Read Online My Lord Hercules by Ava Stone - Free Book Online

that he might let her drive his bays again, that
he’d…
    A knock came at Miranda’s door.
“Miranda?” her sister, Alessandra called from the
corridor.
    “ Are you awake?” Penny
called a second later.
    “ She’s awake,” Nettie
grumbled, still eyeing Miranda as though she was a foreign species
of some sort.
    A moment later, Alessandra and Penny
filed into Miranda’s room. She grinned at her sisters. “I was
thinking about my gold dress today. What do you think?”
    It was then that she realized both of
her sisters wore expressions of concern. “Nettie,” Alessandra
began, “leave us please.”
    Good heavens. Something had clearly
happened. After Simeon, Papa, and Tessie, Miranda didn’t think she
could take any bad news.
    The maid nodded, then quietly exited
Miranda’s chambers without a word or a glance backward. As soon as
she was gone, Penny rushed toward Miranda. “We missed you terribly
last night. Were you all right?”
    They missed her terribly at the
Dewhurst soiree? Penny was certainly prone to theatrics. “I was
fine. What has happened?”
    Alessandra frowned. Her blue eyes
looked so troubled, Miranda’s heart lurched for her sister. Had
something happened with Puttenham? After all the years her sister
had spent waiting for him?
    “ Penny,” Miranda began,
though her eyes never left Alessandra, “I need to speak to
Alessandra.”
    “ No one is stopping you,”
Penny replied.
    No one except Penny, who couldn’t be
trusted with secrets. “Penny!” Miranda shifted her gaze to her
little sister. “I need to speak to Alessandra. Alone.”
      A petulant scowl
settled on Penny’s face. “Why can’t I stay?”
    “ Because you don’t know how
to hold your tongue. Look at everything that spilled from your
mouth in front of Lady St. Austell yesterday.”
    “ I can hold my tongue,”
Penny insisted. “I didn’t tell Lady St. Austell that you had to
stay in your chambers last night when we saw her at the
Dewhursts’.”
     “ You saw Harry’s
sister?” Miranda asked.
    “ Harry?” Alessandra and
Penny asked in unison as both sisters’ brows rose in mild
surprise.
    Heat rushed to Miranda’s face. Why
shouldn’t she call him Harry, though? He was going to be her
husband and that was what his family called him. “I’ve heard you
call Puttenham ‘George’ often enough,” she said to her older
sister.
    A ghost of a smile settled on
Alessandra’s face. “Does that mean Penny’s right? Your Lord
Harrison does plan to offer for you?”
    Miranda couldn’t help but smile back.
“Unless he’s changed his mind.”
    “ Oh!” Penny squealed at the
same time Alessandra pulled Miranda into her embrace.
    Miranda squeezed her sister in return.
Then she pulled back from Alessandra and said, “Neither of you can
breathe a word of this until Harry can speak with
Devlin.”
    Miranda and Alessandra both turned
their focus on Penny, whose mouth dropped open in sisterly outrage.
“I said I can hold my tongue. There’s no need for both of you to
look at me so.”
    Alessandra slid her arm around their
younger sister's shoulders. “Of course you can,” she soothed. “And
now we can focus on you, Penny. Is there a fellow who’s caught your
interest during the Little Season?”
    Penny flushed, which was something
considering her olive complexion. Miranda narrowed her eyes on her
little sister. Was it possible Penny had found a gentleman who had
caught her attention? If so, then she certainly was capable of
holding her tongue. “I didn’t tell anyone—” she shrugged “—well,
other than Alessandra what I overheard Lady St. Austell saying to
Lady Gifford last night.”
    There was something in her sister’s
tone that made dread wash over Miranda. “Lady St. Austell said
something alarming?”
    Penny looked from Miranda to
Alessandra and back. “You didn’t dress up like a man and sneak
inside some gambling establishment, did you?”
    Miranda’s mouth fell open. Harry told
her he