My Lady Rival by Ashley March

Author:Ashley March [Ashley March]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-05-03T22:16:29+00:00

Chapter 10

Later that week, Willa heard a dog’s bark, the low voice of a man given in response. Taking a deep breath, she straightened from searching for her mother’s pendant among the rosebushes and carefully peered around the corner of Holcombe House.

She sighed. It was only a footman, carrying the new cocker spaniel puppy as they returned from their nightly outing to the park. The puppy had just recently made its appearance. Previously there had been no cocker spaniel puppy, and then two nights ago she’d heard it yipping for the first time. It was an adorable, wriggly thing, its ears hanging over the footman’s sleeve. A s if it sensed her presence, the puppy cocked its head toward her and barked again.

Willa ducked back into the shadows, slamming her body against the wall. The stuccoed exterior was rough beneath her palms, even through her black gloves.

When a minute passed and no puppy or footman intent on capture approached her location, she sighed again, then slid down the wall to sit. Drawing her knees up, she reached to pluck a blade of grass. The loss of her mother’s pendant—the only keepsake she wore on her person at all times—seemed appropriate as only the latest sign that she was utterly inept as a spy. No matter that her instincts said that this was for the best; stealth and patience were plainly not her strengths.

This was why she’d been born to a man who became a businessman and not the criminal sort; the night held nothing but darkness and waiting, and she wasn’t particularly fond of either. During the day at least she could keep an eye on A lex openly, as she pretended to be part of the passersby in Hyde Park, or watched him from the shops across the street as he accompanied his sisters and mother shopping. He continued to make regular calls upon Lady Marianna, which, after hearing from Uxbridge how Woolstone favored his sister, was a concern in and of itself. But so far he’d made no move to hold any secret meetings. She could only hope that if he did receive word to meet with Woolstone, her attention to his every move would give her the advantage of this knowledge.

Would it be tonight? Perhaps. That possibility was the only reason she stayed when she’d much rather be ensconced in her suite at Mivart’s, wrapped in her robes and sipping chocolate as she read. Just one night away from the social whirl and Uxbridge and the fear that A lex Laurie would steal her freedom away: it didn’t seem too much to ask. Of course, the black ensemble of boys’ trousers, shirt, and coat which Sarah had found did make her feel rather dashing. She blended in with the shadows well, moved freely without the restriction of a corset and voluminous skirts.

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