Read Online Those Endearing Young Charms by Marion Chesney - Free Book Online

carefully and patiently, forcing himself not to hurry in case he lost the track, cursing the clammy heaviness of the mist.
    He almost lost the tracks at the turning in the road, but he finally picked up the trail again. A little way down a side road, the dog that had frightened Emily made a rush for his boots.
    The earl stood stock-still. "Go away, you miserable cur," he said evenly, "or I'll kick you to death."
    The dog bared its teeth in a yellow, ingratiating leer and slunk off into the bushes.
    The earl held the lantern high, noticing that the footsteps in the mud were deeply indented at the toe.
    The dog must have frightened Emily and she must have started to run.
    "Good," he thought nastily. "Serves her right, the ungrateful jade."
    He carefully made his way along the road, following the erratic trail of footsteps which went at some points from one side of the road to the other.
    He came to the five-barred gate. Again, he held the lantern high, and then, with an exclamation of impatience, shone the light over the gate, noticing that the footsteps went straight out across the ploughed field on the other side.
    He swung himself lightly over the gate. He was halfway across the field when he came upon one of Emily's slippers. He picked it up. It was a poor, tattered, muddy wreck and there was a faint trace of blood in the silk.
    "She must be demented," he muttered, completely unable to understand why he had engendered such mad terror in anyone.
    At the far end of the field, tussocky dry grass led into a pine wood. He searched this way and that for some clue as to which direction she had taken. He did not want to call out for fear she would go into hiding. His boots making no sound on the floor of pine needles in the wood, he continued to search, noticing that the mist had thinned and that faint silver moonlight was beginning to penetrate the wood.
    He found her in a little glade.

    He stood very still at the edge, thinking that she looked like a princess in a fairy tale.
    She was lying in the grass with one arm thrown out. The moonlight illuminated the moving and shifting mist and her hair, cascading about her face, had turned to silver.
    Then he noticed the way the rough grass sparkled like marcasite under the moon.
    Frost.
    He found himself wondering in a numb, detached kind of way whether she was dead.
    The earl walked lightly across the glade and knelt down beside Emily. She was fast asleep with exhaustion. He was moved to a feeling of pity, but hard on the heels of his pity came the thought, If she has contracted the ague, then she might die and I will be free.
    But that unworthy thought went as quickly as it had come.
    He bent and picked her up in his arms. She opened her eyes and let out a low moan of terror.
    "It is I," he said grimly. "Devenham."
    Emily struggled weakly in his arms, but he paid no attention. He strode back the way he had come, the lantern dangling from one hand, as he cradled Emily's body in his arms. He did not need to use a lantern to light the way. The mist had lifted and, besides, he felt he knew every inch of the muddy track by heart.
    Emily was asleep again. Again he felt pity for her, but fought it down. His sole aim was to get her into the inn without being observed.
    Emily found herself being shaken roughly awake. They were outside the arch leading to the inn courtyard.
    "Stand there," said the earl, "until I return for you. If you run away again, I will find you and _beat_
    you. Do I make myself plain?"
    Emily nodded, her eyes wide with fear.
    "Good!"
    He strode off into the courtyard. Emily leaned her head against the rough stone wall. Her body felt strange and light, and the sounds from the inn seemed to reach her ears from over a very long distance.
    The earl came back. In his hand he held a rough sack.
    "Climb in," he ordered.
    "Why?" said Emily, in sudden terror. "I know! You are going to throw me in the river."
    "Much as I would like to," he said between his teeth, "I am not. In