Saving Grace Read Free

those nearby could hear. “How dare you join my hunt.”
    “Many women hunt,” Grace said. Not that I am fighting for that privilege .
    “Not on my land, they don’t. A — away with you,” Lord Crosby said, waving her off as if she were a bothersome insect.
    “Well.” Grace sat straight and tugged on the bottom of her too-large jacket. “If that is how you feel.”
    “It is.”
    They stared at each other for a long moment, Grace narrowing her eyes in challenge. Come, Lord Crosby, you can show more anger than that. Be furious with me — so irate that you never wish to see me again. His face grew crimson, but not with the anger she had expected.
    Is he — blushing?
    Lord Crosby broke their gaze and looked down, pretending to clear his throat.
    His bluster has been but an act. He wants a docile female because he doesn’t know what to do with any other kind. I have intimidated him, she realized with some distress.
    This turn of events was not good. She didn’t want the man cowed into allowing her to stay.
    “I suppose you would like me to return to my embroidery,” she said, in her most disrespectful tone.
    “Actually —” Lord Crosby cleared his throat again.
    “Yes?” Grace said. Be harsh now. I know you can.
    “Return to your room and pack your things.” His words came out in a rush.
    Grace widened her eyes and leaned back, acting as if he had wounded her. The ruse worked; Lord Crosby raised a fist.
    “When I return, if you are still in my home …” He hesitated, as if scrambling for an appropriate threat.
    “You will throw me out without my belongings?” Grace suggested.
    “Yes!” He stood in his saddle, towering over her. “That is exactly what I will do.”
    Grace resisted the urge to laugh. Instead she pursed her lips and wrinkled her brow, doing her best to look thoroughly upset. “I never!”
    Never would have believed this could be so simple. Would that I hadn’t put up with three days of him first.
    She urged her mount forward and threw a last, disdainful glance over her shoulder. Little wonder Lord Crosby is nearing fifty and not yet wed. He is afraid of women.
    “Farewell gentlemen,” she called, perhaps a little too merrily, as her horse broke into a gallop.
    For a few wonderful moments, she felt the wind in her hair and the ground moving beneath her as she basked in the glory of her success and newfound freedom.
    A step closer to it, at least , she thought as she neared the stables, where she saw Harrison waiting for her. I must play this out a little longer.
    “Has the fox been caught already?” he asked, coming to help her dismount.
    “I was kind; I let him go free,” Grace said, smiling to herself.
    Harrison’s eyes drew together in a perplexed look.
    “I shall tell you all about it on our journey,” Grace said. “We have been summarily dismissed. It would be best if we are gone before Lord Fox — I mean, Lord Crosby — returns.”
    “Good,” Harrison said, handing her the bundle of her previously discarded clothing. “Because our next gentleman, Sir Richard Lidgate, is expecting you for dinner.”
    Grace sighed. It seemed her freedom was short-lived. But if she didn’t at least appear to be playing Father’s game, it would be Helen who suffered. “Lidgate.” She rolled the name around in her mind. It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “How much does Father owe him?”
    “Not a red cent,” Harrison said.
    “Then why —”
    “Sir Lidgate is one of the wealthiest men in Yorkshire.” Harrison scowled. “He’s also had more than his share of women — only now he’s looking to settle. His reputation being what it is, he has been unable to procure a bride in the usual fashion.”
    The victory of shaking off Lord Crosby dimmed considerably with this news. “Lidgate is willing to pay handsomely for a wife?”
    Harrison nodded, the look in his eyes having changed to the pity Grace had so often seen there since Grandfather’s death. “Your