Read Online Love in Disguise by Nina Coombs Pykare - Free Book Online

run away.”
    The Earl shrugged. “Perhaps he enjoys my company. Some people do.”
    Fancy glanced at him sharply, but he was regarding her quite urbanely. If he had laughed in that sardonic way of his or if he had been angrily insulting, she could have let loose her own anger. But how could she round on a man who now was making himself so affable?
    As she watched he settled into a chair and stretched his long, well-clad legs comfortably. For a moment Fancy hesitated. Then she, too, seated herself.
    For long moments there was silence in the room. The Earl seemed extremely comfortable. He looked around him with interest. “Old Cavendish did you up well. I rather imagine this is a Robert Adam house.”
    Fancy looked at him in surprise. Whatever was the man talking about now?
    “Robert Adam,” said the Earl, as though patiently instructing a child, “was a great architect of the last century. He built a great many houses, including mine. The detail of the carving in the panel over the fireplace, for instance, is quite reminiscent of mine. The design is different but similar. I expect the same craftsman did them both. Note the delicacy of the treatment and the rare beauty of the carving.”
    For the first time Fancy really looked at the carving in the panel over the fireplace. What a strange man the Earl was. Imagine a lord taking an interest in architecture. She would never have believed it. It seemed that there was much more to the Earl of Morgane than appeared on the surface.
    He gazed up at the ceiling. “Yes, I like this very much. Adam always had a good eye for ceilings. Note how the shape of the ceiling is picked up in the carpet. I believe his ceilings are his most outstanding contribution to the decorative arts.”
    He stared upward for another long moment. “And I expect Zucchi did the paintings. And that particular way of tinting in pale blue, green, and mauve to form a soft background for the white relief, that was an Adam innovation. Old Cavendish knew enough to leave beautiful things alone - at least.”
    Fancy, who had been gazing up at the ceiling with something akin to awe, felt herself bristling up at this reference to her cousin. “I’ll thank you not to speak unkindly of the dead.”
    The Earl raised a dark eyebrow. “A thousand pardons, my dear Miss Harper. I was not aware that you harbored such tender feelings for your kinsman.”
    There was something in the Earl’s voice that seemed to carry much more meaning than his words. It was to that something that Fancy responded. “I do not have ‘tender’ feelings for him,” she replied rather tartly. “I never knew him.”
    The Earl made no reply to this but he looked plainly unconvinced.
    “I do not know why he gave me this house, but he did. And I intend to live here - for a long time,” she added defiantly.
    Morgane merely nodded in agreement. “I trust you will have sense enough not to ruin the place with the addition of nouveau riche embellishments.’’
    Fancy, to whom even the idea of doing such seemed ridiculous, merely shrugged. “I have not yet decided if I shall change the decorations. I merely wanted to get nicely settled before the season began.”
    The Earl smiled lazily. “An admirable goal certainly and one you seem to have attained.” He looked around the drawing room with interested eyes. “Yes, I like this room. I trust the rest of the house is correspondingly well done.”
    “I have no training in architecture,” said Fancy stiffly. “But I believe it is. I, at least, find it quite a lovely house.”
    “So I should imagine,” agreed the Earl. “It must have been something of a surprise to one of your - background.” The Earl’s eyes watched her intently, almost as though waiting for an angry reaction.
    Fancy took a deep breath. “Yes, it was,” she replied calmly. “Though Papa and Mama did not exactly reside in hovels, we assuredly never had anything half so grand. At least Mama and I didn’t.Of course, when