Free The Scoundrel's Secret Siren by Daphne du Bois

Papa took pity and bought him.”
    Winbourne noticed the great affection with which she spoke of her father – his own had spent much of his time at his club and had rarely put in an appearance at home. Such was the case with many fathers, he knew.
    “Ledley sounds like a man of c ommendable charity, Miss Lindon.”
    She smiled at him then, a rare and soft smile of such guileless innocence that he felt as if he could not have looked away even if he had wanted to.
    “Oh, yes. Papa is very kind, and you mustn’t think that I speak with an affectionate daughter’s prejudice.”
    “No doubt the general possesses a very sound character . But it seems your hound is coming back to heel.”
    “Oh! ” said Lorelei, turning to look. There was obvious sarcasm in his voice. Sirius was indeed out of the water, and dripping wet. Having spotted his mistress, the large black dog gave a resounding, happy bark and launched himself straight at her.
    She was sure that in all his excitement he meant to leap on her, as he had been wont to do as a puppy. She knew that if he did, not only would her cambric walking gown be soaked and decorated with muddy footprints, but she would be quite unable to keep her feet.
    There was no sense trying to issue a command to stop – Sirius was unlikely to heed her in his excitement over the water and the ducks.
    Winbourne regarded the bounding dog with a raised eyebrow, and just as he neared Lorelei he said, in a calm voice of complete and utter authority, “Sirius, sit.”
    Lorelei waited for the impact , but it never came. She glanced at the dog with a great deal of astonishment. Sirius was sitting obediently on the springy grass just in front of them, his tongue lolling as he regarded them happily through his fringe of dark fur.
    Lor elei reached out a hand to pat the dog’s head, praising him, before looking up at the tall gentleman next to her with a smile of disbelief. Winbourne looked unruffled.
    “ My lord, I am all astonishment. Thank you! However did you manage it? He never listens to me like that. Only Papa!”
    The corners of Winbourne’s lips turned upwards in a way that suggested amusement. “He is a fine beast and only wants a little discipline, Miss Lindon. It seems that I am obliged to come to your rescue once again, am I not?”
    Lorelei’s eyebrows shot up and she felt herself flush in indignation. She was about to protest that it was she who had rescued him on the road outside Ledley court, before she remembered herself.
    “I can’t imagine what you mean, Lord Winbourne. This is the first time you have had occasion to come to any sort of rescue,” she told him with great dig nity, bravely daring to meet his baiting gaze. He had riled her on purpose again, she realised with great irritation. She really ought to keep a better look-out for it in the future.
    “Is that so?” The earl looked unmoved.
    Lorelei might have surrendered to temptation and given her rescuer a piece of her mind, had her sister and chaperone not come to join them. Shortly after introductions had been made, the earl said his farewells to the ladies, leapt back on his horse and was gone.
    “What a handsome gentleman,” Nell permitted herself to observe. “Very well turned-out. Though, of course, every inch a rake hell, if you’ll permit me to say so, Miss Lorelei.”
    Lorelei privately agreed with the maid, but she dismissed the warning in a light tone, picked up the wet lead from where it lay on the grass next to the dog, and told her companions that she thought it high time they went home, before Sirius took another swim.
    The dog behaved perfectly all the way back to Lady Hurst’s townhouse. Lorelei wondered if he had been just as impressed by Winbourne as she had.
    Constance wasted no time in expressing her own admiration for the commanding gentleman, and demanded to know if Lorelei had had the good fortune to dance with him at any of the fêtes she had attended.
    Lorelei was only half- listening to