Lord and Master by Rosemary Stevens

Author:Rosemary Stevens [Stevens, Rosemary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1997-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

A thin chill hung in the air.

Anthony suddenly felt himself back at Raven’s Hall. His father was alive, and they were engaged in a hell of a row about Isabella’s bills. She sat languidly on a chair, one dainty foot swinging off to the side, while she tried to stifle a yawn.

As usual, he could not convince his father of any wrongdoing on the young countess’s part, and only succeeded in widening the gulf between them.

It could have been any one of a number of such occasions. He experienced all the old feelings of frustration, fear...

“Anthony, have your wits gone begging?” Isabella scolded, bringing him back to the present. “I have just introduced my new husband, the Marquess of Lamberton.”

Civility forced Anthony to incline his dark head briefly in his stepmother’s direction and to bow to Lord Lamberton. From the marquess’s nervous looks toward the doorway, Anthony surmised he knew something of the nature of his wife’s relationship with her deceased husband’s son and wished to be no part of their encounter.

Before Anthony could present Miss Kendall, Isabella spoke again in a tone of voice he knew well from the past.

“Lamb, darling, do run off to the card room,” she positively cooed to the marquess. “I know how these parties weary you so.”

The relief on Lord Lamberton’s face was comical. “Zooks! You have the right of it, Bella. There’s my good girl.”

“I hope to goodness I know what my Lamb needs!” Isabella crooned, and blew him a kiss.

Lord Lamberton scuttled away muttering, “Buy you another bauble with my winnings.”

Isabella turned hard eyes back to Daphne and Anthony. “And who have we here, Anthony?”

Stiffly he performed the introductions, all the while wishing Isabella would disappear, and that he never again had to lay eyes on the woman responsible for driving his father into an early grave. But she was here. And now she was a marchioness. He gave her credit for success in her ambitions, if nothing else.

He glanced at Miss Kendall as she exchanged pleasantries with Isabella, and thought he detected a hint of curiosity about her expression. What must she think of this strange meeting? And what had he been about earlier, kissing her with a passion he had not realized he felt for her? He brutally pushed the memory from his mind. He could not think of it now.

“We met at Astley’s Royal Amphitheatre,” Daphne was saying, answering Isabella’s query as to where they had been introduced. “Lord Ravenswood helped me rescue a cat.”

Isabella’s thin eyebrows rose. “Did I hear you correctly, Miss Kendall? Anthony assisted you to the benefit of a feline?”

Daphne nodded. “Had it not been for Lord Ravenswood’s kindness, Mihos might now be dead. He was being used most abominably by a man who wanted to make money by claiming Mihos was the world’s smallest tiger. Lord Ravenswood purchased him and took him home.”

“You amaze me, Miss Kendall. I have always believed Anthony despised cats.”

Lord Ravenswood looked pointedly at Isabella. “Only a select few.”

Isabella correctly interpreted, but chose to ignore, the deeper meaning of this wry statement.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.