A Lady for Two by Nan Comargue

Author:Nan Comargue [Comargue, Nan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing
Published: 2013-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

For two days, while they awaited the arrival of the new overseer, the house was contented, if not happy.

On the day he was expected, Lise kept a close watch on the front drive, but her patience was rewarded only with passing glimpses of Jameson, who was stepping out with the parlour maid and seemed to be hoping to make a match of it.

Not that Lise missed their games. Ever since Charles had joined them that day, she’d wanted something more from her sexual encounters, but sex with Charles continued to be a once monthly event with little variety or excitement, and she was back to being rammed by the occasional sturdy stable hand in between times.

After her midday meal—Charles took a tray in the office, which he was still trying to organise for the new man—she took up her vigil once again.

She almost cried out with pleasure when the carriage drew up to the front of the house and the familiar figure approached the doors. Her insides clenched with her sudden, unexpected, reaction.

Gone was the slight limp, and the light brown hair was burnished almost to fairness in the straggling English sunlight. There was nothing pretty about him, like Jameson, and certainly no overbred delicacy, as with Charles. He was simply a healthy specimen of the male race, built to conquer and command.

That a man such as he should be reduced to servitude…well, such was the nature of the world.

Lise sprang up from her window and out of her bedchamber but before she could descend the main staircase, she heard raised voices coming from below. Or rather, Charles’ raised voice. Luke Holden didn’t bother to lift his.

“I asked you,” Charles shouted, “what are you doing here?”

Lise crept down the stairs so that she could hear better.

“You invited me,” came Holden’s low drawl.

“I never did!”

“Certainly, you did.” Lise saw the man extract a folded paper from his pocket. “Here is the letter from my former employer, Lord Mundrey. He asked me to seek employment here, with you. He told me that it was already arranged between yourselves.”

Lise could see the hot colour flooding Charles’ face as he perused the letter.

“How did you fix it?” he asked angrily of Holden, the letter still clenched in his hand. “How did you manage to find your way here again?”

Holden was calm and unruffled, clearly the master of the situation. “Simply by doing my job and performing it well. Sir. You have the good baron’s recommendation in your hand. I was employed by him for the better part of a year.”

The two men stared at each other. Holden had the advantage of height but Charles was the lord and master of Hessell House. He could easily turn Holden out the door.

Lise held her breath, wondering who would flinch first.

It was Charles who finally turned away, defeat in his very stance. “I need someone good,” he said. “My former overseer robbed me blind. I can’t even find him now, although I’ve made numerous enquiries… But that’s not your problem.

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