The Desires of a Countess Read Free Page A

color like
that before. Blue-green like the ocean.”
    She trailed off. What was wrong with
her? Talking like that about a man she’d only just met? It wasn’t
like her.
    Harriet arched an eyebrow, and Ginny
shook the images from her head before she continued, “He looked
like a man who could take what he wanted.”
    “ You were looking closely.” Harriet’s
tone was low, as if that fact signified.
    “ Why shouldn’t I? He holds
the keys to my future and my son’s life. I must learn everything
about him that I can.”
    She frowned. They were pretty words,
but she hadn’t been thinking about those very rational things when
she’d been with Simon. No, instead of concentrating on the problem
– him, she’d been flustered by the odd feelings he’d inspired. It
had taken all her strength to maintain distance and control. Her
instinct had been far different. She’d wanted to run from him, from
the strange curl of heat that had begun in the pit of her stomach
and eased its way throughout her body when he looked at
her.
    Harriet’s expression made it more than
clear that she didn’t believe her rationalizations any more than
Ginny did herself.
    “ And what do you know about
him now that you’ve spent a few moments in his company?” her friend
asked with a wry smile.
    Ginny paused to contemplate the
question. “Well, he doesn’t have that coldness most of his family
does. His eyes weren’t just amazing, they were warm. Not cruel like
Henry’s. Even when Simon was angry, they didn’t become
hard.”
    “ Are you admitting I was
right, then?”
    Ginny wrinkled her brow. “About
what?”
    “ That he isn’t as much of a
threat as you thought. That perhaps he isn’t here to destroy you or
your son’s independence. Perhaps he’s here to help you, just as he
claimed.” Her friend tilted her head while she waited for an
answer.
    It was one Ginny found hard to come
by. Yes, she’d been furious when she came into Henry’s office to
find Simon Webber sitting there like he was lord and master of the
estate. It had been too much of a reminder of her late husband in
that very spot, drunk, his voice harsh as he listed her faults as a
wife and lover. Henry’s cruel hands wrapping around her arms,
dragging her to their room for punishment for unknown crimes. She
shivered at the unwanted memory.
    “ Ginny, you look as though
you’ll faint away. Breathe.” Harriet rose to her feet with a look
of concern.
    “ I’m sorry.” Ginny shook her
head. She was being weak. Simon Webber didn’t hold any special
power over her. “My mind wandered.”
    Her companion arched an incredulous
eyebrow. “I would say so, and I’d hate to be on that journey if it
makes your eyes fill with such terror.”
    Ginny ignored her friend’s words and
forced her mind back to the subject at hand. “Mr. Webber isn’t what
I thought he would be. He doesn’t seem to be a monster, but that
could be part of his act. One way or another, it doesn’t change the
fact that I don’t want him here. I don’t want him, or any other
person, involved in my or my son’s life.”
    “ Is that all you’re afraid
of?”
    Ginny shrugged at her pointed
question. “We both know that the longer he stays, the more likely
he’ll be to find out…”
    She trailed off and for a moment the
two women sat with locked gazes. Finally, Harriet broke the
uncomfortable pause. “So where is he now?”
    Ginny didn’t answer, but shifted in
her chair.
    Her friend stared at her with wide
green eyes. “You put him in the cottage, even though you aren’t as
certain of his motives as you were before?”
    “ That was my plan.” Ginny
squirmed under Harriet’s disapproving gaze. “Don’t look at me like
that.”
    Harriet shook her head in utter
disbelief. “I can’t believe you’d send him all the way down there
when you aren’t even sure if you have a true reason to fear
him.”
    “ I can’t take any chances.”
But even as she said the words, the pang of