No Choice but Surrender Read Free Page B

certain, as he is your father, that he would not find it objectionable if you were to take up residence there in the meantime."
    "Perhaps he would not find it objectionable, but I would. I've come to Osterley only for a short time while I find a more suitable place to live. My stay here will just have to be cut."
    "The new master seems very charitable. I'm certain he would not be disagreeable if you remained here until further arrangements were made. Of course, anyone would understand your humiliation at accepting such an indecent offer."
    "Humiliation? Why should I feel humiliated by accepting the kindness of a stranger? The true humiliation is living under my father's "kindness." My mother could have told you about that." She mumbled these last words, not willing to elaborate on the subject.
    "Well, if it does not bother you, Lady Brienne, I'm sure Master Avenel Slane would bid you to stay until it is comfortable for you to leave. The situation's lack of propriety is shocking, but if you are not bothered by it, then I shall offer no further advice."
    "You can tell my father, if by chance you see him, that not only will I accept the kind Master Slane's offer, should he extend it, but to avoid the earl's company, I would even consider taking up a position permanently in the new master's household." She laughed and then added, "Yes, do inform him of that. Tell him I would prefer being a scullery maid at Osterley than living with him in London. You will tell him, won't you?" She looked up at the man; her beautiful eyes were alive with merriment.
    "Yes, my lady. If that is what you wish." He looked at her as if she were crazed. Then, perhaps because he thought her daftness made her vulnerable to him, his eyes wandered over her rich auburn hair. It was so dark it could pass for magenta. Her figure was petite and young, and its only fullness was found in her chest and her hips. There was an invitation in his small, squinty eyes, but Brienne dealt with it by staring at him with a stony expression until he realized his flirtation was hopeless. She had told him she was willing to stay on in a stranger's house rather than live "respectably" with her father, but she would never take a lover, not one of her choosing or anyone else's. She watched determinedly as the solicitor swiftly took his leave without offering her pity or solace.
    She knew she had to inform the army of servants and make her own plans before Avenel Slane showed up. Brienne dejectedly got off the bench. Making her way through the grand portico and across the uncovered courtyard, she noticed that all was eerily silent—too silent for such an immense and well- furbished house. It was a testament to the fact that there was no owner in residence—yet.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    "She's been sitting there for days." The footman eyed the scroll end stool, covered in dark blue leather, on which Brienne sat quietly. The fireplaces crackled with warmth in the two opposite apses. Their fires contrasted with the cold marble hall that was filled with Roman statues, now white from age. With no more hospitable place to go, she sat watching the flames, waiting for the new owner perhaps more anxiously than the two footmen who watched her.
    She'd had little luck in trying to leave. No coach would be hired for the amount she was able to pay. She had yet even to figure out where to go. London held little appeal for her; it was too big and she knew not a soul there. At her father's town house she would encounter him should he return from the Colonies, so she had ruled that out right away. Then there was Bath. She knew there were bound to be old friends of her mother's there, taking the waters and enjoying the social whirl. But how would she get there? She had come to a grand stumbling block. And then she had run out of time.
    She got up, wrapped her cloak around her, and smiled at the two elderly footmen as she went out the door. The sting of freezing rain met her face, and she wrapped the cloak