The Reluctant Earl by Joan Wolf Read Free Book Online Page B

I.”  He paused, then spoke words that were torn from the deepest part of his heart.  “I swore a vow to myself when I heard the amount of the inheritance.”  His eyes held hers in locked intensity.  “I swore I would never be lonely again.”
    She reached her hand toward him.
    A noise came from within the trees to their right as a squirrel jumped from branch to branch.  Tim Tam’s head shot up and he danced around, eyes dilated and nose snorting.  He began to back into the woods.  Finbar decided he’d join in the fun, and the two riders were occupied for a while in rubbing their mounts’ necks, keeping them on the path, and murmuring reassuringly. When Finbar finally decided to stand quietly, Tim Tam followed suit; with some encouragement, both horses began to walk forward.
    Claire picked up their conversation as if nothing had interrupted it.   “It isn’t as bad for me because I have my mother and father.  But…”  Her eyes were focused between Finbar’s ears, and a tiny line dented her forehead.  “It’s peculiar Simon, but sometimes I feel as if a part of me is standing aside, watching me as I go about my day.  It’s as if the person who’s talking to Charlotte, or helping Mama with the garden, isn’t really me.  It’s some other girl who looks like me.  The real me is just waiting for you to come home.”
    They stopped their horses and crystal blue eyes looked deeply into brown.  Claire spoke first, a quiver in her voice.  “Do you think they’ll let us get married?”
    He said calmly, “If they don’t, we’ll elope.”  He reached for her hand.  “Will you elope with me?”
    Her face cleared like magic.  “Of course I will!”
    He grinned, lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it hard.
    She shivered.        
    They walked along in silence for a while.  Then Claire asked, “Where does one elope to, Simon?”
    “Scotland,” he replied.  “I looked it up in the library at school.  The bans don’t have to be called for a couple to be married in Scotland.  We just have to get there.”
    “We can do that,” she said confidently.
    “We can if we plan carefully.”
    A bug buzzed around Tim Tam’s ears and he shook his head in annoyance.  Simon said, “Let’s trot and get away from these insects.”
    Claire agreed and the two of them moved off, the horses, like the riders, in perfect harmony.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Liam had a promising filly running in the Oaks at Epsom, and Lord Welbourne was so confident of victory that he invited a party of friends to join him at the track.  The squire had planned to go to the race with Liam, but he canceled at the last minute.  The earl’s gamekeeper, John Evans, had caught three men poaching in the Welbourne woods, and the earl demanded they be brought up in front of the local magistrate (the squire) immediately.
    “I’m getting fair sick of these poachers,” the squire complained to Liam.  “These three aren’t even local lads - they’re from Bury St. Edmund’s.  They shot at Evans when he and his men tried to arrest them.  Someone could have been killed.  This time these damn poachers are going to feel the full weight of the law.  I’ll have them transported, I will.  Perhaps that will keep the city bullies away from us.”
    While the earl was away at the races, Richard Jarvis paid an unexpected visit to the abbey.  Lady Welbourne had gone up to London for a few days, and Carstairs, usually so protective of Simon, confidently directed Jarvis to the stables.  By now all the servants knew about Simon’s inheritance and who Richard Jarvis was.
    As his carriage made its way toward the abbey’s lovely stone stable buildings, Jarvis wondered what to expect from this first meeting with his sister’s son. 
    A boy with silver fair hair and a dark-haired girl were standing in front of the stable, both of them staring at a pony’s lifted hoof, when Jarvis’ carriage drew up.  The youngsters straightened