Seduction Read Free

habit.
    "Ye be careful if ye need to make up a cup o' poppy-head tea for Lady Dorring's
    rheumatism," Bess cautioned. "The poppies came in real powerful this year."
    Sophy nodded at the wrinkled old woman who had taught her so much. "I'll
    remember to cut back on my measurements. How is everything with you? Do you need
    anything?"
    "Nary a thing, child, nary a thing." Bess surveyed her aging cottage and herb
    garden with a serene eye as she wiped her hands on her apron. "I have everythin'
    I need.'
    "You always do. You are lucky to be so content with life, Bess."
    "Ye’ll find contentment one o' these days, if ye truly seek it."
    Sophy's smile faded. "Perhaps. But first I must seek other things."
    Bess regarded her sorrowfully, her pale eyes full of understanding. "I thought
    ye'd gotten past yer need for vengeance, child. I thought ye'd finally left it
    in the past where it ought to be."
    "Things have changed, Bess." Sophy started around the corner of the small,
    thatch-roofed cottage to where her gelding was waiting. "As it happens, I have
    been given a new opportunity to see that justice is done."
    "If ye had any common sense, ye would take my advice and forget it, child.
    What's done is done. Yer sister, rest her soul, is gone. There's naught ye can
    do for her now. Ye have yer own life and ye must pay attention to it." Bess
    smiled her gap-toothed smile. "I hear there be a somewhat more pressin' matter
    for ye to consider these days."
    Sophy glanced sharply at the elderly woman while she made a useless attempt to
    straighten her precariously tilted riding hat. "As usual, you manage to keep up
    with the village gossip. You've heard I received an offer of marriage from the
    devil himself?"
    "The folks who call Lord Ravenwood a devil are the ones who deal in gossip. I
    deal only in facts. Is it true?"
    "What? That the Earl is closely related to Lucifer? Yes, Bess, I am almost
    certain it is true. I have never before met such an arrogant man as his
    lordship. That sort of pride definitely belongs to the devil."
    Bess shook her head impatiently. "I meant is it true he's offered for ye?"
    "Yes."
    "Well? When do ye be about givin' him yer answer, pray tell?"
    Sophy shrugged, abandoning the effort to adjust her hat. Hats always had their
    way with her. "Grandfather is giving him an answer this afternoon. The Earl sent
    a message that he would be calling at three today to receive it."
    Bess came to an abrupt halt on the stone path. Gray curls bobbed beneath her
    yellowed muslin cap. Her lined face crinkled in astonishment. "This afternoon?
    And here ye be choosin' herbs from my stock as if it were any normal day of the
    week? What nonsense is this, child? Ye should be at Chesley Court at this very
    moment and dressed in yer best clothes."
    "Why? Grandfather does not need me there. He is perfectly capable of telling the
    devil to go to hell."
    "Tellin' the devil to go to hell! Sophy, child, are ye sayin' ye told yer
    grandfather to turn down the Earl's offer?"
    Sophy smiled grimly as she came to a halt beside the chestnut gelding. "You have
    it exactly right, Bess." She stuffed the little packets of herbs into the
    pockets of her habit.
    "Nonsense,”' Bess exclaimed. "I can't believe Lord Dorring is so muddle-brained
    as this. He knows you'll never get another offer this good if ye live to be a
    hundred."
    "I'm not so certain of that,” Sophy said dryly. "It depends, of course, on your
    definition of a good offer."
    Bess's gaze narrowed thoughtfully. "Child, are ye doin' this because yer afraid
    of the Earl? Is that what's wrong? I thought ye were too sensible to believe all
    the stories they tell down in the village."
    "I do not believe them all," Sophy said as she swung herself into the saddle.
    "Only about half. Does that console you, Bess?" Sophy adjusted the skirts of her
    habit under her legs. She rode astride, although it was not considered quite
    proper for a woman of her station to do so. In the country, however, people