Read Online Woo'd in Haste by Sabrina Darby - Free Book Online Page A

shock. Had she spoken out loud? She glanced back at the nursery maid. Ellie was looking discreetly away, but she couldn’t help but hear a conversation right in front of her. She would have to speak with the girl and make certain nothing of this left the room.
    He made a face and then giggled. “I saw you kiss him the way Mummy kisses Father and Ellie kisses Martin.”
    Ellie flushed and met Bianca’s gaze. The fact that the nursery maid and one of the footmen were kissing was not nearly as shocking as that Thomas had seen Bianca and Luc. However, at least she no longer needed to worry about being tattled on. Ellie would worry for her position, as well.
    “I’m certain you mistook something. Mr. Dore is a kind man, but he is your tutor. Not my suitor.”
    “I know what I saw,” Thomas said stubbornly.
    “Did you tell anyone else what you saw?” She tried to say this lightly, as if she didn’t much care about Thomas’s answer.
    “No. Are you going to marry him?”
    “Thomas!”
    “Miss Smith says you kiss someone when you marry them.”
    “Well, that is true, but you don’t have to marry everyone you kiss,” Bianca pointed out. Especially if one were kissing someone not appropriate for marriage. At least marriage to Bianca.
    Thomas’s eyes widened.
    “Please don’t tell Lottie that I said that,” she said quickly. She could only see where this would lead, a lecture from her former governess, or a discovery. And she didn’t want this affair to be discovered. She didn’t want to end it. “Why don’t you tell me what you want me to bring back from Eastbourne?” She was all too aware that she was resorting to a bribe the way her father had with her. Pitiful, really. Taking the easiest route.
    She admired her father but, as Lottie had pointed out, that was not one of his finest traits. No, she wanted to be honorable and admirable. She loved Luc because he was both.
    Loved?
    Did she? Did she truly love him?
    She thought back over all the moments in the last few weeks, the way her heart would race when he was near and her skin would tingle, the way she looked forward to his company. He had a way of telling stories, anecdotes about his life and his friends that had her breathless with laughter. And then there was his touch. Forget skin tingling. This was skin on fire. A pleasurable burn.
    There had been the time that his hands had wandered down. When the kiss hadn’t just been a kiss.
    But love?
    Was this love?
    She only knew of fine eyes and courtly confessions . The books never described the true depth of feeling involved.
    Perhaps this trip to Eastbourne, bribe though it was, was exactly what she needed. Would give her the space to put things in perspective. If distance truly made the heart grow fonder, then she would have her answer in a few days.
    But what then? If this was love, what difference did that make?
    She took the cart to the Lovells’ house before she thought better of it. She found her friend in the parlor working on a new reticule. Alice took one look at Bianca’s face, ordered tea, and pulled her down to the sofa beside her.
    “Something has happened.”
    Yes, something had happened, but how could she tell anyone what it was, even Alice? After all, the last time they had discussed Mr. Dore, Bianca had dismissed him out of hand. She blushed at the very thought.
    “I was going to say the problem is Kate, but now I suspect it’s a man!” Alice stared at her in amazement. “But that’s impossible. Unless it’s Lord Reginald. Or the duke. He did return, didn’t he? But neither of them make sense. And I know you are not the least bit affected by John Dunnett’s seventeen-year-old face. The only other single male in our vicinity . . .” Her eyes widened. “Impossible!”
    “Is it?” Bianca questioned softly.
    “The tutor?” Alice laughed. “You’ve fallen for the tutor.”
    Bianca nodded, embarrassed, even though, at the manor, isolated from the rest of the world,