Read Online How to Capture a Countess (Duchess Diaries 1) by Karen Hawkins - Free Book Online Page A

now stood at the foot of the ladder, one large hand resting on a rung by her ankle. The glint of an emerald ring on his left hand was echoed by his tie pin.
    “Stay? Here on the ladder?”
    “Yes.” He stepped onto the lowest rung.
    “Oh no, that’s not necessary. I will come down and—”
    He took another step up, his shoulder brushing against her calf.
    Rose clung tightly in place. “Lord Sinclair, please! We cannot talk here, it’s— For heaven’s sake, we’re on a ladder! We can speak at dinner, perhaps, when we’re both—”
    “Oh, no. We will not put off this meeting one moment more.” He took another step up, his eyes locked with hers, every movement a threat.
    Her mouth dry, Rose took a step up the ladder, her chest so tight she could scarcely breathe. “Lord Sinclair, if you’ll return to the floor we can sit by the fire, which is much nicer than trying to balance while—”
    “No.” His expression was unyielding as he climbed another rung, his hands firmly gripping each side of the ladder about her knees and blocking any desperate exit she might wish to make.
    “That’s ridiculous!” She steeled her crazed heart,which was beating even harder now. “Lord Sinclair, please. This is most unusual.”
    He laughed, low and ugly. “Don’t put on your missish airs for me. You are a tease of the worst kind, and you made me the laughingstock of London.” The words crackled with fury.
    She wet her lips nervously. “You’re exaggerating.” Who would dare laugh at him?
    “No, I’m not.”
    She tried to calm her thoughts, which would have been much easier if he weren’t leaning against her legs, his blazing gaze far too close for her comfort. She didn’t dare look away, for it seemed that looking directly at him gave her some modicum of control.
    To discourage him from coming any closer, she slipped an arm through the closest rung and twisted a bit so that—should he dare climb any higher—her shoulder would be at a right angle to his chest. It was a small protection, but it was all she had while on the ladder. “Lord Sinclair, however you feel about what happened all those years ago, I doubt anyone—other than us—remembers it.”
    He couldn’t have looked more incredulous had she told him that she’d just taken a walk with a minotaur. “You cannot believe that.”
    “Who would bother to remember a few moments at some ball six years ago? I do, of course, since I made a fool of myself. I’m truly sorry that you were a victim of my very youthful and painfully impulsive nature. Icannot tell you how often I’ve wished to take back my actions of that night.”
    A flicker of surprise crossed his face. “You’re apologizing.”
    “Yes. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
    His jaw tightened. “An apology isn’t enough.”
    She met his gaze steadily. “Everything that happened that night was my fault, but there’s nothing I can do to change it now. The best thing we can do is to leave it in the past where it belongs, and move on.” When he merely continued to stare at her, she frowned. “Lord Sinclair, I wrote you a letter that very night and explained—”
    His laugh was full of derision. “Oh yes, your letter. You humiliated me in front of the biggest gossips of the ton and then sent me a few scrawled lines as if that made up for it.”
    “It was over by then, and—”
    “ Over? Miss Balfour, the scandal had just begun—and you just walked away, instead of staying to face the gossips. After you left they were like vultures, tearing my name apart a piece at a time.”
    “But you didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “That’s not what people believed. Everyone thought I was the aggressor in our little encounter and that it had shaken you so badly that you’d run off to the countryside, terrified by the thought of spending another moment in my presence.”
    “But that’s not why I left at all! I didn’t wish tocause you any more trouble, and I thought that was the best way to avoid