Mandy Read Free Page A

not truly fallen in love, yet.
    He was, like his sister, a bit of a romantic. He wanted to be hopelessly ‘in love’ when he got married.
    Mandy was right. He had to avoid the lovely Celia.
    How to do it? He had not told Mandy everything. He had not told her that when he kissed her, she had taken his hand and put it to her breast and that for a moment, just a moment, he had actually fondled her. It had taken all his strength to pull away, and then he was able to only because she had asked in a whisper, “Do you love me, Ned?”
    His blood had immediately started to freeze and he had jumped away from her and said, “ What? ”
    She had repeated the question, “Do you love me?”
    “Love? Well, that is something quite…well, love is another subject,” he uttered and felt a fool.
    She had gotten up from the stone bench they had been sitting on by the reflective pool and huffed, “Think about that question the next time you try and make love to me.”
    He had thought about it, and the answer had been, no, I don’t love you. And then that same night she had crept into his room in a scanty nightdress.
    He had nearly been undone.
    Miraculously, a loud clatter down the hall, made them both jump. He ushered Celia to the door and down the hall to her bedroom, while he went the opposite way toward the noise telling Celia he had to investigate.
    At first he had thought he had been saved by a miracle, but it turned out to be Mandy. His sister had stood eyeing him oddly as she pointed to an armor shield lying on the floor. “I bumped into it in the dark and boom, it went down,” she said.
    He had eyed her suspiciously, but thankful all the same, he didn’t bother to ask what she had been doing walking at this end of the hall in the middle of the night. Instead, he said, “Ah.”
    She folded her arms across the cream colored shawl she hugged around her nightclothes and added, “I mean to lock my door tonight . You do the same, Ned…you just never know.”
    To this cryptic remark he said nothing because he did know. Mandy had surmised what was afoot. She was ever a knowing one. He knew she had saved him from Celia.
    He had walked her to her room and she touched his hand, “ You will lock your door?” she had asked.
    Mandy was right and it was precisely what he did. Now, he thought, he would do well to remember this incident and steer clear of Celia—no matter what.
    * * *
    As they worked their horses out of the field and back onto the country road just outside their village, Amanda sighed happily, “Lud, but I thought the rain would never leave us. ‘Tis good to have the sun smiling, even if it is a bit sultry.”
    “Eh, oh, I suppose,” Ned replied absently.
    “Aunt Agatha drove me insane the last few days. I wish she would go home and leave us be at Sherborne, I mean after all, it has been well over a year!”
    “Lord yes!” Her brother agreed. “Gadzooks, that woman does chatter on forever. Grandpa could never abide her company for long and she was his daughter.” Ned sighed. “At least you had a respite a few months back when she went home to see to her place for a bit. I tell you what, Mandy…think I’ll ask her to leave. I am Lord of Sherborne, I can do that. ‘Tis my right. That would solve all the problems, wouldn’t it? I’m not worried about hurting her feelings, you shouldn’t be either. She has never worried about hurting ours.”
    Mandy gave him a rueful look and a low chuckle, “Indeed, yes. But she will need to be booted out if you want her to leave, as she won’t go willingly. I know because I have tried hinting at it often enough and I am loathe to come right out and tell her to go.”
    “Aye, but I am weary of her, think I’ll ask her to leave, give her a week or so to get her things together, after all Mandy, she has a home to go to, it isn’t as though we are putting her out in the cold,” Ned said on a groan. “Have you noticed the way she walks about the Halls as though she owns