Read Online The Toplofty Lord Thorpe by Kasey Michaels - Free Book Online Page B

longer neck. All the better for tying a neat cravat, what?”
    â€œWill you be putting a notice in the papers—about the house party, I mean,” Lucy asked quickly, as a deep red flush crept up his lordship’s neck. “I saw the announcement that Lady Cynthia’s father inserted this morning of your engagement coming to an end.”
    Bringing up that particular betrayal dampened Thorpe’s rage and sent him plummeting forthwith back into melancholy. His heart was not broken—he couldn’t and wouldn’t deceive himself on that head—but his pride had taken a mighty blow with Lady Cynthia’s defection. A notice of a house party with Miss Lucy Gladwin as his female guest would go a long way in getting some of his own back—considering his former fiancée’s outrage at the mere mention of Lucy’s name. “I’ll see to it that Parker sends it off at once,” he told her, his small smile going unnoticed by everyone except Rachel, who missed little.
    Once Lord Thorpe had taken his leave and Lucy and Dexter had gone off to put their heads together planning strategy like two generals about to take to the battlefield—or two nursery brats consulting over their toy soldiers—Rachel retired to her room to pen a letter to her brother. Sir Hale may have put her in charge of his volatile daughter, but she wasn’t aboutto bear the brunt of this one on her own. Oh no, brother Hale was to be ordered to send in reinforcements on this one. If he couldn’t be trusted to keep Lucy from the briers, at least Rachel wasn’t going to be the only one to take the blame. After all, the wisest general knew it paid to cover her flanks!

CHAPTER FIVE
    T HE MORNING DAWNED bright and clear, a perfect day for traveling. By nine of the clock four carriages were well on their way north of London, loaded top, back, and sides with strapped-on luggage. Postilions rode their leaders proudly while outriders accompanied the main coach. One many-caped exquisite, controlling his showy steed with some difficulty, rode ahead of the others, unwilling to pass the time riding inside the crowded conveyance.
    â€œI do so admire your carriage, my lord,” Lucy, looking quite ravishing in her peacock-blue ermine-trimmed cloak, told her host—who was just then sulking in his corner of the seat opposite. “It is ever so much more comfortable than the public coach.”
    â€œYou speak from experience?” the earl asked, already knowing the answer—for was there anything this Gladwin chit had not done on a dare or for a lark?
    Lucy grinned in remembrance. “Indeed, yes. I was outrunning my governess at the time, you see. Papa had utterly deserted me for Newmarket and I was determined to follow.”
    â€œIndeed,” Thorpe repeated repressively. “And did you, I sincerely hope, learn anything from the experience?”
    Her blue eyes fairly dancing in her head, Lucy answered promptly, “Oh yes, my lord. I learned never, never to sit beside a fat person!”
    â€œThat isn’t funny,” the soberly dressed young man seated beside Lord Thorpe responded dampeningly. “You could have been robbed, or kidnapped, or worse.”
    â€œWorse, Mr. Rutherford?” Lucy said tauntingly. “You mean I could have been ravished, for instance?” She watched with some amusement as a deep flush appeared in Mr. Parker Rutherford’s sallow cheeks. “Why, Mr. Rutherford, I do believe you have a dirty mind.”
    â€œLeave off, brat,” Thorpe muttered desultorily. “Much as it pains me to say it, my cousin Parker is not up to your weight. Now stop trying to shock us all with your exploits and your wayward tongue or I shall ship you back to ride with your aunt.”
    Lucy squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. “I was only twelve at the time,” she remarked sulkily, by way of excuse.
    â€œAnd are still acting it a decade