Madam Mystery: A Tangled Hearts Romance by Rebecca Ward

Author:Rebecca Ward [Ward, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: White Glove
Published: 2014-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

It took a hired cart and four nervous horses an hour to haul Lord Cardell’s Wonder back to the house. The task was made more onerous by the owner of the cart, who demanded an exorbitant fee for dragging around a contraption that, as he put it, could explode at any moment. He grumbled until Lord Sinclair appeased him by offering to lead the horses.

Sinclair could not help grinning whenever he thought of the Wonder’s untimely appearance, but the Cardell family obviously considered the machine’s debut a tragedy. A dismal Peter took charge of his equally glum brothers and sisters, whilst Damaris walked beside her grandfather and attempted to console him.

Lord Cardell was mired fast in gloom. “Been planning this for months,” he groaned. “Spent a lot of blunt on new pipes and such. Thought if people saw what the Wonder could do, an investor would get word of it and our fortune would have been made.”

He glared at his invention. “It was the valve again—damn thing got stuck and pressure built up. Oh, Lucinda’s going to rake me over the coals!”

He was a true prophet. No sooner had they returned to Cardell House but the dowager advanced upon them and called on God and man to witness how she had been victimized for years by an Unfeeling Man who endangered and beggared himself and his family. She carried on until Lord Cardell flew into a passion, shouted that she was a foolish bag of moonshine, then retreated into the stables, banged the doors shut, and locked himself in.

“No, I won’t come out,” he yelled out of the keyhole at Damaris, who was attempting to reason with him. “Only place a man can get any peace. Go away and let me alone.”

Sinclair, who was torn between mirth and a real sympathy for the old fellow’s woes, told Damaris not to worry. “He needs time to lick his wounds,” he said. “After a while he’ll cheer up and remind himself that scientific progress has its ups and downs. There’s no need to be so anxious.”

There was a caring, almost caressing note in his deep voice that confused Damaris. Until now she had been too busy to remember what Lord Cardell’s appearance had interrupted.

“I must go back to the others,” she said.

But she did not want to go back to the house. What Damaris wanted more than anything else was to walk into Lord Sinclair’s arms. She wanted to rest her cheek against his broad shoulder and be held as tightly as she had been held earlier tonight. She wanted to lift her lips for his kiss—

“Don’t go,” Lord Sinclair said.

Moon-madness rushed back into Damaris’s veins. Her knees felt weak as though her bones were beginning to turn soft. “No one needs you at the moment,” Sinclair continued. “Lady Cardell is brooding in the morning room. The children and Miss Harriet are having bread and milk and telling Hepzibah about their day.”

As he spoke, he took Damaris’s hands in his. They seemed to tremble in his clasp, and her sudden vulnerability filled him with inexplicable emotions.

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