The Seduction of Sarah Marks Read Free

would expect to appear drawn. But she looked refreshed—and fragile as spun glass, yet pugnaciously strong.
    Amazing.
    “You stare at me, sir,” she said, without turning his way.
    “My apologies.” Fighting an impulse to squirm, he rested his elbow against the window’s ledge and thumbed the edge of his broken tooth—an old habit he’d long ago given up trying to break. How could he not help but look at her? Bloody hell, despite her prim and perfunctory manner, she captivated him.
    A thought struck him that there hadn’t been a mirror back at the inn. “Your eyes match your cape. Are you aware of their color, madam?”
    She shrugged, her cornflower blue eyes reflecting the sunlight passing through the carriage. “I should care little about my looks, my lord, when I have more dire things to ponder.”
    Blast his stupidity. “Of course, but since your eyes are striking enough to comment on, I thought you might like to know.”
    “Oh.”
    His gaze drifted to her pink mouth that formed a plump circle and had yet to return to its natural shape. Pure lust shot up from nowhere. Had they come together this morning under other circumstances, he would have found her kissable-looking lips irresistible. And in all likelihood, he’d have found a way to entice her into settling on his lap, where he would have entertained the both of them on this tedious journey.
    Another turn of her head, and she spied where he stared. She let out a small gasp.
    The wave of pleasure that had run through him at the sight of her sensuous lips evaporated like morning mist off a sunlit pond.
    Bugger! He took to watching the spring flowers along the roadside and unobtrusively managed his breathing exercises. “Once again, my apologies. Although I have experience with amnesia, I’m finding it exceedingly difficult to deal with it in another.”
    Thoughts of what he’d endured over his many months of recovery swept through him like an angry gale. He didn’t want those particular memories, thought he’d brushed them aside, but he found they only lay in hiding for as quickly as they could descend upon him. Damnation! He couldn’t get home soon enough. And blast it all, he’d even left his powders behind.
    He searched for words to alleviate the uncomfortable silence. “Do not dwell on your situation or try to think beyond this moment or you’ll only buy yourself trouble.”
    Pain washed across her countenance. He was right—she had been trying to make sense of things.
    Her chin quivered until she set her mouth against it, but she said nothing. “You’ve been trying to imagine your future and you cannot.”
    She gave a slight nod. “So it would seem.”
    “Which is normal.” Good God, what had he got himself into?
    “Normal?”
    “You cannot project into the future because you have no memory of your past.”
    She let out a burdened sigh and tucked a stray lock behind her ear with gloved fingers that had a tremble to them. “I do not understand.”
    He had to keep her talking, keep her mind off her dilemma lest she panic. He leaned forward. “It’s impossible to imagine a future without using your past as reference, so you must live in the present until your memory returns. Actually, in the whole of my recovery, learning to exist in the moment turned out to be the most valuable thing I gleaned from my experience.”
    He resisted a terrible urge to rest a comforting hand over hers. “Think on it—what do we really ever have but this moment?”
    Her shoulders visibly relaxed. He offered her a small grin, pleased she made sense of what he tried to convey. “The physician who saw to my recovery has retired on a parcel of my land. I sent a courier ahead, so Doctor Hemphill awaits your arrival.” And so does Mum, with whatever opinions she’ll have in the matter.
    Sarah rubbed the back of her neck. “Perhaps I should be thanking the good Lord someone with knowledge of this condition rescued me, but I am too angry with Him at the