Scandalous by Karen Robards

Author:Karen Robards [Robards, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 074342672X
Google: M67v6gSuUCMC
Amazon: B000FC0TTK
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2001-02-26T23:00:00+00:00

22

His careful plans had been blown to hell, he reflected wryly while, as part of a concerted effort to regain his strength, he walked with slow steps around the perimeter of his bedchamber. Knowing that time was of the essence, finding himself laid by the heels was driving him mad. And Gabriella was the cause of the whole damned fiasco. From the moment he had first laid eyes on her, in her ugly black dress with her nose stuck up in the air, he had known she was trouble. What he hadn't known was just how much trouble she was going to be.

She'd threatened his cover, defied him, shot him, excited him, and now she'd made him feel guilty besides.

If he'd known her limp was a permanent affliction, he would never have called attention to it as he had, he thought, faintly aggrieved that he hadn't known. But when he'd seen the hesitation in her gait as she'd crossed his bedchamber, his instant fear was that he was somehow responsible for the injury. Had he hurt her as he'd snatched her up in the hall that first night, perhaps, or later, when she'd fallen off his bed? The thought had troubled him enormously. Whatever else happened, he didn't want to cause hurt to Gabriella. But he had hurt her, by calling attention to the limp that was, most of the time, not noticeable. He'd seen the stricken look in her eyes, and so he'd set out to banish it with the most objectionable comment he could call to mind. He'd succeeded, too. He'd made her angry instead.

Which was, he supposed, an improvement.

"Uh, Cap'n, what would you be wantin' me do with this?" Barnet, who was in the process of changing the bed linens, held up one of Belinda's musk-drenched missives. A footman had brought it up to him when it had arrived earlier, and, as he'd been in bed at the time, he'd given it a quick perusal there. When Beth had bounced in on him without warning, he had tucked it beneath the covers and promptly forgotten all about it.

"Put it in the drawer with the others," he said with a shrug. Belinda had really been a most faithful correspondent, he reflected. Indeed, he was quite sure that he had only Gabriella's daunting presence in the house to thank for Belinda's failure to visit him personally during his convalescence. The type of naughtiness involved in calling on an ailing gentleman in his bedchamber— and entertaining him most royally there— was the breath of life to Belinda. Only the presence of a lady of the house possessed of a quelling mien, the demeanor of a duchess, and the eyes of a hawk— to wit, his oldest "sister" —would be enough to keep Belinda away.

"The bed's ready, Cap'n." Barnet gave a last twitch to the covers and straightened, looking at him expectantly.

He grimaced. "I'm sick to death of lying abed. If I lie there much longer I'll be weak as a newborn kitten.

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