When a Girl Loves an Earl (Rescued from Ruin Book 5) by Elisa Braden Read Free Book Online

in marriage.”
    “My, you have positively galloped ahead of me. Miles and miles. You are in another county altogether.”
    Eyes of deep, coniferous green gleamed knowingly. “Am I?”
    Her lips pursed on a smile. “Perhaps I am merely the curious sort.”
    “I think you desire that which you perceive to be unattainable.”
    “Miles and miles,” she murmured, largely because she had no better answer. He was not wrong.
    “As you are Miss Lancaster’s friend, I shall offer this advice: Flirtation for a woman of your beauty is a dangerous game, doubly so when one’s chaperone prefers napping to minding her charge.”
    “You think me beautiful?”
    He sighed. Straightened away from her. “I knew I should not attend this evening,” he muttered, his gaze drifting up past her head to the other side of the room, his jaw flexing. “No good can come of it.”
    She disliked seeing his focus wander away. How could she persuade him of their obvious affinity if he did not look at her? “I beg to differ. In the unlikely event that Lady Reedham has managed to keep her third French cook, I expect you shall have an excellent meal. That is one good thing, is it not?”
    Ah, yes. That did it. His eyes returned to her, both exasperated and amused. “Aye. A good meal is a good thing.”
    “There you have it. Of course, if her cook has departed, we may be subject to an evening of dreadful music. You must brace for that eventuality.”
    “Do you always chatter on this way?”
    “Only when I wish to converse with someone who interests me.” She tilted her head in mock inquiry. “I could teach you, if you wish.”
    He snorted. “No. Thank you.”
    She raised her brows. “Really, conversation, when done well, can be most … stimulating.”
    Perhaps she had pushed too hard, for his green eyes narrowed and his massive arms crossed. “Miss Darling.”
    “Yes?”
    “I suggest you find your chaperone and remain at her side, come what may.”
    “Are you concerned for my virtue, Lord Tannenbrook?”
    He leaned forward to murmur close to her ear. “No, lass. For mine.”
    When he withdrew and strode away, his gargantuan shoulders creating their own path through the throng along one wall, she could only stand like a dizzy goose, breathless and swaying on her feet. He smelled heavenly, like the pines around the lake near her home in Cheshire. And he was warm. As warm as a great hearth. Having his breath so near her cheek had sent gooseflesh shimmying over her skin.
    She’d never felt the like.
    She wanted him. James Kilbrenner, the Earl of Tannenbrook. She wanted him as she’d never wanted another thing. Ever. This was more than the Inkling. This was destiny.
    And he would be hers, she decided, still struggling for breath, her gloved hand brushing the side of her neck where she’d felt his words slide over her skin.
    One way or another, he would be hers.
     
    *~*~*
     

 
     
    CHAPTER THREE
    “Ah, yes. How swiftly ‘daring’ becomes ‘foolhardy’ when one recklessly abandons all good judgment to gain favor with the object of one’s affection.” —The Dowager Marchioness of Wallingham to her son, Charles, upon learning of another disastrous outing involving a malfunctioning carriage, unruly weather, and a certain widow.
     
    “A little advice, James,” said James Kilbrenner’s best friend as an unruly gust of wind attempted to unseat them from their mounts and topple them onto the gravel-and-tan of Rotten Row. “Avoid swearing that you will never marry. It only invites the fates to laugh and plot your comeuppance.”
    James grunted at Lucien Wyatt, who spoke from experience. After Lucien’s unlikely marriage to the sister of the man who had shot Gregory in a duel, Lucien was well acquainted with the perversions of fate. First, he had inherited his brother’s title. Then, he had plotted revenge. Then, he had promptly fallen in love with the instrument of his vengeance, Victoria Lacey.
    James had remarked often that it