The Savage Miss Saxon Read Free Page B

colored by a golden-all-over tan. She was, in a word, exotic.
    “ Two Indians!” Jeremy shouted before Nicholas could quell him with a stern look.
    The Earl could see the girl was trying to suppress a grin. Obviously the chit was enjoying herself hugely at their expense.
    “ Mattapewíwak nik schwannakwak ,” she told her companion, causing him to grunt and nod his head.
    “What did you say to him?” Cuffy dared to ask.
    The woman turned to the lad, smiled (thereby showing off a full set of startlingly white, even teeth), and informed him demurely, “I said, loosely interpreting, of course, ‘The white people are a rascally set of beings.’ ”
    The young men stared at her in awe, but Mannering had reached the limit of his endurance. Their unwelcome overnight guest and her black-faced shadow had some explaining to do and it was time and enough to make a beginning. So thinking, he approached the female and asked baldly, “By what right, madam, did you come barging into this house last night, bully a valued family retainer, and then take up residence for the night?”
    The Indian growled something evil-sounding under his breath but a motion from the girl silenced him.
    With unhurried movements the girl poured herself a cup of coffee, laced it liberally with sugar, and sat herself down, of all places, in Nicholas’s own chair behind his desk.
    “I see I have some explaining to do,” she said, eyeing the other occupants of the room one by one. “I’m here in answer to Chas’s—that’s my father—dying wish. Frankly, left to my own devices I wouldn’t come to England if I were to be offered the throne. For all Chas was English, I was born an American and I’m proud of it, but there’s no denying deathbed promises, now is there?”
    She took a gulp of coffee, grimaced at its sweetness, and went on, “Chas told me the whole sordid tale before he passed on, you see—how he ran afoul of my grandfather and was cast out of house and home. Not that it mattered much, as he was a younger son anyway, but I could tell his pride was still hurt even at the end. Anyway, once he was sure I was to be left alone in the world, he made me promise to come here to see my grandfather. I guess Chas hoped the old curmudgeon, or Chas’s older brother if the old man was already dead, would take me in.”
    She stopped for breath and looked Nicholas in the eye. “Now, who are you ? You’re too young to be my uncle, and it’s certain you’re nobody’s grandfather. How do you fit in the family?”
    The Earl rubbed absently at his left temple, which was beginning to throb. “Young lady, I have not understood a single word you have said. However, I do believe we can begin to unravel this muddle once I tell you that these three over here,” he pointed an accusing finger at the trio, “amused themselves last night by rearranging all the fingerposts at the crossroads outside Linton. You may think you know where you are at, but you are probably several miles distant from your intended destination.
    “ This , madam, is Linton Hall. I am Nicholas Mannering, Earl of Linton, and that shamefaced redhead is my brother Jeremy.”
    “So sorry, ma’am,” Jeremy muttered weakly.
    Mannering continued, “The other two are friends of Jeremy. The aspiring dandy over there, the despair of his afflicted parents I might add, is Cuffy Simpson, while that humble, slightly vacuous-looking youth is his cousin, Billy Simpson. Now,” he prompted, “if we could know your name...”
    The girl did not, as Nicholas had assumed, nay, even hoped, look the least disconcerted to learn that she had spent last night, not in the bosom of her family, as she had supposed, but in a house full of strangers—and male strangers at that.
    “Certainly, my lord,” she responded readily enough. “As I was named for my grandfather—Chas’s way of hoping some soft spot in his papa’s heart over that bit of sentimentality would assure me a place at the old man’s