Winning Lord West Read Free

I always think of you. Strong and exuberant. The way
you were as an impetuous girl. This is how you should stay, rather
than wrapped up in stifling convention, pretending you’re like
everyone else.”
    Abruptly her euphoria drained away. She
hadn’t heard him sound so sincere since those ecstatic weeks at
Woodley Park, when she’d imagined herself in love with him. He
didn’t sound like the shallow man she’d judged him to be. He
sounded like someone who took the trouble to know her.
    The fermenting fear in her stomach built to
terror.
    Long ago she’d placed Vernon Grange in a box
marked “hazardous .” And that was where she wanted him to
stay. “I had no idea you thought of me at all, let alone always ,” she said repressively.
    Something that might have been regret
shadowed his features, before he resumed his lazy manner. He hadn’t
been a languid boy. He’d been vivid with passion and enthusiasm.
But then so had she. Her verve hadn’t survived her marriage.
    “What do you think of Artemis?”
    Helena wanted to dismiss West’s choice of
horse, if only to avoid admitting that in arranging that glorious
gallop, he knew her better than she knew herself. But she couldn’t
lie about such a superb creature.
    “She’s a dream.” Then went on when
satisfaction sparked in his eyes. “Can I buy her from you?”
    “She’s not for sale,” he said curtly. The bay
snorted and shifted, as if West tightened his grip on the
reins.
    “That’s a pity.” Helena leaned down to pat
Artemis’s satiny neck. “I love her already.”
    “She’s not for sale because she’s already
yours.”
    “West,” Helena began in a warning tone.
    He raised a hand in a conciliatory gesture.
“But I’ll keep her for the moment.”
    “You’ll keep her because I haven’t accepted
her,” Helena retorted, stifling a pang. If only the price of taking
Artemis wasn’t so high.
    “No, I’ll keep her because you haven’t
accepted me ,” he said. Then added with an edge, “Yet.”
    Before Helena could muster the words to put
him in his place, he wheeled his great monster of a horse around
and galloped back toward his guests.

 
     
Letters
     
     
    Dover, 25 th May 1820
     
    My dearest Helena,
    Man proposes, and God disposes. Or at least
Lord Liverpool does. According to our esteemed prime minister, my
private pursuits must play second fiddle to the nation’s needs.
    I’m off to St. Petersburgh to solve a horrid
diplomatic tangle for the Tsar. A horrid tangle that threatens to
play havoc with the India trade, so you can imagine how the East
India Company is up in arms about it all.
    I have no idea how long I’ll be away.
Liverpool said it could be as much as three months.
    Damn it, Helena, the ship is about to sail to
catch the tide. I have so much to say to you, most of which I know
you’re not ready to hear. I’m sadly aware that we have years of
past hurts to bridge.
    Write to me at the embassy in St.
Petersburgh.
     
    Yours in haste.
    West
     
    P.S. I’m consigning Artemis to your care. If
you won’t accept her as a gift, consider her a loan. No, as an
expression of intentions that at present I’m too far away to make
reality.
    ***
     
    London 26 th May 1820
     
    Lord West,
    I wish you safe and swift travels – straight
to the devil!
    You have no right to call me your dearest,
and only a regrettable childhood association gives you the smallest
right to use my Christian name. Don’t bother writing to me. I won’t
read your letters. And I won’t set up a cozy correspondence as
though we’re anything more than the merest acquaintances. The
thought of the nation’s welfare in your careless hands gives me the
shivers. It’s even less likely that I’d entrust my person to
you.
    Sir, as far as I’m concerned, the Russians
are welcome to you.
     
    With no respect whatsoever.
    Helena Crewe
     
    P.S. Most unwillingly, I’ve found Artemis a
place in my stables. Inquiries indicate you have closed up your
London house