Read Online How to Lose a Bride in One Night by Sophie Jordan - Free Book Online

gaze on her, eyeing with disapproval the way she laughed at something Luca said as he pointed into a pen full of pigs waiting to be auctioned.
    He stopped beside the ramshackle pen. “Anna,” he greeted tersely.
    She turned her head at the sound of his voice.
    “Oh, hello, Mr. Crawford. Fine day for a fair, is it not?”
    He ground his teeth, certain he heard snideness in her comment. “What are you doing up and about from bed?”
    “Mirela said it was perfectly safe as long as I was carried. Luca here graciously offered to let me see some of the fair and get a bit of fresh air.”
    Owen eyed the brute’s hands on her. One of his large paws cupped her beneath the legs, holding her carefully at her splinted leg. The other was wrapped around her back.
    “If you insist on leaving your bed—”
    “Mirela said it would be fine.” Her bright brown eyes sparked defiantly.
    He ignored her interruption. “You should be in a cart and not carried about. You could still jostle your leg.”
    “I’m in good hands with Luca.” She smiled at Owen as if he were a child and she the tolerant parent. The little minx. She knew he was annoyed, and she was enjoying it.
    Luca adjusted her in his arms, and his hands moved a little too much against her back for Owen’s liking. His own hands opened and closed at his sides.
    Anna stared at him patiently, those amazing eyes of hers blinking with innocence.
    Luca looked bored. “Come. The pie eating contest is about to start.”
    Owen watched as they strolled away, Anna’s head bobbing among the villagers as she was carried.
    “The sunlight will do her some good.” Once again, Mirela appeared at his side with no warning. He looked down at her, a surge of resentment flaring inside him.
    “That’s what I hear.”
    A mocking smile curved her wrinkled lips. “Should have taken her about the fair yourself.”
    He crossed his arms, losing sight of Luca and Anna as they became lost in the throng of people waiting for the pie eating spectacle.
    “I have no wish to carry her around the fair.”
    Mirela gave a low, cackling laugh and walked away, leaving him standing by himself.
    A nnalise laughed with delight as a scrawny boy of no more than ten years was declared the winner of the contest and presented a ribbon. His mother appeared, wiping pie from his face fondly with her apron, looking every bit as proud as the boy himself.
    Luca’s voice rumbled beside her ear. “What would you like to see next, Anna?”
    She glanced around, eyeing the happy chaos, in the guise of deciding where to go next, but it was just a ruse. She was really looking for Owen. He’d looked decidedly unhappy to see her up and about, which only puzzled her. Why should he care if someone else was kind enough to escort her around the fair? It was no imposition on him.
    Then she saw him, pushing a cart in her direction, a decidedly resolute look in his eyes, his handsome features implacable.
    He stopped the cart before them. Releasing the handles, he rounded the cart and walked toward her. “In you go.”
    Annalise blinked and looked from the cart to Owen.
    At her hesitation, he sighed and gestured at it. “This is far safer for your leg than being carried about.”
    She opened her mouth to insist she was fine, but before she had the chance, Luca was lowering her to the blanket-lined cart. She pressed her lips shut, feeling very much like a child. An invalid . A bitter taste filled her mouth. Granted, a broken leg inhibited her and made asserting her independence somewhat of a challenge, but this . . . being deposited in a cart with no thought to her wishes, no care for what she wanted, it rankled.
    Crossing her arms, she glared up at Owen. “I’m not going back to the wagon if that’s what you’re thinking.” She looked at Luca again, ready to suggest they move along to admire the display of horseflesh up for auction.
    Suddenly the cart was moving. She was being rolled away and leaving Luca behind.
    She heard