Dangerous Gifts Read Free Page A

her daughter’s looks.
    Weakly Leah said, “I have no clothing suitable for fashionable society.”
    “You’ll need a new wardrobe, of course. Andrea shall select it for you.” Lady Marlowe refolded the letter neatly. “Since you will be taking few of your own clothes, it won’t take long for you to pack. You can leave tomorrow morning. Andrea is most anxious to welcome you.”
    “As you wish, Mother.” Still dazed, Leah left the morning room and headed upstairs to her room. In her—dream—Ranulph had said that there was more than one way to get to London. Could he have arranged this visit?
    Absurd!
    Then she passed the gilt-framed pier glass that hung in the upper hall, and came to a dead stop, as stunned as if she had been hit with a hammer. The image in the mirror was that of the beautiful, faery-touched Leah that Ranulph had shown her. But now she could see all of herself. Her hair was a sensual, tawny mane and her figure was alluringly petite instead of merely thin.
    She touched the reflection with shaking fingers, half expecting it to vanish like an image in a pond, but there was no change. As her mother had said, she was a remarkably handsome girl. No, more than that. She was beautiful. Achingly, heart-stoppingly beautiful. Even in her worn gown, she looked like a princess. No man would be able to resist her.
    Yet as she had noticed earlier, she was still herself. Each of her features was much as before, but now refined to perfection. Her fair complexion, always good, was now flawless. Her formerly average gray-green eyes had become a riveting shade of green—exactly like those of Ranulph of the Wood.
    Involuntarily she glanced down at her left palm. The sunlight revealed a faint, silvery line across the center, exactly where Ranulph had drawn his dagger.
    Her hand dropped. With eerie calm, she accepted that Ranulph had been real, and she had pledged herself to an unholy bargain. What would she have to pay when the time came? For now, it didn’t matter. As her eyes drank in the sight of her new self, she knew that what she had received was worth an uncertain price.
    She tore herself away from the pier glass and hurried to her bedroom in the east wing. As soon as she closed the door, she looked into her own mirror, half afraid it would reflect the drab image of her old self. But it was the beautiful Leah who looked back, and who reflected Leah’s joyous laughter.
    Exuberant, she set down her harp, then whirled across the room in a mad dance. She was beautiful and going to London and she would have admirers by the score. She would enjoy the attention, then love and marry the best of her suitors. Everything she had silently yearned for would be hers.
    Still laughing, she threw open her casement windows and leaned out. “Look out, London, here I come!”
    Leah did not expect a response, but a ladylike “Meow” sounded from very close at hand. She glanced to her left in surprise.
    Perched daintily on the branch of a tree that grew near Leah’s window was a magnificent cat with long black hair and golden eyes. It was quite unlike any other cat Leah had ever seen, but quite in keeping with the events of the day. “Good day,” Leah said courteously. “Are you a magical faery feline?”
    The cat compressed itself like a coiled spring, then made an amazing leap that took it all the way to Leah’s window. After landing lightly on the sill, it rubbed its cheek against Leah’s arm, purring powerfully.
    Leah stroked the cat’s back. The splendid black fur was silky soft. “What a beautiful lady you are. You couldn’t be anything but a lady.”
    The cat raised her aristocratic head and regarded Leah with huge golden eyes that seemed as intelligent as those of any human. Leah blinked. Perhaps this really was a faery being. Feeling absurd, she asked, “Did Ranulph send you to watch me?”
    Making a disdainful feline sound, the cat jumped from the sill into Leah’s room, glided across the carpet, then leaped