Fated Folly Read Free

sound like an ogre.’
    A short laugh was surprised out of him. ‘Have I that reputation then?’
    She twinkled charmingly. ‘Only to Pippa and Justin.’
    Quick wrath kindled, but the girl must have seen it in his face for she rose quickly and came towards him, a cajoling note in her voice.
    â€˜ Pray don’t look at me so. Why won’t you let them marry?’
    Suspicion warred with the resurgence of unwarranted tenderness in his breast. He stared down into her face, beset by confusion.
    â€˜ Who are you?’
    She smiled. ‘I’m Clare Carradale. Justin’s sister, you know.’
    â€˜ Are you indeed?’
    Miss Carradale’s eyes registered dismay, and her hand rested lightly on his arm for a moment. ‘Pray don’t be angry. Not with them, in any event. It was all my own notion. Neither of them knew anything of the matter.’
    â€˜ You came here for this?’
    â€˜ I came to meet Pippa. We are to go to Bond Street together, you see.’ The mischief crept back into her face. ‘Well, that is paltering a little with the truth, for I had every intention of bearding you if I could, and so I came early on purpose.’
    Amusement seized him, but he suppressed the impulse to laugh.
    â€˜ I am flattered, Miss Carradale.’
    She grinned engagingly. ‘Don’t be. I assure you my vision of you was far from flattering.’
    â€˜ Indeed? I think I shall not enquire too particularly into that, then,’ he said, on a wry note, unable to prevent himself from smiling. Her nearness disturbed him and he moved away a little.
    â€˜ Ah, but that’s why I was so shocked, you know,’ she told him ingenuously, ‘so you may pique yourself upon that by all means.’
    He glanced at her, and inclined his head. ‘You overwhelm me, Miss Carradale.’
    â€˜ I wish you will call me Clare,’ she invited, taking a step closer. ‘After all, we may well be related before too long.’
    At that, a door closed in his mind. ‘Unlikely, I think.’
    â€˜ Now I have made you cross again.’ She dropped back. ‘What a pity you are not like your butler.’
    He was startled. ‘Like my butler?’
    The mischief sparked in her face. ‘Yes, poor Brookland was no match for me at all. I hoaxed him into thinking I was afraid to meet you, only so that I might be certain you were here.’
    â€˜ And your purpose in seeking me out,’ Rupert said flatly, ‘was to plead your brother’s cause?’
    Miss Carradale wrinkled her nose. ‘Well, not plead precisely.’ She drew an audible breath. ‘To be frank with you, I had conceived the notion of—of cajoling you into such a charming humour that you could not help giving your consent.’
    Rupert could not control a quivering lip and knew she saw it, for her tone became confiding.
    â€˜ But I am only certain of my success in that line with middle-aged men, and you are nothing of the sort.’
    â€˜ And you are—if you will forgive me?—a minx, Miss Carradale,’ he told her. He added as she gave a stifled giggle, ‘Is that what you expected to find?’
    â€˜ I thought you must be a good deal older. Not perhaps Papa’s age, for he is quite fifty, you know. But Pippa speaks of you in such terms as gave me the impression that you must be on the shady side of forty at least.’ Her eyes quizzed him. ‘So you see it is all your fault. I might have succeeded if only you had not been so different from my expectation.’
    â€˜ Accept my apologies,’ Rupert said drily. ‘Had I been apprised of your purpose, I would have assumed a suitable disguise.’
    She burst into delightful giggles. ‘What, a grizzled wig and spectacles?’
    â€˜ Something of the sort.’
    â€˜ You could never look like Papa,’ she declared.
    To his faint surprise, the animation died out of her face, to be replaced