Bride by Arrangement Read Free Page A

far as the corridor in which her room is situated.”
    She felt the colour sting her cheeks at the certainty that he was secretly enjoying himself at her expense, and once more lowered her glance before the provocative blaze of amusement in his eyes.
    “I—I expect she’s tired,” she heard herself stammer. “She’ll probably sleep late.”
    “Probably.”
    “She doesn’t look very—very strong.”
    “Neither do you, if it comes to that, but your life is much more sheltered, isn’t it?” he enquired suavely. “ Fern doesn’t have many opportunities to develop a robust look. When she’s got a job she’s working or rehearsing most of the time, and the odd moments left over she plays. In between I think she probably starves.”
    Chloe looked shocked, and he regarded her derisively.
    “I don’t suppose you’ve ever come anywhere near to starving, have you, little one? You’ve never yet hit the high spots, but you’ve always been secure. It’s the kind of life that makes a broad outlook impossible. Fern’s outlook could be just a trifle too broad, she’s plucky enough. At the moment she hasn’t a job, so I brought her here. I thought a little of my aunt’s hospitality wouldn’t do her any harm.”
    Chloe said nothing.
    He turned on his heel, after giving the corgi a pat.
    “Ah, wel l , I mustn’t keep you from your duties. I want to swim out to the point.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at the skyline. “By the way, my aunt has given instructions for rather a special lunch. I understand it was a special lunch yesterday, but I didn’t turn up. Today there’s to be just the three of us.”
    “ The three of us?”
    “Yes.” Apparently the faint trails of smoke on the horizon—the track of passing ships—interested him. “I’m to find accommodation for Fern at the inn, if they can take her. If not, she’ll have to be planted on someone who will take her. Aunt Abbie is quite adamant that she mustn’t remain in the house.”
    “But—but why?” Chloe stared at him. “There’s heaps of room!”
    He shrugged.
    “Just an idea of Aunt Abbie’s. She doesn’t seem to take kindly to the thought of my lady friends at the moment. And it’s not because she doesn’t recognise the importance of the feminine element in a man’s life.” Suddenly his gaze swung round to her again, and it was bleak and almost accusing. “I think she feels the atmosphere will be more suitable if we banish Fern to the inn. Au revoir , little Miss Prim. See you at lunch. And I hope you’re not in for too many shocks!”
    But when Chloe made her way up to her employer's room it was to make the discovery that Madame Albertin was suffering from one of her bad headaches—due, no doubt, to the agitation of the day before—and once again the celebration lunch would have to be postponed.
    “I simply couldn’t go downstairs feeling like this,” the old lady admitted, with infinite regret in her tones. She looked very shrunken and frail in her huge bed, with the garland-wreathed posts and pleated Venetian silk curtains. It was very faded silk, and liable to disintegrate at a touch; but a famous French beauty had once slept in the bed, and because the beauty had been a favourite with a certain French king, and Madame Albertin was an incurable romantic—at heart—nothing would induce her to have new curtains made for the bed. “But I absolutely insist that that girl Pierre has so stupidly brought with him must be got out of the house as quickly as possible! I want her out of the house, because I don’t want her interfering with my plans,” sounding very petulant. “You must ring up the King’s Arms at Trelas, and if they can’t take her she must go back to London.”
    “But—” Chloe realised that she stared, for this was so unlike the hospitable, generous, kindly Madame Albertin that it might almost be another woman. She had never known Madame Albertin decline to put up a guest before.
    “I didn’t invite