Read Online The Duchess Hunt by Jennifer Haymore - Free Book Online Page A

the luggage Esme had required.
Now, Mark and the servants assembled on the lawn in front of the house to wish
them safe travels. Slightly off to the side and behind the carriage, Sarah saw
her father, clutching his wide-brimmed hat to his side. He raised his free
hand, and with a curl of his fingers, gave her a little wave.
    “Good-bye, Papa,” she whispered.
    Simon must have given the signal because
the coach lurched into motion, and with that, Sarah felt the pull and then the
snap, as if some connection had been severed. She was free. Cut off from the
proverbial apron strings and letting them fly in the wind behind her as the
horses trotted away from the place that had been her home for so long.
    Sarah loved her father and hated to leave
him alone. Yet she was literally leaving him in the dust to explore a new
world, and she couldn’t prevent the excitement that welled from a place deep
within her.
    When they turned down a bend in the road
and she could no longer see Ironwood Park, she gave a soft sigh.
    Simon gazed at her, an expression of
understanding on his face. “We’re not even to the village yet.”
    “I know. It’s just… I know we’re going to
go straight through it. And,” she said breathlessly, “I can no longer remember
what’s on the other side.”
    “Really?” Esme stared at her with rounded
eyes.
    “When we first came here, I was only eight
years old,” she explained, “and I was so sad to be leaving our old house in
Manchester, where my mother died.”
    A deep crease appeared between Esme’s
brows. The young lady was one of those rare fortunate souls who had never lost
anyone she loved, so she was sensitive to discussing death or those who’d died
to begin with. Now, considering the fact that Esme’s mother was missing, Sarah
realized speaking of her own mother in the past tense wasn’t the wisest idea.
    “I pouted all the way from Manchester,”
she continued. “I was afraid of this new place, where I knew no one and had no
idea how my days would be spent.”
    “I suppose you never predicted being
attacked by a blackberry bush,” Simon said.
    Something in his smile made her breath
catch so hard that she had to look away before responding.
    “Not at all. The first few days here, my
father was very busy, so I was left to wander about.”
    Esme frowned. “Until a blackberry bush attacked
you?” Esme had never heard the story, and she had been too young to remember
the incident.
    “I fell deep into one of those bushes out
by the stream. I was essentially stuck, and fortunate that His Grace came by
before I caused myself permanent damage trying to climb out.” Though the little
scar remained on her knee, reminding her of that day every morning when she
pulled on her stockings.
    “And I took her back to the house for Mrs.
Hope’s salve, and she met our mother for the first time.”
    “… and Mama loved Sarah,” Esme finished.
She knew
that
part of the story.
    “Precisely,” Simon said.
    Sarah smiled, her heart fuzzy with the
memory, only to pang with the reality that the duchess was missing, and no one
knew where she was.
    She met Simon’s eyes, and his expression
grew serious. “I wonder what you will think of London.”
    Beside her, Esme gave a small shudder, but
she didn’t share her opinion of the noisy, smelly city with her brother.
    Esme was still painfully shy in Simon’s
presence. She had the same problem with Luke and Sam, but one simply couldn’t
be shy around Mark – the second youngest brother could coax the most reticent
turtle out of its shell. Of all her brothers, though, Esme was closest to Theo
– fewer years separated them, and they were near identical in temperament. Both
tended to keep to themselves and preferred academic pursuits over social ones.
    Esme wasn’t shy with Sarah, however, and
Sarah knew all too well what Esme thought of London. But if Esme wanted to
withhold that information from her brother, Sarah had no intention of breaking
her