Rendezvous Read Free Page A

feel toward my uncle, is it not? You are his friend and you would not want to see him embarrassed because of my actions this evening.”
    “That is a little closer to the truth, but it is not the whole of it, by any means.”
    “Well, whatever the reason, I am grateful.” Augusta grinned suddenly as she realized she was safe and so was her friend Rosalind Morrissey. Then it suddenly struck her that there was still one very large question that remained unanswered. “How did you know what I had planned here tonight, my lord?”
    It was Graystone’s turn to smile. He did so with a curious twist to his mouth that sent a chill of alarm through Augusta.
    “With any luck that question should keep you awake for a while tonight, Miss Ballinger. Consider it well. Perhaps it will do you good to ponder the fact that a lady’s secrets are always prey to gossip and rumor. A wise young woman should, therefore, take care not to take the sort of risks you took tonight.”
    Augusta wrinkled her nose in dismay. “I should have known better than to ask you such a question. It is obvious someone of your high-minded temperament cannot refrain from issuing reproving lectures at every opportunity. But I forgive you this time because I am grateful for both your help and your silence tonight.”
    “I trust you will continue to feel grateful.”
    “I am certain I shall.” On impulse Augusta hurried back toward the desk and came to a halt directly in front of him. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him lightly, fleetingly on the edge of his hard jaw. Graystone stood like stone beneath the soft caress. She knew she had probably shocked him to the core and she could not resist a wicked little chuckle. “Good night, my lord.”
    Thrilled by her own boldness and by the success of her foray to the library, she whirled around and dashed toward the door.
    “Miss Ballinger?”
    “Yes, my lord?” She halted and turned back to face him once more, hoping that in the shadows he could not see that her face was flaming.
    “You have neglected to take your taper with you. Youwill need it to climb the stairs.” He picked up the candle and held it out to her.
    Augusta hesitated and then went back to where he stood waiting for her. She snatched the candle from his hand without a word and hastened out of the library.
    She was glad she was not on his list of prospective wives, she told herself fiercely as she flew up the stairs and down the hall to her bedchamber. A Northumberland Ballinger female could not possibly chain herself to such an old-fashioned, unbending man.
    Aside from the marked differences in their temperaments, they had few interests in common. Graystone was an accomplished linguist and a student of the classics, just as was her uncle, Sir Thomas Ballinger. The earl devoted himself to the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans and produced imposing books and treatises that were well received by people who knew about that sort of thing.
    If Graystone had been one of the exciting new poets whose burning prose and smoldering eyes were currently all the rage, Augusta would have understood her own fascination for him. But he was not that sort of writer at all. Instead he penned dull works with titles such as
A Discussion of Some Elements in the Histories of Tacitus
and
A Discourse on Certain Selections from Plutarch’s Lives
. Both of which had been recently published to critical acclaim.
    Both of which Augusta had, for some unknown reason, read from beginning to end.
    Augusta extinguished the candle and let herself quietly into the bedchamber she was sharing with Claudia. She tiptoed over to the bed and took off her dressing gown. A shaft of moonlight seeping in through a crack in the heavy drapes revealed her cousin’s sleeping form.
    Claudia had the pale golden hair of the Hampshire branch of the Ballinger family. Her lovely face with its patrician nose and chin was turned to the side on the pillow. The long sweep of her lashes hid her soft blue