Read Online Enchanted Rendezvous: A Tangled Hearts Romance by Rebecca Ward - Free Book Online

continued, “Grigg said that you were in the stillroom, Lady Marcham. He was going to announce me, but then he was called away to the kitchen—was I too forward? Perhaps I should have waited.”
    “Of course you should not have waited. You know that you are always welcome here.” Lady Marcham glided forward to kiss the young woman’s pale cheek. “Cecily, this is Delinda Howard.”
    After her meeting with the colonel Cecily had assumed that any child of his would have to be a griffin. Yet there was no hardness in Delinda, who smiled shyly and said in her breathless way, “I am so glad to meet you, Miss Vervain. You are a heroine—how exciting to be rescued in such a way, and by an unknown rider, too.”
    “Did Colonel Howard tell you that I was heroic?”
    Cecily could not keep the wry note from her voice, and Delinda looked flustered.
    “Oh, no. That is to say, Papa does not confide in me—I cannot blame him, for I am such a goose-cap. Mr. Montworthy told me of your adventure.”
    A faint blush stained Delinda’s cheeks. Her eyes sparkled, and she smiled. For an instant the girl looked almost pretty. Then she ducked her head and murmured, “I fear I have taken too much of your time. I must go now.”
    “Stay and lunch with us,” Lady Marcham invited kindly.
    “Oh, I cannot. I was merely in the neighborhood and wished to make Miss Vervain’s acquaintance. I could not possibly—oh!”
    Cecily followed the direction of Delinda’s gaze and saw that the dancing crystals in the window framed a horseman who was cantering toward the house. “It is Mr. Montworthy,” the colonel’s daughter breathed.
    His appearance was hardly a surprise. Since Cecily’s arrival, Montworthy had been a frequent visitor at Marcham Place. During those visits he ogled Cecily, brought her bouquets and fruit from his father’s gardens, and paid her many compliments. Irked by the Corinthian’s assumption that she lived for his attentions, Cecily had done her best to discourage him, but nothing she said even dented the young man’s good opinion of himself.
    Lady Marcham looked resigned. “Let us receive James in the cowslip room,” she said. “Ring for Grigg, Cecily. And, Delinda, stay at least to take some refreshment.”
    “I—that is, I did not plan—” The colonel’s daughter broke off, and Cecily saw that her bosom was rising and falling at an alarming rate.
    “Are you feeling unwell?” she asked, anxiously.
    Delinda shook her head and hurried to follow Lady Marcham out of the stillroom. She said not another word until they had reached the cowslip room, but as Montworthy strode in, she paled visibly.
    The Corinthian did not notice Delinda’s agitation. After bowing over Lady Marcham’s hand and greeting Delinda, he crossed the room to the window where Cecily stood and leveled a speaking look at her. “I’ve waited for this hour,” he began.
    “What hour is that?”
    Lord Brandon had sauntered into the cowslip room, and as usual, his appearance was worth noting. He had changed yet again and now sported doeskin breeches and glossy Hessians, with an embroidered yellow waistcoat.
    Contemptuously Montworthy looked down his handsome nose. “Been taking a nap, Brandon?”
    “Wish I was,” the duke’s son replied. “It’s been an exhaustin’ mornin’. My fool of a groom said that my horse needed exercisin’, so I took Ebony through his paces.”
    Try as she would, Cecily could not equate the skilled rider she had seen earlier with the dandy before her. “We saw you galloping through the meadow,” she began.
    Hooded eyes turned sleepily toward her. “The brute ran off with me,” his lordship complained. “I don’t feel at all the thing, ’pon my honor, I don’t. I was dragged over hill and dale.”
    “When Aunt Emerald and I saw you,” Cecily persisted, “you looked very much in control of your horse.”
    “I assure you, Miss Vervant, I was in great distress.”
    He began to perambulate toward a chair,