Read Online The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley - Free Book Online

would think of dressing up at home. It just isn’t done.”
    “I see,” Rebecca replied, feeling very stupid and very foreign.
    “Anyway, your ignorance doesn’t seem to have done you any harm,” Steve continued in her silence. “It’s solicited an open-ended invitation to stay here with him.”
    James Waugh appeared and sauntered over to them. “Rebecca, I was just going to ask you, are you busy tonight? I thought maybe we could have a bite to eat and get to know each other a little better. We have our first scene tomorrow morning and it’s rather—how would one put it—up close and personal.” He gave her a cheeky grin.
    “Actually, I was going to have an early night,” she replied.
    “I’m sure Graham can come and collect you afterward, so that you can still do that.”
    “I’d . . . rather not. The press . . .”
    “All gone, as of this morning,” James confirmed. “And you really can’t let all that celebrity business get in the way of your performance, can you?”
    “No. Okay,” Rebecca conceded finally, not wishing to appear aloof.
    “Good.” James smiled. “I’ll see you at eight at the hotel. And don’t worry, I’ll tell them to find us a discreet table.”
    As James left, Steve’s eyes twinkled at Rebecca. “Think you’ve made a hit there too. Watch him, he’s got a reputation for being a naughty boy.”
    “I will. Thanks, Steve.” She walked off, her head held high.
    Back upstairs in her bedroom, there was a knock on the door.
    “Come in.”
    It was Mrs. Trevathan. “Sorry to bother you, Rebecca, but I hear that you’ve met his lordship.”
    “Yes, I have,” Rebecca murmured as she continued hanging her few items of clothing in the old mahogany wardrobe.
    “Here, let me do that,” said Mrs. Trevathan.
    “No, it’s fine, I—”
    “Sit yourself down and we can talk as I sort you out.”
    Rebecca acquiesced and perched on the end of the bed as Mrs. Trevathan put away the remaining contents of her case.
    “You really haven’t brought much with you, have you, dear?” she commented. “Anyway I came to say that his lordship has invited you to join him for dinner tonight. He always eats at eight p.m. sharp.”
    “Oh no—I’m afraid I can’t. I have a prior engagement.”
    “I see. Well now, his lordship will be disappointed. And after his being so kind as to have you here.”
    Rebecca could hear the disapproval in the housekeeper’s voice. “Please apologize to him for me, and tell him I’d be delighted to join him any other night,” she said placatingly.
    “I will. He really doesn’t enjoy people swarming all over his house. His lordship prefers peace, and lots of it. But needs must when the devil drives, I suppose.”
    “Pardon me?”
    “I mean, dear, he needs the money from the film to keep the house going,” Mrs. Trevathan said, clarifying her previous statement.
    “I see. Does Lord Anthony have a family?” she inquired tentatively.
    “No, he doesn’t.”
    “So he lives alone here?”
    “Yes. Right, then, I’ll be seeing you in the morning. Bright and early, I hear. Don’t you be getting home too late tonight, now, will you, dear? You need to be fresh for tomorrow.”
    “I won’t, I promise. Thanks, Mrs. Trevathan.” Rebecca knew the older woman was mothering her, and it was a comforting feeling.
    Her early childhood was not a time Rebecca cared to go back to. Very few people, not even her agent, knew the truth of her past. Although one evening, when Jack and she had taken a short vacation in an autumnal, windswept Nantucket, she had told him the truth.
    He had held her as she’d cried, tenderly wiping the tears from her eyes.
    Rebecca shook her head and sighed. She had felt truly loved by Jack then. She stood up and paced across the creaking floorboards, the memory so at odds with more recent times when he’d been high, incoherent and aggressive. Not for the first time, she wished with all her heart that they were just Mr. and Mrs.