Seducing The Bride (Brides of Mayfair 1) Read Free Page B

before.
    Gingerly, he removed his hand from the girl’s chest but it was too late.
    She opened her eyes, a look of terror in their golden-brown depths. Then she screamed.
    Beckett sprang from the bed like a cat. The girl jumped up as well, not realizing her nakedness until she was standing. She screamed again, grabbing the blanket and wrapping it hurriedly around herself. She stared at Beckett as if he was the devil himself.
    Monty skittered up, and tail wagging, barked at all the commotion.
    “Who are you?” she shrieked, grabbing a nearby candlestick. “Stay away from me—or I swear I’ll bash your head in!”
    “Please refrain, madam,” Beckett said. “You will ruin my coiffure, not to mention my health.”
    “I said, stay away!” she yelled, brandishing the candlestick when he took a step closer.
    “I’m staying away” Beckett answered. “Far, far away over here. Now, be a good girl and put that thing down.”
    “Why? So you can ravish me again?” she shrieked incredulously, pulling the blanket closer around her naked body.
    “Ravish you? No, no—you misunderstand. I can explain everything, but you must be quiet!” He half-shouted, half-whispered his words, not wanting to wake the household.
    “I will not be quiet until you explain who you are and why you’ve brought me here! And what have you done with my clothes?” she demanded.
    “Ah, yes,” Beckett replied. “Your clothes… I’m afraid they’re not here at the moment.”
    “Not here?” she said. “I suppose they grew tired of my company and simply walked away?”
    Beckett tried not to laugh, but the effort seemed to rile the girl’s anger even more. She grabbed a little clock and launched it at his head. Beckett ducked, and just missed having his face rearranged by the marble timepiece.
    He stood straight again and whistled. The girl had an impressive aim.
    “So you intend to keep me prisoner like this?” she asked heatedly. “Am I to spend the rest of my days naked in your rooms?”
    “Don’t put ideas into my head,” he answered smoothly.
    Hartley’s voice echoed in the hallway, “No, no, Lady Thornby, don’t go in there!”
    The door creaked open. In his strangest nightmare, Beckett could not have imagined what he would see there, standing in the hall behind his worried valet.
    His mother and his solicitor.
    They stared with pale, bloodless faces at the scene before them. Beckett realized what it must look like, standing there with a beautiful, half-naked woman in his bedchamber. Of course, that fact that he was bare-chested himself wouldn’t help, either.
    “Oh,…” his mother cried, her hand to her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted in a heap of ribbons and lace.
    As Hartley quickly attended to Lady Thornby, Mr. Livingston of Livingston, Farraday & Peel stared at the shocking scene with bulging eyes, and Martha, the portly cook, covered her mouth with a flour-stained hand.
    Alfred appeared in the hallway as well, and seemed quite amused by the scene.
    Monty skittered around the room, still wagging his tail and barking at the girl in the blanket. She fearlessly brandished the heavy candlestick, sizing up the new arrivals as if to choose who first to clobber.
    “Monty, quiet!” Beckett said.
    The dog hushed, but everyone else seemed to take it as a cue to pelt Beckett with questions, though Lady Thornby was still out cold.
    “—What is going on, sir?” said Livingston.
    “—Oh, m’lord, who is that lady? What shall we do?” said Martha.
    “—I demand to know who all of you people are!” shrieked the girl.
    “I said, quiet, all of you!” Beckett commanded. “Martha, would you take the young miss into my chamber and try to quiet her nerves?”
    “My nerves don’t need quieting,” the girl retorted, eyeing the cook distrustfully.
    “Come on, now, miss,” Martha said. “Just do what the master asks.”
    “He’s not my master,” she said haughtily. “He hasn’t even told me who