The Romantic by Madeline Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

have to lie for me, because they do not know I am in England.”
    “That is true. They did not have to lie.”
    “Did you?”
    “It did not come to that.”
    “But it will, now that the earl knows I am here. Eventually he will ask you where to find me.”
    “As your solicitor, I am under no obligation to answer. Quite the opposite.”
    His tone made her heart heavy. He looked very serious. Too serious. And thoughtful.
    The bed disappeared, as did her foolish, wanton musings. “He will find me. If he was so bold as to try and search my brother’s house, he will not give up easily. Even if I hide forever in this room, he will eventually learn I am here.”
    “I called on him to remind him of a few things he seems to have forgotten. He either was not at home or would not receive me. However, I will have that conversation with him very soon. That will end his pursuit.”
    “It will not make a difference. He has forgotten nothing. He merely does not worry about exposure anymore.”
    She abruptly got up and turned to the window. She scanned the space below, even though her mind knew that a private garden would not hold any danger for her.
    Memories tried to force themselves into her mind. Ugly, old ones that she had learned long ago to deny. Explicit scenes flickered that showed the slide into degradation she had lived the first years of her marriage. She hadbeen so ignorant that she had not even known it was not normal, even if it was shocking.
    Then the earl went too far, and she realized the hell she had bargained for. It had not been the pleasure that the earl took in perversity that had gotten her free, however. When she went to Mr. Hampton for advice, he had asked questions that revealed bigger secrets, more damning than anything that Glasbury did with a wife.
    Mr. Hampton had been so enigmatic at that meeting. She had turned to him because he was an old friend, and because he knew the law, and because if she had confided in her brothers one of them might have killed Anthony. Mr. Hampton had been all she had hoped, steady and sober and unemotional, but she had not missed the fire in his eyes that spoke his disgust of what he heard.
    Fortunately, he had understood the significance of her evidence in ways she had not. He had used that, ruthlessly she suspected, to negotiate with the earl. He had gotten her free.
    Now she felt that freedom slipping away. The earl would get her back, and this time there would be no escape. She would be at his mercy, and the anger of the years would drive him this time.
    She began shaking inside. The trembles affected her soul and heart and eventually her body. They weakened her so much that her composure broke.
    She turned away so that Mr. Hampton would not see her tears. She had given the poor man enough trouble without expecting him to deal with that, too. She fought to calm the panic that threatened to send her raving.
    He was suddenly standing right behind her. She couldfeel his warmth. His proximity distracted her enough that her emotions did not entirely overwhelm her.
    His hands came to rest on her shoulders. That should have astonished her, but instead she savored their strength and the way they steadied her.
    He turned her to face him. Barely touching her face, but touching it all the same, he tilted her head up so he looked in her eyes. “I said that I would not permit the earl to force your return. I meant that, dear lady.”
    The expression in his face mesmerized her. As he looked down and made his promise, she saw the youth she had known years ago. The boy she had played with was talking to the girl she had been. Both of those people had been lost to the world when they matured, as had their easy friendship. Now, for a brief respite, it was all back again, and the reasons for her trust were rawly alive between them.
    The realization moved her so much that she could not contain her emotion. She closed her eyes but the tears flowed anyway, snaking down her cheeks.
    Did he