Free Regina Scott by The Irresistible Earl

crying. Why can’t I find one, Lord? Just one? I promised!
    Beside her, he glanced up and down the beach. A few people were venturing onto the sands, she saw, and the creak of wagon wheels heralded the arrival f the first bathing machines. Her time was running out.
    “Still plenty of sand to go,” he said as if to encourage her. “There must be more than one.”
    “Not necessarily,” Meredee managed. She took a deep breath to steady herself. “My father searched fortwenty years for this shell. It’s common in the Mediterranean and along the African Coast, but it’s been sighted in England only along the Yorkshire Coast. It was the one thing he regretted, dying when he did—that he’d never found the incarnata. ”
    Lord Allyndale reached out and touched her chin, the leather of his gloves warm against her skin. He lifted her chin so that her gaze met his. His gaze was softer now, the blue deeper, like the depths of the North Sea but so much more alive. “I’m sure your father regretted more having to leave you.”
    Oh, how she wanted to believe that. Tears burned her eyes, and she had to look away, blinking them back. “I promised him I’d keep looking, that I’d find the incarnata for him. It was all he asked of me.”
    “Well, then,” he said, hand falling away, “perhaps after we finish today we should try the North Bay tomorrow. I understand it is considerably less inhabited. Surely the shells there are more likely to remain undisturbed.”
    The North Bay! Oh, how she’d longed to try it, but Mrs. Price would never countenance such a use of their carriage, and Meredee was not much of a rider. She’d might as well have wished to visit the snows of Antarctica. Yet surely it would take much of the day to reach it and return. Would he really be so generous with his time, for no other reason than to further her quest?
    She eyed him. His head was cocked, his gaze intent on hers. She’d never met a man other than her father who could so tightly focus his attention. She could imagine Chase Dearborn in Parliament, rallying his peers to his cause. Surely no one ever refused him anything.
    “ We, my lord?” she asked. “It might be messy. In fact, it might require you to muddy your boots.”
    “I never muddy my boots, Miss Price,” he replied, but the twinkle in his eyes was unmistakable. “However, rest assured that I mean to accompany you. How could a gentleman in good conscience do otherwise? After all, if something threatened, you might have trouble running away barefooted.”
    She blushed at his teasing reminder of the state of her toes, dug into the golden sands. She should thank him for his kindness, ask him what time he’d like to leave, but something made her hesitate. If it were anyone else she knew offering her a trip to the North Bay, she would have jumped at the chance, barefoot or not. So why did she feel as if she should run away now, before this man came to mean too much to her? Before she began refining on what could only be a kindness?
    She could feel him watching her, waiting for her answer. Oh, but she would not give in to these craven feelings, not when she had a chance to fulfill her promise to her father. She squared her shoulders andmet Chase’s gaze. “Very well, my lord. I would be delighted to accompany you to the North Bay.”
    She could only hope that she’d truly feel delight once she forced the butterflies from her stomach.

Chapter Seven
    B oth Algernon and Mrs. Price demanded an explanation of Meredee’s disappearance when she returned to the inn later that morning. She found them in Mrs. Price’s bedchamber, next to the sitting room they’d also engaged for their stay. Mrs. Price’s room was the largest of the set, with creamy yellow walls and a dusky green-patterned carpet. With the deep green bed hangings on the walnut bed, Meredee often felt she’d wandered into a forest glade rather than a bedchamber.
    Mrs. Price had retreated to the bed and sat against the