The Scoundrel's Secret Siren Read Free

cooked up that night!”
    Catching the anxious expression on her sister’s face, Lorelei laughed. “Oh, don’t look like that, dearest. It is nothing bad!  Only consider, soon I will be presented and the Season will begin, and I will have no choice but to settle down into a respectable marriage to some dreadful bore of a gentleman – just like the ghost! And then it will be too late. I don’t have an officer to elope with, you know. I am not even certain how one would go about finding one. Though, otherwise, you could say that we are kindred spirits. But I have thought about it, and decided that an adventure will be just the thing. The Season will be upon us soon, and then it is only a matter of time before I must succumb to the inevitable and marry some rich dullard.”
    Constance shook her head, bewildered and alarmed. “But I thought you wished to go to town?”
    “And so I do! But it has only recently occurred to me how brief and small an excitement that will be compared to the life I will spend ordering a manor and being a great lady. Unless , of course, I end a spinster, which is just as likely, you know. I am no great beauty.”
    “Oh, don’t say that! I am certain you will take very well, and you won’t think it so boring then to have a gentleman offer for you.”
    “But I’m not very certain I would mind being a spinster all that much! I have enough of a fortune from Mama to be comfortable. And I will have a lot more time for novels, and adventures, then.”
    Con looked horrified. “You’re teasing me. Adventures? I know you would not really wish a life of infamy. But what is it you have been plotting?”
    “I have decided on a dark gown and a veil to cover my face. For I mean to sneak out tonight, if all goes well and the weather stays clear, and see for myself this ghost of Paddlington Road.”
    Constance turned to stare at her as if she had gone insane. “I beg your pardon? Lorelei, have you taken leave of your senses? I thought, I hoped, you were quizzing me! To go riding alone, at night? Aside from the fact that you would be quite ruined and in disgrace if discovered, before you have even been presented, there are many other dangers to consider!” her voice hushed, the younger lady sounded scandalised by this latest trick of her sister’s.
    “ I have told you, I will wear a veil and I will not be discovered! Don’t worry yourself so much, my dear. It is only one night, to do something I would never do otherwise. And there might not even be a passing carriage or anyone that might spot me at all. We are quite in the country, you know.”
    “Your mare might take fright or throw you! You have never ridden in the dark. You might get lost!”
    “Tulip is the gentlest horse on Earth, Con. You know she will obey me, and I am an excellent horsewoman. How could I get lost, when I will be following the road?” She gave her sister a pacifying smile.
    “There might be bandits! What then?”
    “Bandits? Here? I shouldn’t think there will be. But I will take father’s pistol, just in case, if it will be a comfort to you.”
    “But you don’t know how to use it!”
    “I have seen father honing his aim!” Lorelei insisted defensively. “And these bandits of yours won’t know that I have never shot a pistol before.”
    When Constance still looked unconvinced, Lorelei sighed. “Please, Con. This is my only chance to do anything interesting before I must succumb to matrimony and old age. I need your help.”
    Con hesitated a moment, anxiously brushing a ringlet behind her ear. “Oh, very well. But I am still certain that this is a very bad idea. And you must not be gone long.”
    “ Thank you.” Lorelei said warmly, very happy that she had a sister to aid and abet her.
    *
    It was very dark outside when Lorelei led Tulip, saddled and eager to be free of her stall, past the verge at the back of the house, where the sound of their passing was unlikely to be heard by anyone. She was dressed in her