Read Online The Revenge of Lord Eberlin by Julia London - Free Book Online

but you have a visitor.”
    Tobin glanced over his shoulder at Carlson. “Is it MacKenzie? Send him in.”
    “It is Lady Ashwood.”
    Tobin stilled.
    Lord Horncastle whistled low. “Lady Ashwood,” he said, grinning, “is as fine a specimen of feminine beauty as I have been blessed to see. There are some who think her charlatan of a cousin is the fairer of the two, but my vote is with Lady Ashwood.”
    “Lady Ashwood, here?” Sibley said, frowning. “There’s daring for you.”
    Tobin hardly knew what he would name it. He told Carlson, “You may inform Lady Ashwood that I am indisposed at present.”
    Bolge laughed heartily. “I should rejoice in the day that I might have the luxury of sending a comely woman away.”
    “What news from Charity?” Tobin asked Bolge, changing the subject. He took a seat as Bolge filled him in on his visit with Tobin’s sister.
    But a moment later, Carlson returned.
    “What now?” Tobin asked impatiently.
    “I beg your pardon sir, but the lady refuses to leave.”
    Bolge howled with delight at that; Horncastle and Sibley looked shocked. It was scandalous enough for a lady to call on a gentleman, but it was unheard of that she would refuse to leave.
    “How can she refuse?” Tobin asked, chuckling at Bolge’s reaction. “I do not wish to receive her.”
    “She asks that I tell you she will reside in the mainfoyer if she must, but she will not leave until you face her like a gentleman ought to face a lady.”
    Bolge clapped Horncastle on the back. “ That’s cheek for you!” he crowed.
    “Irish women!” Horncastle blustered. “They could learn a thing or two about proper feminine behavior, eh?”
    Tobin thought rather that the Irish women could teach Horncastle a thing or two about daring. He sighed. He really had no patience for this—he was in a good mood, ready for a bit of gaming and a good supper. “Excuse me, gentlemen. This should take but a moment.”
    They laughed. “God in heaven, I’ll go in your stead if you find it so painful!” Bolge cheerfully called after him.
    As Tobin went out, his congenial smile faded quickly. He strode down the corridor to the foyer, intent on ushering her out like a barn cat. But as the white marble foyer came into view, he saw her standing in the middle of the circle with the flourished black T P. She looked almost ethereal in her azure cloak and hood. It was wet still; the rain had worsened. Behind her, the door was standing open. Tobin walked to the door and shut it, then turned around to look at her.
    The hood of her cloak framed her lovely face. She glanced down as if to gather herself, and dark lashes stood starkly against the pale color of her skin. A fleetingimage of Lily lying nude in a bed, her eyes closed just like that, scudded across Tobin’s mind.
    He clasped his hands behind his back and squeezed them hard against such thoughts. “I do not wish to receive you, Lily. Why, then, are you still here?”
    “Yes, your butler made it quite clear that you do not wish to receive me, but I hardly care,” she said. “For I do not intend to eat kippers again.”
    Prepared to do battle as he was, the reference to kippers threw him. “Pardon?”
    “You heard me,” she said heatedly and swept her hood from her head as she advanced on him. There was no mistaking her ire or her disdain, which Tobin found ironic, given what she had done to him. She stopped before him, her head tilted back. “I think that in your zeal to see me brought low, you have forgotten that I do not live alone at Ashwood. There are many other souls who depend on it, and when you punish me, you punish them all. When you attempt to starve me, you starve them —men and women and children with no crime against you!”
    Her eyes shimmered, and Tobin smiled in spite of himself. “I am not starving anyone.”
    “Oh, no? Then I suppose you are feeding your own gullet with all the fish,” she exclaimed heatedly, gesturing wildly at him.
    “Aha,” he