thoughts after he rescued her last night. And now, from the look on her face, she was in dire need of rescuing again.
    He stopped before Miss Wilson, whose flirtations could finally be put to use. After asking her to dance, he swept her onto the floor beside Miss Dutton and that pompous whiffet, Nichols. When she saw him, the corners of her fair eyebrows knit together in the most adorable way, but then the music began and Munthrope was forced to enter the circle with the other men,