The Six Month Marriage by Amanda Grange Read Free Book Online

me?’
    ‘Oh, miss,’ gasped Jenny, who had obviously been running
hard, and who was clutching her side where a sharp pain had formed with the effort.
‘I’ve come to warn you, miss. Your uncle’s found out where you are and he’s
coming to get you. He’s already on his way.’
    Madeline looked at her uncomprehendingly. ‘No, Jenny,
you must be mistaken. He can’t have found me.’ But even as she said it she
began to realise it must be true. Jenny had found her, and if her maid could
find her then so could her uncle.
    Icy fingers clutched at her heart.
    ‘He’s had the servants looking for you all night,’ went
on Jenny. Her breathing was still laboured, but she was determined to speak. ‘He
sent everyone out. He was in such a taking. They’ve been combing the streets,
but they couldn’t find you. You don’t know how glad I was to think you’d got
away! But someone saw you, miss. Some drunk. He saw you getting into a hackney
carriage with the Earl of Pemberton. And now your uncle’s on his way here to
fetch you back again. But don’t you let him take you, miss. Don’t you ever go
back to him, or he’ll make you pay for having run away. There’s no telling what
he might do if he gets you in his clutches again.’
    Madeline turned pale. Whatever happened, she was not
going back with her uncle. But if he found her in the garden she would be an
easy target.
    ‘Quickly,’ she said to Jenny. ‘We must go inside. I’ll
speak to Crump and give him instructions not to admit –’
    But it was too late. A violent altercation was coming
from the direction of the house, and a minute later her uncle appeared, Crump
following and still protesting that Mr Delaware could not come in.
    Madeline looked wildly round but the garden was bounded
by a high wall and there was no escape.
    ‘There you are!’ seethed her uncle. His face was
contorted with anger and he was almost purple with rage. He strode towards her
in fury. ‘Thought you’d set up for yourself, did you?’
    Madeline shrank back, afraid of him and humiliated by
his words. As if she would . . . would . . . she couldn’t bear to think what he
was implying.
    But her uncle did not stop. He advanced on her
menacingly and as she turned to run he caught her by the wrist, his fingers
like a vice and his nails biting into her flesh. ‘Oh, no, miss. You’re not
going anywhere. Your dowry’s going to pay my gambling debts. You’re coming back
with me.’ His face suddenly broke into a warped smile, and Madeline found it
almost worse than his rage. ‘I never thought you had it in you, Maddy. A chip
off the old block after all.’ He gave a leer. ‘And you’ve not done bad for
yourself. I told you that dress would work wonders. Look what it’s done for
you. Set you up as Pemberton’s mistress. Pemberton! An earl! If I didn’t need
your dowry to pay off Lucius Spalding, I’d applaud!’
    Madeline, trying to twist her wrist out of his grip,
suddenly saw Philip striding across the garden. She closed her eyes, racked
with humiliation as she realised that he must have overheard. She made a
renewed effort to wrench herself free whilst Philip strode towards them across
the garden, his face like thunder.
    That is how he must look on the battlefield, she thought
as she saw him. His long, lean body was rippling with sinew and muscle and a
wave of power seemed to emanate from him, flooding the air with danger.
    ‘ Delaware !’ His voice cut the air like a whip. ‘Get your hands off my wife!’
    Gareth sneered, although he took an involuntary step
backwards all the same. ‘She’s coming with – what did you say?’ he asked as the
Earl’s words sunk in. ‘Your wife ?’ And then he quickly recovered. ‘Oh,
no, Pemberton, you don’t play that one with me. You have no claim on her. She
is my ward. My twenty-year-old ward. She’s under-age, Pemberton; under my care and protection. You’ll have to find yourself another bit of muslin.’ His
face took on its