Read Online Call Down the Moon by Katherine Kingsley - Free Book Online Page B

as he entered. “This is a surprise. What brings you back to us so soon? I was under the impression that you had no interest in our activities here at the sanitarium.” She arranged the papers in front of her into a tidy pile, regarding him with obvious speculation.
    Hugo graced her with his most charming smile. “I can understand your confusion, Sister. I was confused myself, most confused indeed, to discover that my thoughts kept returning to this place. Indeed, not so much to this place as to one person in particular.”
    Sister Agnes’s steady gaze did not waver. “What person would that be, Lord Hugo? As I recall, you showed little interest in visiting Lady Kincaid.”
    “It is not Lady Kincaid who has been occupying my thoughts. This might sound strange, but it is Meggie Bloom who has weighed heavily on my mind—“
    Sister Agnes sat up very straight, her eyes boring sharply into his in a manner that Hugo found disconcerting. “Meggie Bloom? Why would Meggie Bloom weigh on your mind? Forgive me, my lord, but you do not even know the girl.”
    “No, Sister, I do not. And yet she left a profound impression on me.”
    “A profound impression. What type of profound impression, might I ask?”
    Hugo arranged his features into an expression of a man earnest in his intent, leaning slightly forward as he lowered his voice. “The story you told me of her tragic past touched me deeply. I have not been able to rid myself of thoughts of her ever since. Even in my sleep, she is there.” He sighed, but with only the slightest exhalation of breath, intended to convey wistful longing. “I would give my very soul to change her life.”
    “Just how would you go about that, Lord Hugo?” the nun said, sounding as worldly and skeptical as his own mother might, had he made the same pronouncement to her. “Perhaps you intend to offer her your protection?”
    “Sister, I believe you misunderstand me.” Hugo forced muted moral outrage into his voice. “If you think that I have come here to make a dishonorable proposition…”
    “I have no idea what sort of a proposition you have in mind,” the nun said succinctly. “I would find it rather odd for you to be coming to me with a suggestion of anything inappropriate. Therefore, I assume that you mean only the best for Meggie.”
    “Yes, of course,” he lied. “My intention is solely honorable.”
    “That is good, Lord Hugo. Then what is it you wish to do for Meggie that would change her life? She has everything she needs here. An offer of money would not affect her circumstances, as she has nothing to spend it on. Her needs are very simple.”
    “This has nothing to do with money,” Hugo said, annoyed that the nun was not behaving with the gratitude he’d expected. He was, after all, offering to take one of her charges off her hands. He bowed his head to conceal his frustration. “Or at least not in the way you might imagine.”
    “Ah. Then perhaps you wish to employ Meggie in some capacity in your household? I heard that you bought Lyden Hall not long ago. I assume you will be needing staff.”
    “Yes, that is true, but it isn’t that either. You see, the truth of the matter is that I—I wish to marry Miss Bloom.”
    He waited for the burst of indignation, the stream of protests, for which he had all sorts of arguments prepared.
    “You wish to marry Meggie Bloom,” the nun said without any show of emotion. “What makes you think Meggie might wish to marry you?”
    Hugo was taken aback. This conversation was definitely not going as he had anticipated. “Why, I can offer her my position, for one,” he said indignantly, as if that wasn’t obvious. “She would bear my name, as well as becoming mistress of Lyden Hall. I realize she is not like other women, but this does not worry me,” he added when the nun still didn’t reply. “I want only for Meggie to have the happiness she has been deprived of for so long. I am capable of looking after her very well,