The Rake's Arranged Marriage Read Free

followed her out here. She could feel her blood rise as her gaze drifted over him. He'd been so brazen as to take his jacket off and the creamy shirt he wore now was billowing in the breeze around his thickly muscled frame. She found her eyes drifting lower, lower, down over his well-fitted breeches...
    She shook her head brusquely. "Your guests must be wondering where you are, Lord Eliot!" she snapped. But still, he did not move. He just regarded her steadily. Cara was certain that this was all a ploy to drive her mad. She felt no fear at being alone in the maze with the rogue. But she was tired of the game.
    If he's set on staying here, let him. It's his damned maze.
    She turned on her heel and walked quickly back in the direction she'd come. But behind her, she heard footfalls.
    Cara resisted the urge to turn around. Instead, she picked up her pace. Lord Eliot followed suit.
    "Find your own way – and be damned!" she called over her shoulder. And then she began to run. She only got a few paces, though, before a root seemed to rise up from the ground before her like a living thing. She was moving so swiftly that she couldn't stop in time. A sharp cry escaped her lips as she felt her foot catch on the root. She lost her balance, tumbling forward and landing on her knee – hard. She lay there for a moment, biting back the tears that pricked her eyes. There was a sharp pain shooting through her leg, threatening to take her down in a faint. She rolled onto her back with a great gasp, clutching her knee to her chest. But when she saw that Lord Eliot was rushing towards her, she bit her lip and made a valiant effort to stand.
    "Don't move, you fool!" Eliot barked.
    And then he was at her side. His warm, strong hand slid underneath her back, and he lifted her with ease. She stiffened all of her muscles, unwilling to let him touch her.
    "I can't carry you if you're as stiff as a board, woman!" he growled. She reluctantly relaxed some. "Now, wrap your arm over my shoulder. That's it. You'd think you'd never been carried by a man before!"
    "I haven't!" she hissed. "Not since I was small."
    "Well," said Eliot, striding easily through maze with Cara in his arms, "that's a damn shame."

Chapter Two
    Cara's mind was spinning, her ability to think rationally dulled by the shooting pain in her knee – and the proximity to Quentin Eliot as he rushed towards Hedgeton manor holding her tightly was not helping. She wanted to scream “Put me down!” but she knew it was no good. Her knee was seriously injured – she had felt the awful snapping that foretold something very bad indeed when she'd fallen. Besides, she didn't think that Lord Eliot would take orders from her under any conditions. Stubborn man.
    Held close in his arms, Cara could smell the brandy on Eliot's breath – a sweet, musky smell that mingled with his sweat. She closed her eyes, feeling suddenly faint again, and let herself drift. When next she opened her eyes, they were ascending the staircase to the front entrance of Hedgeton and Eliot was calling out loudly for his housekeeper and the butler.
    "Mrs. Cooper! Sanderson!"
    He burst through the front doorway, and as Cara's eyes blinked open, she could see guests spilling out from the drawing room. They crowded into the foyer to see what all the fuss was. Her father's shocked face, alongside Frederick Simms' equally aghast maw appeared in the midst of the chattering press. Then, Mrs. Cooper was closing in on them.
    "Oh dear God! What's happened to the girl?" Lord Eliot's plump housekeeper asked.
    "Taken a tumble out in the maze."
    "The shock's setting in. You don't think-?"
    "Yes, Mrs. Cooper – a broken leg, likely. Something in her knee joint," Lord Eliot said solemnly.
    "I'll have Sanderson call the doctor," Mrs. Cooper breathed, and then she turned and made a hasty exit in search of the butler.
    Guests were crowding them now, pressing in to get a look. The heat from their bodies and the high-pitched, excited talk all