Read Online What Would Lizzy Bennet Do? by Katie Oliver - Free Book Online

murderous glance. ‘I didn’t believe it until I saw it for myself.’
    ‘Sorry, Harry, but I don’t need your
permission
,’ Charli retorted, ‘or Hugh’s, to spend time with Ciaran. I’m an
adult
.’
    ‘No you’re not,’ he said grimly as he reached out and wrapped his hand around her wrist. ‘Your little rendezvous – or date, or whatever it is – with Ciaran is over, as of right now. I’m taking you home.’
    He pulled her up and out of her seat, and Charli let out a cry of outrage. ‘How dare you,’ she snapped, and struggled to free herself from his grip. ‘Let me go!’
    ‘Now, wait just a minute!’ Ciaran protested, and thrust back his deck chair as he confronted Harry. ‘I won’t have you coming aboard this yacht – without permission, I might add – and manhandling my guest.’
    ‘Your “guest” is my friend, Mr Duncan,’ he returned, his chest rising and falling beneath his striped polo shirt, ‘and I’ve known her a good deal longer than you. It’s time she came home.’ He turned to Charlotte, still struggling to wrench herself free. ‘Does your father know you’re here?’
    ‘No,’ she admitted, and glared at him. ‘He thinks I’m spending the afternoon with my friends.’ Her hand went lax in his. ‘You won’t tell him, will you?’
    ‘I thought as much.’ He turned and regarded Ciaran with contempt. ‘Stay away from her,’ he warned, ‘or I’ll take care of you myself.’
    ‘Is that a threat?’ Ciaran asked with equal parts amusement and disbelief.
    ‘No,’ Harry retorted, and shoved him in the chest, ‘it’s a promise.’
    ‘Stop it, both of you,’ Charli cried as Ciaran shoved him back. ‘What about me?
I’m
the one who gets to decide if I spend time with Ciaran, not either of you!’
    ‘It isn’t proper, you hanging out with him,’ Harry told her, his ginger brows drawn together in a scowl. ‘He’s bad news.’
    ‘Who are you to tell me what’s proper, or who to “hang out” with?’ she demanded. ‘What about Alice Mannerly, and Sarah Afton-Crimsbury? Oh, yes, I know all about them, and all of the other girls you’ve dated and discarded, Harry, because I read the tabs. That’s quite a double standard you’ve got going.’
    ‘Call it whatever you like,’ Harry gritted, ‘but I’m an adult, you’re not, and you’re coming home.’ He took her arm and pulled her forward. ‘Now.’
    ‘I’m not leaving! I’m not a child! Let
go
of me!’ she cried.
    ‘You heard her,’ Ciaran snapped, and stepped between Harry and Charlotte. ‘She doesn’t wish to leave.’
    ‘I’m warning you,’ Harry breathed. ‘Stay out of this, Duncan, and stay away from Charli as well, or…’
    ‘Or what?’ Ciaran challenged, his eyes narrowed.
    Harry hurled himself at the actor, and Ciaran drew his arm back and punched him in the face with a resounding crack, sending him staggering back against the deck railing.
    Charlotte let out a small scream as Harry straightened and launched himself straight at Ciaran.
    ‘Harry, no!’ she wailed. ‘Both of you, please, please stop!’
    But as the two men grappled and exchanged punches, she realised they weren’t listening, and she knew she had to do something – anything – to stop them. Spying the pitcher of iced water on the table, she grabbed it and flung it on them, vaguely aware as she did so of the rapid click and whirr of a camera somewhere nearby.
    She glanced up to see a man with darkish blond hair crouched on a neighbouring yacht, his face half hidden behind a Nikon with a telephoto lens. It was trained on the
Meryton
as he snapped a series of rapid-fire photos.
    ‘Stop,’ Charli shouted again, and levelled a glare at the man on the yacht. ‘Stop taking those pictures this instant!’

Chapter 11
    As he drove them back to Cleremont, Hugh subsided into a frowning, broody silence.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ Holly asked him, and laid a hand on his arm. ‘It’s Charlotte, isn’t it?’ she