The Toplofty Lord Thorpe Read Free

betrothed that she was in danger of making a cake of herself in front of half the ton ) by the arrival of Lucy’s Aunt Rachel, the older woman alighting from an open carriage that had just then pulled up alongside them.
    â€œHere you are, Lucy,” that harassed-looking lady said without preamble. “You promised to stay besidethe carriage, dear. It took us forever to work our way around once you took off over that rise. Come away now, Lucy. It’s time for tea.”
    â€œYou are Miss Gladwin’s keep…um…that is to say, are you in charge of this young lady?” Lord Thorpe asked, causing Aunt Rachel’s thin shoulders to rise up protectively around her ears. If she had hoped, once she was close enough to see that her charge had once again landed in the brambles, that they just might be able to escape the scene with their skins intact, Lord Thorpe’s deliberately rude question put a firm period to her hopes. Swallowing down hard on the lump of apprehension that had risen in her throat, the lady could do no more than turn and face her questioner, replying, “I am Rachel Gladwin, my lord, Miss Gladwin’s aunt.”
    â€œYou have my sympathy, Mrs. Gladwin,” he responded, favoring her with a slight bow as he looked down at her from his lofty height.
    â€œ Miss Gladwin, my lord,” Aunt Rachel corrected. “I am Sir Hale’s younger sister.”
    â€œThen I repeat my condolences twofold, ma’am, and hope you forgive me for requiring you to own up to the blood relationship in public. Therefore, since I feel it incumbent upon us to discuss what I believe to be a common problem, I will call upon you at your residence in the morning. Good day to you, ma’am,” he concluded in a tone that made it clear he had dismissed her.
    â€œAnd good day to you too, my lord,” Lucy called after the two riders who had already begun edgingtheir mounts on down the path, just as if she didn’t know that they had cut her deliberately.
    â€œHave Walter lift that horrid machine up behind the carriage, Lucy, and join me inside,” her aunt instructed, already turning to be handed up onto the squabs. “We must hurry home so that I might indulge in a fit of the vapors. I do believe I have earned it.”
    â€œOh, pooh, Aunt Rachel—” Lucy twinkled irrepressibly “—you never would be so missish.”
    â€œKnowing that your insufferable Lord Thorpe is coming to Portman Square tomorrow to ring a peal over my head about my delinquent niece may just be the nudge I needed to cultivate a tendency to find solace in nervous spasms. Oh yes,” that lady went on imperturbably as her niece began to protest that Lord Thorpe was not about to do any such thing. “Or did you think he was coming to tell me he has fallen madly in love with you and has jilted Lady Cynthia so that the two of you can live happily ever after?”
    Lucy squirmed comfortably against the squabs, a satisfied smile lighting her eyes. “The thought had occurred to me, my dear aunt. The thought had occurred.”

CHAPTER TWO
    L UCY AWOKE the following morning with a feeling of warm anticipation that was totally unmixed with any touches of anxiety. Lord Thorpe was coming to Portman Square in a few short hours. Lord Thorpe, the man she had first clapped eyes on over three years ago, instantly losing her heart to the tall blond gentleman who had, by his magnificent physical appearance, filled every one of her girlish requirements for a perfect mate.
    The fact that this gentleman had not been similarly emotionally poleaxed by the mere sight of a young dark-haired miss in virginal white muslin did not serve to lessen her enthusiasm a whit. Neither did the information that the gentleman of her dreams was already engaged to be married.
    Against the pleadings of her aunt, who told her to give up her childish fantasies and concentrate on hooking herself a more landable fish,