Read Online The Lady’s Secret by Joanna Chambers - Free Book Online

to bear working as his valet then.”
    “No.”
    Shouldn’t that make her ecstatically happy?
    “Have you heard from Harry?” Georgy asked, changing the subject.
    “Max had a letter yesterday,” Lily said. “But it didn’t say much. Just that he was still going from village to village.” She paused and gave Georgy a sympathetic look. “He’s sure to find something sooner or later.”
    Georgy smiled at her friend, appreciating her pretended confidence. The truth was Lily would be as astonished as Georgy if Harry found anything in Yorkshire.
    “Unless you find something at Dunsmore’s house first,” Lily added.
    “Fingers crossed,” Georgy said.
    They shared a look, and then Lily patted her arm. “Well, if it’s there to be found, you’ll find it, George, I’m quite cert—”
    She broke off, staring straight ahead. Georgy followed her arrested gaze to see none other than Sir Nigel Agnew walking towards them, a young lady at his side. A respectable young lady. Two older ladies walked behind. Chaperoning. Georgy glanced at Lily, just in time to see her mask her dismayed reaction.
    Sir Nigel looked their way, a horror-stricken expression crossing his face.
    Lily turned her head to look at Georgy squarely and gave her a dazzling smile. “Don’t say anything. Just pretend to be besotted with me.”
    And so they walked past Sir Nigel and his companion, smiling and laughing and talking with utter absorption, and completely ignoring Lily’s lover. Georgy kissed Lily’s hand and looked at her rather as she imagined a dog might look at a bone. They kept the charade up long after they’d passed Sir Nigel. Georgy paid Lily outrageous compliments, prompting her to laugh in a merry way that suggested she hadn’t a care in the world. When Lily dropped her handkerchief and it fell behind a fence, Georgy vaulted the fence to retrieve it, a feat of derring-do that made Lily’s eyes sparkle. She handed the errant handkerchief over with a bow and flashed a wicked smile.
    “My word, George,” Lily laughed. “You would turn any girl’s head, I declare. You are quite wasted as a girl.”
    Georgy chuckled. “I should be a chap, shouldn’t I? But I lack one very important thing. Were you to marry me, I think you would be very disappointed on our wedding night.”
    “Now, it must have been a man who told you that,” Lily said archly. They both laughed again and Lily glanced down the path. “He’s looking,” she whispered. And then she leaned forward and kissed Georgy.
    Her lips were cool and sweet and closed. Her hands were on Georgy’s shoulders and Georgy’s on her waist. They stood, their lips clinging for a full minute. They must look, Georgy imagined, as though they were truly in love. A woman tutted at their boldness as she walked past, causing a muffled giggle to erupt from Lily’s lips and gust against her own.
    It was only when Georgy lifted her head up that she saw there was another spectator to their kiss: a dark-haired man in a high perch phaeton with a fashionable beauty sitting at his side. A dark-haired man in a cream waistcoat.
    Lord Harland.
     
    Their eyes met for only a moment as his phaeton passed, but Nathan knew that Fellowes had seen him.
    Cousin George?
    Cousin George, my arse!
    Were they lovers? Fellowes and Lily Hawkins?
    He’d first spotted them minutes before the kiss and had slowed his horses to a walk. The lovely Mrs. Gordon—his forgotten passenger—had asked what he was doing and he’d muttered something about enjoying the scenery.
    He’d seen Lily Hawkins first. She was wearing a little frippery bit of hat that did nothing to hide those glorious raven tresses, and she was smiling and laughing in a dazzling way, lit up, as though she was on-stage. It was several moments before he noticed who she was with. A slender man, of about her own height, quite anonymous from the back. The man had leapt over the fence with impressive athleticism to recover her handkerchief. It was only