Read Online To Tame A Countess (Properly Spanked Book 2) by Annabel Joseph - Free Book Online

there,” he said over his shoulder. “Are you doing all right?”
    “Yes, I’m fine.”
Mostly.
    Josephine could see the rooftop of the house now, through some of the trees. He had said they had a far way to walk, but she knew she had walked farther this morning. She must have walked in circles several times. How lowering. What an absolute failure this day had been.
    Lord Warren held out his hand. “Stop.”
    She waited and listened, scratching her arm where a branch had scraped it. Oh, for a bath and her bed. She heard rustling along another path, and a low, muttered oath. Lord Warren turned toward the sound and she turned too, and then both of them gave a start. Lord Baxter stood not twenty feet away, looking distressed and disheveled. As soon as he saw her, his face registered relief. He crashed through the brush to join them.
    “My dear girl, where have you been? I sent to speak with you this morning, and the servants informed me you were nowhere to be found.”
    At some point in this speech, Lord Warren had moved closer, and in front of her. Lord Baxter seemed to notice him for the first time, taking in his entire appearance, including the satchels he carried in his hand. Her guardian’s expression changed.
    “What, running away together?” He looked specifically at Lord Warren. “I thought you were not of a mind to wed.” He turned and gave her the same sharp scrutiny. His eyes narrowed. “Have you been crying?”
    Her guardian believed she had been compromised out here in the woods. She could see it in his bearing, his expression. Lord Warren said nothing. But then, he had promised not to, if she agreed to be spanked. But she had to confess her folly now, or Lord Baxter would misunderstand everything. “Please,” she said. “Let me explain. This is all because of my great foolishness.”
    “What has happened?”
    “I had meant to walk to Chapley this morning. I can’t say why. It was the silliest idea ever, and I got lost, and Lord Warren happened to be walking here too, which was a great bit of fortune, because without him I’d still be wandering around trying to find my way back to the house.”
    She babbled all this out, and feared she sounded terribly guilty. He wasn’t even looking at her as she related this tale. His eyes were fixed squarely on Lord Warren’s. “Have you anything to say?” he asked the younger man.
    Lord Warren didn’t, not for a very long time. The men only stood on the path, in the hazy light, staring at one another in a very serious way. At last, Lord Warren spoke in an uncharacteristically formal voice. “I respectfully request the honor of Lady Maitland’s hand in marriage.”
    “What?” she whispered. “No!”
    He reached and caught her hand, and squeezed it. “Hush.”
    She probably wouldn’t have hushed if he hadn’t just spanked her, but something in his tone and his glance warned her to obey.
    Lord Baxter tilted his head, studying the two of them. Again, he addressed his question—and his regard—to Lord Warren alone. “Would you have requested her hand if I had not caught the both of you out here together?”
    “No,” Lord Warren said. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he clenched his teeth. “Yes. Eventually. If there was no other way.”
    “No other way for what?” she asked. He squeezed her hand again and she fell silent.
    “What will you do now?” Lord Baxter asked him. “What is the plan?” He glanced at her. “I think the quicker, the better.”
    “I’ll get a license this afternoon, if you think that’s soon enough,” he replied with a touch of acid. “We can honeymoon in Oxfordshire for a little while.”
    “Yes, that would be best,” said Lord Baxter. “Then you must return to London and behave like a couple swept away by love.”
    “Of course. That’s how it generally goes.”
    Lord Warren’s chilly manner unsettled her. And Baxter’s frown… Her guardian had never been anything but kind. She didn’t wish him to imagine