Read Online Wagered to the Duke (BookStrand Publishing Romance) by Karen Lingefelt - Free Book Online

them, because it had happened to his mother.
    He fell asleep thinking of that, remembering, and succumbing to an old nightmare that hadn’t haunted him in years.

Chapter Five
     
    Kate opened her eyes to a room that wasn’t her own—or at least it wasn’t the one she’d occupied at Bellingham Hall, for she’d never felt that bedchamber was her own, if only because she happened to think of it as a prison cell.
    And then she remembered that she was supposed to be at Mr. Throckmorton’s house as his new governess. Instead she was at a coaching inn somewhere between York and London—but closer to York.
    She didn’t see Polly anywhere. She didn’t even recall that Polly had gotten into bed with her last night. Kate was quite positive she would have been aware of another person beneath the covers with her. Where had Polly slept, if not with Kate?
    She dressed and pinned up her hair. She’d really hoped Polly would do that for her. She’d always wanted a lady’s maid, if only so she’d have someone to do her hair for her, because she’d never been very good at it. She’d always envied the ladies of the ton with their elaborate coiffures, how their hair curled where it was supposed to curl and stayed smoothly in place where it was supposed to stay smoothly in place. All Kate could manage on her own was a plain, miserable bun pulled back from her face. She didn’t even have bangs to curl into ringlets. Over the past year of exile at Bellingham Hall, where there’d been no visitors and nothing happening, she’d let her bangs grow out until they could almost reach behind her ears, but not quite. Thin strands still fell forward into her face, and wearing her bonnet was the only means to keep them out of the way.
    But she wasn’t ready to don the bonnet yet as she ventured out of the room and downstairs to the dining room, where she thought she might find Nathan or even Freddy or Polly.
    None of them were there.
    “Mornin’, miss,” said the innkeeper’s wife as she filled someone’s teacup. “I’m afraid your brother didn’t leave a message for you.”
    Bewilderment flooded Kate. “What do you mean, he didn’t leave a message for me?”
    The innkeeper’s wife set down the teapot. “Just that. He left without a message for you.”
    “He did what ?” Kate exploded as every head in the dining room popped up like the red blemishes that erupted on her face on the most inopportune occasions. Granted, this wasn’t one of them, but she lifted her hand to her face anyway, as if to feel for the traitorous little bumps.
    The innkeeper’s wife planted her hands on her very wide hips. “How many times must I say it? He’s gone and didn’t bother to leave a message for you. My husband even asked him outright if he wasn’t goin’ to leave a message for you and what do you think your brother said?”
    Nausea knotted Kate’s stomach. “I can’t imagine what he might have said.”
    “Well, I don’t see why not, for I should think the answer is obvious. He said, ‘No.’”
    Kate hated to ask, if only because she dreaded the answer, but she asked anyway. “Did he take the carriage?”
    “Aye, of course he did. Oh, and in case you’re wonderin’ where she is, he took your maid with him, which might be another reason he decided not to leave a message for you. They must’ve planned to elope. You do look surprised.”
    “Surprised?” piped up one of the diners. “She looks murderous!”
    For what must have been a full minute, Kate was speechless, partly because her jaw had dropped and all the muscles in her face couldn’t lift it back up again. Indeed, all of her muscles seemed to have failed her, for she felt her legs weakening, and she grabbed the nearest chair to keep from collapsing to the floor.
    So much for being murderous.
    “You may as well sit in that chair and have some tea,” said the innkeeper’s wife. “They left around midnight, so they’re halfway to Gretna by now.”
    Surely Nathan