Free Sweet Hoyden by Rachelle Edwards Page B

in her headlong flight at the sight of him and had adopted some semblance
of poise.
    'Mademoiselle, are you not Madame de Chambray's abigail?" he asked as
he accosted her.
    He spoke to her in fluent French, and she replied in a similar manner,
averting her eyes demurely as a maidservant might do, but which was out of character
for her.
    'I have that honor, monsieur."
    'Madame de Chambray, I am bound to say, has the exceeding good fortune that
you were willing to leave
France
and accompany her to
London
.
Not many servants have been willing to do so."
    'I am shocked to think you might consider me willing to leave my mistress to
fend for herself in a strange country, monsieur. I
have no taste for what is happening in
France
."
    'I am full of admiration for you. Have you, er, been in service with Madame
de Chambray for long?"
    'A few months." Jeanne looked up then, her
eyes narrowing. "Why do you ask, monsieur?"
    It was his turn to look away. "No reason, I assure you, beyond the fact
you look far too young to have been in service a great many years."
    Jeanne's cheeks flamed as she watched him go into the house for his
appointment with Pandora. "Young, indeed," she scoffed. "I am
scarce younger than his own wife, and she has no notion how fortunate she is.
If Lord Asheville were my husband I would do anything to please him."
    No one could have been aware of Pandora's inner qualms when she went to meet
her husband. She was fully aware of the pretty picture she presented coming
down the grand staircase of Lady St. James's house. Lord Asheville awaited her
in the downstairs hall, wearing a caped driving coat and Hessian boots that had
been polished to a high shine.
    When she reached the hall, he took her hand and raised it to his lips, a
gesture that set her heart racing, something that made her feel quite foolish.
    She was behaving like a mooncalf, and she hadn't been like that during his
courtship of her.
    'How rare it is for a woman of such beauty to be prompt for an
appointment," he told her.
    'My governess always instilled it into me that it is invariably best to be
prompt and thus invite no anger."
    'How wise of her to do so; she has my profound gratitude," he replied
as he handed her up onto the box. "I have lost count on how many occasions
I have been obliged to cool my heels while waiting for Lady Asheville on just
such occasions as this."
    'That must be exceeding irritating for you."
    He laughed. "You may be sure of that, madame."
    A moment later he climbed up beside her and took up the ribbons before they
set off in the handsome equipage for the short ride to
Hyde
Park
, where it was fashionable to be seen abroad at that hour of
the day.
    'When Mrs. Huxtable made mention of your wife the other evening,"
Pandora ventured, "you made the most remarkable statement to the effect
you did not miss her. For a gentleman who has been wed for so short a time, I
find that a mite odd, my lord."
    The earl was skillfully negotiating his way between two carriages, and when
that was successfully completed, he turned to glance at her, bestowing a most
charming smile that went a long way to melting the hardness she felt about her
heart. She was all at once tempted to reach out and touch him, to reconcile
their differences and return to their former amiability, which seemed just then
to be nothing more than a long-ago dream.
    'Oh, I do trust that little remark was not misinterpreted, madame," he
said, with such obvious insincerity that the moment was instantly gone.
    'I do not know how it is to be interpreted, my lord. I should not like to
regard you as hard-hearted, when your wife is evidently so good as to care for
an invalid regardless of her own desires. I am persuaded she would far rather
be in
London
riding with you in your carriage."
    The approaches to
Hyde Park
were crowded at
that time of the day, not only with carriages but with horses and pedestrians,
too. Her presence in Lord Asheville's phaeton was causing no small amount