Read Online Once and Always by Judith McNaught - Free Book Online Page B

with them until Andrew returned, but that solution wasn’t a very good one. Among other things, if Andrew returned and found me staying with them, well, he would have been furious.”
    “With you?” his grace asked, frowning in annoyance at poor Andrew.
    “No, with his mother, for not insisting that I stay with her instead.”
    “Oh,” he said, but even though her explanation completely vindicated Andrew of any possible blame, Charles seemed somewhat depressed by it. “The man sounds like a countrified paragon of virtue,” he muttered.
    “You will like him very much,” Victoria predicted, smiling. “He will come here to bring me home, you’ll see.”
    Charles patted her hand. “Let’s forget about Andrew and be glad you’re here in England. Now, tell me how you like it thus far...”
    Victoria told him she liked what she had seen very much, and Charles responded by describing the life he had planned for her here. To begin with, he wanted her to have a new wardrobe and a trained lady’s maid to assist her. Victoria was about to refuse when she caught sight of the dark, forbidding figure striding toward the table with the silent sureness of a dangerous savage, his buckskin breeches molding his muscular legs and thighs, his white shirt open at his tanned throat. This morning, he seemed even taller than she’d thought yesterday, lean and superbly fit. His thick black hair was slightly curly, his nose straight, his stern mouth finely chiseled. In fact, if it weren’t for the arrogant authority stamped in his rugged jawline and the cynicism in his cold green eyes, Victoria would have thought him almost breathtakingly handsome.
    “Jason!” Charles said heartily. “Allow me to properly present you to Victoria. Jason is my nephew,” he added to Victoria.
    Nephew! She’d hoped he might only be a visitor, but he was a relative who probably lived with Charles, she realized now. The knowledge made Victoria feel slightly ill at the same time that her pride forced her to lift her chin and calmly meet Jason’s ruthless stare. Acknowledging the brief introduction with a curt nod, he seated himself across from her and looked at O’Malley. “Is it too much to hope that there is any food left?”
    The footman quailed visibly. “I—no, my lord. There isn’t. That is, there’s enough to eat, but it may not be quite warm enough. I’ll go down to the kitchens at once and have cook fix something fresh and hot.” He rushed out.
    “Jason,” Charles said, “I’ve just been suggesting to Victoria that she ought to have a suitable lady’s maid and a wardrobe more appropriate to—”
    “No,” Jason said flatly.
    Victoria’s urge to flee promptly overpowered every other instinct. “If you’ll excuse me, Uncle Charles,” she said, “I—I have some things to do.”
    Charles shot her a grateful, apologetic look and politely stood up as she arose, but his obnoxious nephew merely lounged back in his chair, observing her retreat with bored distaste.
    “None of this is Victoria’s fault,” Charles began as the footmen started to close the doors behind Victoria. “You must understand that.”
    “Really?” Jason drawled sarcastically. “And does that whining little beggar understand that this is my house and I don’t want her here?”
    The doors closed behind her, but Victoria had already heard enough.
A beggar! A whining beggar!
Humiliation washed over her in sickening waves as she fled blindly down the hall. Apparently, Charles had invited her here without his nephew’s consent.
    Victoria’s face was pale but set as she walked into her room and opened her trunk.
    Back in the dining room, Charles was pleading with the hardened cynic across from him. “Jason, you don’t understand—”
    “You brought her to England,” Jason snapped. “Since you want her here so badly, take her to London to live with you.”
    “I can’t do that!” Charles argued vehemently. “She’s not ready to face the
ton
yet.