Read Online Lord Cavendish Returns by Rebecca King - Free Book Online

untamed wildness that made her
want to keep her distance.
    Don’t be a goose , she mentally
chided herself. He is trying to go into
the church, not break out of prison, get a hold of
yourself .
    “ Can I help you?” She winced at the timidity of her voice and
straightened her spine before he turned to face her.
    Harper
turned toward the soft voice and felt something in his chest lurch
alarmingly at the sight of her. She was stunning; simply stunning.
By far the prettiest woman he had ever seen in his life. Her
beautiful blue eyes studied him thoughtfully and, had it not been
for the basket of flowers she held tightly in her fingers, he would
have thought she was an angel sent from heaven. From the distance
of the narrow church path, it was difficult to see how old she was
but he placed her roughly around four and twenty. Immediately, he
set to wonder if she was married but then discounted his curiosity
as ridiculous. Of course she was married; women like the vision
before him were usually snapped up as soon as they came of age. He
visibly jerked when he realised he was staring at her.
    “ I am looking for Arrabella,” he declared softly, and
fervently hoped it was her. His wish was granted when she
nodded.
    “ I am Arrabella. How can I help you?” Arrabella felt somewhat
at a loss to know what to think as she watched him walk toward her.
She was strangely disconcerted to have to tip her head backward to
look up at him; he was so tall, and so powerful that instinctively
wanted to take a step away from him. Although he had been cordial
and polite when he had spoken to her, she was fairly confident that
her initial impression had been correct; he was dangerous. There
was a stern air of command about him that made her feel almost
pinned to the spot by those wonderful green eyes of his, and
vaguely threatened by the sheer magnetism of him.
    Still,
she was no timid country miss and refused to be cowed by a handsome
stranger. If only she could ignore the faint flutter of awareness
that jumbled her thoughts, she would hopefully get through the next
few minutes without looking like a tongue-tied idiot.
    Harper
coughed to clear the obstruction in his throat and tried to
remember why the hell he was standing outside a church. He usually
only ever went near one to attend a funeral.
    “ Sorry,” he muttered and gave himself a mental shake as he
stopped in front of her. “Daydreaming.”
    Yes, about her, now get control of yourself you dunderhead or
she will think you are a total idiot, Harper silently chided himself.
    “ I understand from Robert and Angus Lawton that you are the
person who could help me in my quest,” Harper murmured quietly. For
some reason, he felt as though he had to be gentle around this
woman so that he didn’t scare her off. It was suddenly very
important that he not do anything to cause her alarm and make her
run away, and he was fairly certain that it had nothing to do with
his need for her help in locating the parish records he
needed.
    “ Quest?” Arrabella wondered what kind of quest the man before
her could be on that needed her input, but couldn’t find the words
to put together to ask him. Was she the one who had sighed? Heat
bloomed in her cheeks and she fervently hoped that he couldn’t read
what was going through her mind.
    “ Pardon?” Lord, she had the thickest
lashes he had ever seen on anyone.
    “ Pardon?” Arrabella blinked at him and tried to focus her
thoughts. He must think she was vacant. She gave herself a mental
shake, broke her gaze away from his and blinked carefully down at
the basket in her hand. Why was she carrying them? Oh, that was it;
she was going to change the flowers at the altar. She realised then
the man was still waiting for her to answer him. As much as she
tried to avoid it, she felt her gaze being drawn back to his
anyway, and soon found herself ensnared by that hypnotic green gaze
that seemed to rob her of all thought.
    As the
minutes ticked by, neither of