Read Online A Rake's Vow by Stephanie Laurens - Free Book Online

in the flower bed? Something that disappeared?”
    Patience hesitated, searching his eyes, then nodded. “I told myself Myst must have knocked it out of the window, but I hunted high and low, in the room and in the flower bed. I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
    “What was ‘it’?”
    “A small silver vase.” She sketched the shape of a bud vase. “About four inches high. I’ve had it for years—I don’t suppose it’s particularly valuable, but . . .”
    “You’d rather have it than not. Why were you so keen not to mention it last night?”
    Her face setting, Patience met Vane’s eyes. “You aren’t going to tell me the gentlemen of the household didn’t happen to mention over the breakfast table this morning that they think Gerrard is behind all these odd occurrences—the Spectre, as they call it, and the thefts as well?”
    “They did, as it happens, but we—Gerrard, myself, and, surprisingly enough, Edmond—pointed out that that notion has no real foundation.”
    The unladylike sound Patience made was eloquent—of irritation, frustration, and overstretched tolerance.
    “Indeed,” Vane concurred, “so you have yet another reason to feel grateful to me.” As Patience swung his way, he frowned. “And Edmond, unfortunately.”
    Despite herself, Patience’s lips quirked. “Edmond would gainsay the elders simply for a joke—he doesn’t take anything seriously, other than his muse.”
    “I’ll take your word for it.”
    Instead of being distracted, Patience continued to study his face. Vane raised one brow. “I did tell you,” he murmured, holding her gaze, “that I’m determined to put you in my debt. You needn’t concern yourself over the gentlemen’s attitude to Gerrard while I’m about.” He didn’t think her pride would allow her to accept an outright offer of a broad shoulder to deflect the slings and arrows of the present Hall society; presenting his aid in the guise of a rake’s machinations, would, he hoped, permit her to let the matter go with a shrug and a tart comment.
    What he got was a frown. “Well, I do thank you if you tried to set them straight.” Patience glanced up to where Gerrard was still communing with the horizon. “But you can see why I didn’t want to make a fuss over my vase—they’d only blame Gerrard.”
    Vane raised his brows noncommittally. “Whatever. If anything more disappears, tell me, or Minnie, or Timms.”
    Patience looked at him and frowned. “What—”
    “Who’s this?” Vane nodded at a horseman cantering toward them.
    Patience looked, then sighed. “Hartley Penwick.” Although her expression remained bland, her tone grimaced. “He’s the son of one of Minnie’s neighbors.”
    “Well met, my dear Miss Debbington!” Penwick, a well-set gentleman attired in tweed jacket and corduroy breeches, and astride a heavy roan, swept Patience a bow more wide than it was elegant. “I trust I find you well?”
    “Indeed, sir.” Patience gestured to Vane. “Allow me to make you known to Lady Bellamy’s godson.” Briefly, she introduced Vane, adding the information that he had stopped to take shelter from last night’s storm.
    “Ah.” Penwick shook Vane’s hand. “So your visit’s in the nature of a forced halt. Daresay you’ll be on your way soon. The sun’s drying the roads nicely, and there’s nothing in this backwater to compare with ton nish pursuits.”
    If Penwick had declared that he wanted him gone, he could not have been more explicit. Vane smiled, a gesture full of teeth. “Oh, I’m in no especial hurry.”
    Penwick’s brows rose; his eyes, watchful from the instant he had beheld Vane, grew harder. “Ah—on a repairing lease, I take it?”
    “No.” Vane’s gaze grew chilly, his diction more precise. “I’m merely in the way of pleasing myself.”
    That information did not please Penwick. Patience was about to step into the breach, to protect Penwick from likely annihilation, when Penwick, searching for the