Read Online Wicked and Wonderful by Valerie King - Free Book Online Page B

duty at hand. Thus she and Margaret worked quietly side by side for several minutes. Her friend glanced back more than once but Judith refused to do so, not after such a smile as Kelthorne had given her, at least not until Margaret said, “Do look, Judy. La, but has he just won me heart.”
    At such a warm statement, Judith could not help but turn around. She saw a sight that melted her heart as much as it had Margaret’s. Shelly was sitting on Kelthorne's lap and he had his arm protectively about her waist as the child fed him a biscuit.
    Judith quickly averted her gaze from the tender scene and concentrated instead on scrubbing the plates, sinking her hands once more into the hot water. Unexpected tears bit at her eyes. How wretched of Kelthorne to do something so sweet for now the deepest longings of her heart rose up like a fiery dragon from the hidden places of her soul. She felt as though her heart was being burned within her chest.
    She rarely thought of what she had left behind in Sussex, the day she had run away from home. Yet somehow, seeing Kelthorne holding little Shelly, brought a dozen memories swelling in her mind all at once, of her invalid father whom she had adored, of a beloved uncle and cousins, of all her girlhood hopes and dreams that one day she would have a family of her own. She had been a proper Miss Pensbury and her father a respected baronet, Sir Christopher Pensbury. On the heels of these precious reveries, however, came the awful reasons for her escape.
    The memory returned to her sharply in this moment, of the vile attentions of the Marquess of Stolford. He had been introduced to her in a bookshop in Brighton by her stepmother during the summer of 1810. He was afterwards a frequent visitor, by her stepmother’s invitation, to her home. She had not understood why she had been so often summoned to the drawing room, always, of course, when her father was resting in his bedchamber. She had been so young, just fourteen, and it was highly unusual to be in company, nonetheless with a Peer of the Realm.
    When the marquess took to kissing her hand upon his departure, she grew uneasy, though she could not say why for he was always kind in his attentions. Her governess, Miss Holywell, however, had understood precisely what was going forward but had said nothing until she overheard Stolford suggesting to Lady Pensbury that they take Judith on a tour of the West Country, perhaps spending the autumn at his country house.
    How innocent she had been at the time for she had not in the least comprehended her governess’s extreme disquiet. Miss Holywell had been forced to explain in horrifying detail both the nature of Stolford’s reputation as well as precisely what would happen to her once he had her captive in his home. How quickly her childhood had disappeared in that moment.
    She had fled her home with but a note left for her father. Little had she known she would never see him again, for he perished that Christmas. Her intention had been to reach her uncle to seek his protection. Fearing that Stolford would overtake her were she to use the most direct route, she had traveled in a circuitous manner. But by the time she reached her uncle’s house, the marquess’s coach had been in the drive. Only then did she understand that she would never be safe.
    Tears now trickled down her cheeks.
    The memory of Stolford still haunted her. In securing her safety from him by disappearing, she had forsaken her girlish dreams. To dwell on her former life, however, was to break her heart anew so she was in the habit of avoiding such thoughts. But how could she not be reminded today, with Kelthorne in the camp and holding Shelly so tenderly, putting her forcibly in mind of the life she had been taught would one day be hers—a gentleman to take as husband, a comfortable home, and, of course, a dozen children all racing down the halls and playing and squabbling.
    Kelthorne had done this to her, with his kisses that had