Read Online Anne Barbour by Escapades Four Regency Novellas - Free Book Online

feelings and thoughts with her in a manner she felt was unusual for him. She knew she had no right to his affection, but she could not help but revel in it. In his presence, she managed to damp the feelings of guilt that were becoming harder and harder to ignore.
    One afternoon, the two sat before the massive piano in the music room. Though it reminded her forcibly of her days with the Murchisons, she was glad of an opportunity to reacquaint herself with an instrument that had lightened her meager existence with precious moments of joy.
    Bran, she discovered, enjoyed playing the piano as well. He could not be called a virtuoso, but he obviously loved music.
    “I must tell Lord Canby to provide a music master for you,” he said. “When you learn to read music a whole new world will open for you. In the meantime ...”
    With his own hand, he produced a series of notes, then guided Martha to a repetition. Within a few minutes, she had learned to play several measures in a continuation of the portion she had taught herself.
    “Oh, Bran!” she cried softly. “This is wonderful.”
    Perhaps, she thought with sudden pain, in her fraudulent new life as Lady Felicity, she would find fulfillment in learning to play this magnificent instrument. She turned again to Bran. “I cannot find words—”
    Asshe gazed at him, Martha became immediately conscious, as she had before, that the seat she shared with Bran was very small, and that his closeness, as it had done on that other occasion, was producing an alarming effect on her.
    She wrenched her gaze from him to concentrate on the hand he still held against the keys. At the same moment, Bran started and coughed self-consciously.
    She rose abruptly. “I must go. Grandpapa will be—”  To her discomfiture, she discovered that Bran still held one of her hands in his, but when she tried to disengage it, he came to his feet as well, still retaining it in a warm grasp.
    “We will continue your lessons at another time, I hope,” he murmured.
    “Yes,” she replied somewhat breathlessly. “I should like that.”
    And still, he did not release her hand, but gazed into her eyes for an endless moment.
    “Felicity,” he whispered at last, “why do I feel that you have returned, not to your grandfather, but to me? I did not realize how I have missed you. But now—
    He drew in a sharp breath and, with a single, almost angry movement, pulled her into his arms.
    His kiss this time did not begin as a brotherly salute. He took her mouth with an urgency that snatched her breath and destroyed her reason. She leaned into his embrace, pressing herself against him as though she might absorb him into her very soul. She wondered for a distracted instant how a single kiss could be so satisfying while plunging her into a maelstrom of wanting. His hands, moving along her back, created a sensation of liquid fire, traversing the length of her body. She seemed to become a mindless puddle of sensation, all the while reveling in the knowledge that this man wanted her with a ferocity that matched her own.
    He pulled away from her for an instant, and gazed at her with a hungry intensity that she knew was mirrored in her own eyes. “Felicity,” he groaned. “I have known you—as an adult—for less than a week—but I realize now that I have been waiting for you since the day they came with the news that you would not be back. And I never knew it. I’ve been searching all this time—without knowing tor what or for whom I was searching.”
    Yes! she thought wildly as his lips met hers once more, hot and demanding, seeking and tender. She, too, had been searching—for love—for acceptance and belonging—for Branford. Dear God . . . ! She almost crumpled at the terrifying knowledge that swept over her so suddenly.
    This time it was she who pulled back, feeling as she did so that she was tearing part of her away.
    “I must go!” she gasped, hardly able to get the words out. She could not say more,