Read Online The Invisible Husband by Cari Hislop - Free Book Online Page B

soon found
her feet and staggered with exaggerated difficulty towards him. He
took several steps back from the glass as she paused and turned her
attention to something in the direction of the front of the house.
She turned to him and pointed in that same direction before making
a large circle with an arm and made a charade sign for horses. She
looked around and ran to retrieve her bonnet and putting it on,
waved at him to follow her. What the devil was she doing now? She
was quickly out of sight causing his heart to curse him to hell as
it tried to follow her. He grabbed up his cloak and flung it around
his shoulders as he ran to his desk and pulled the hated eye patch
from the book. Tying it on, he cursed the wretched object and
pulled the ample hood down over his face and nearly forgot the key
to open the glass door into the garden. He hurried in the direction
his Eve had taken, his heart urging him to go faster. He turned the
corner of the house and stopped in horror. His mother’s coach was
sitting in the drive. The woman would have concocted another mad
scheme to ‘help’ him.

    He growled in
irritation as he looked for Eve and found her half way up the steps
helping a heavily pregnant woman. His footman catching sight of him
hurried across the gravel holding a letter. “My Lord, a Mr and Mrs
Roberts are requesting overnight lodging. They say they’re friends
of your Mother.” The footman held out the introductory letter and
bowed low as he waited for instructions. Adam scanned the letter in
his mother’s handwriting and handed it back.

    “It’s not even
noon. Why the devil do they have to stay here?”

    “I believe my
Lord, Mrs Roberts is finding the journey uncomfortable.”

    “Then she
shouldn’t have taken the journey.”

    “No my
Lord.”

    “Give them
refreshments and send them packing. I don’t trust my mother’s
friends. You may repeat that in their hearing.”

    “Very good my
Lord.” The footman’s words went unnoticed as Adam watched his
wife’s caped figure reach the door. He smiled as she turned to blow
him a kiss before turning away to say something to someone inside
the house. Curse his mother and her obnoxious friends; he’d given
her specific instructions to leave him alone for the first month of
his marriage. He should have known she’d send trouble.

    He swirled
around and headed back towards his study where he’d be able to
avoid having to speak with the couple. His key was in the glass
door as he heard Eve call out a few feet behind him, “Adam!” She
was out of breath. His heart froze his feet leaving him vulnerable
to temptation. “Adam…”

    “Eve?”

    “The footman
says you ordered Mr and Mrs Roberts to be sent packing after
refreshments.”
    “I did.”

    “Mrs Roberts is
heavily pregnant. She’s having pains.”

    “Then she can
give birth at the next Inn…or in my mother’s carriage.”

    “You can’t let
a woman give birth in a carriage; it would scare the horses. They’d
all end up in a ditch with broken necks.”

    “If the woman
is about to be brought to childbed, she should have stayed at
home.”

    “Adam…I think
we should let them stay the night.”

    “No. Something
about Mr Roberts gives me a bad feeling.”

    “You’re going
to make a pregnant woman suffer because her husband looks
unpleasant?”

    “I don’t like
him. I don’t want him roving through my house and I certainly don’t
want him anywhere near you.”

    “I admit he’s
rather sinister under that fake pleasant smile, but does that mean
his wife should suffer?”

    “She married
him!”

    “What if she
was forced to marry him?” The angry words struck his heart, making
it whimper in pain.

    Adam whispered
curses on his mother as his heart slumped in horror at the prospect
of his Eve thinking ill of him. “My gut feeling is not to trust
them. They come in my Mother’s coach that confirms I shouldn’t
trust them. They’re bound to be part of another mad scheme to