The Runaway Heiress by Anne O'Brien Read Free Book Online Page A

concerted
backs on her mother following what they perceived as a mesalliance , surely they would not be so cold-hearted
as to abandon her only daughter in her hour of need. Frances knew that it was a
risk, but she would have to takeit. London must be her first objective
and here she saw the possibility of asking the help of the Rector of
Torrington. If nothing else, he might, in Christian charity, be persuaded to
lend her the money to buy a seat on the mailcoach.
    So, having made her plan,
determinedly closing her mind to all the possibilities for disaster, Frances continued to tread softly
down the great staircase. She reached the foot, with its carved eagles on the newel
posts, with a sigh of relief. All the doors were closed. There was an edge of light
under the library
door but there was no sound. Frances pulled up her hood, turned towards the door which
led to the kitchens and sculleries and tiptoed silently across. Soon she would be free,
    'Good evening, Miss
Hanwell.'
    Frances dropped her
bandbox with a clatter and whirled round, her breath caught in her throat.
Aldeborough was framed
in silhouette, the light behind him, in the doorway of the library. In spite of the hour he
was still elegantly dressed, although stripped of his coat, and held a glass of
brandy in one
hand. Her eyes widened with shock and she was con scious only of the blood racing
through her veins, her heart pounding in her chest. Aldeborough placed his glass on a side table
with a sharp click that echoed in the silence, then strolled across the expanse between
them. He bent and with infinite
grace picked up her bandbox.
    'Perhaps I can be of
assistance?' he asked smoothly.
    Frances found her voice.
'You could let me go. You could forget you have seen me.' Her voice caught in her throat, betraying
her fear. She tried not to shrink back from him against the banister, from the
controlled power of his
body and the dark frown on his face. Memories forced their ugly
path into her mind, resisting her attempts to blot them out.
    'I
could, of course, but I think not.' Aldeborough held out his hand imperatively.
She felt compelled by the look in his eyes to obey him and found herself led to
the library, where he released her and closed the door behind her.
    'You
appear to be making a habit of running away. Might I ask where you were
planning to go?' he enquired. 'Surely not back to Charles!'
    'I
will never go back to that house!' Frances replied with as much dignity as she
could muster in the circumstances. 'I had decided to go to the Rector of
Torrington for help.'
    'And
how were you intending to get there?' He allowed his eyebrows to rise.
    'Walk.'
    'For
ten miles? In the pitch black along country roads?'
    'If
I have to.' She raised her head in defiance of his heavy sarcasm.
    'I
had not realised, Miss Hanwell, that marriage to me could be such a desperate
option. Clearly I was wrong.'
    Frances
could think of no reply, intimidated by the ice in his voice.
    He
dropped her ill-used bandbox on to the floor and approached her, raising his
hands to relieve her of her cloak. Her reaction was startling and immediate.
She' flinched from him, raising her arm to shield her face, retreating,
stumbling against a small table so that a faceted glass vase fell to the floor
with a crash, the debris spraying over the floor around her feet. She turned
her head from him and buried her face in her hands, unable to stifle a cry of
fear as the dark memories threatened to engulf her.
    'What
is it? What did I do?' Aldeborough's brows snapped together. Frances shook her
head, unable to answer as she fought to quell the rising hysteria and calm her
shattered breathing.
    'Forgive
me. I had no intention of frightening you.' He grasped her shoulders in a firm
hold to steady her, aware that she was trembling uncontrollably, when an
unpleasant thought struck him.
    'You thought I was going
to hit you, didn't you? What have I ever done to suggest that I would use
violence against you?' There