Free A Chance Encounter by Mary Balogh

like to discover the walk you were just showing to William,” Hetherington’s voice said from close to her shoulder.
    Elizabeth turned, startled. She was even more surprised to see that he had put the church group between himself and those who were still sitting on the blankets, so that it was almost a private moment that they shared. He obviously meant that she was to go with him alone, not with a group.
    She looked into his face for a clue to his motive. But his expression was polite, impassive. She smoothed her skirt and turned quietly to walk along the bank of the stream again toward the bend that would take them out of sight of the group. They walked in silence until they were unobserved. Then he began.
    â€œWhat is your game, Elizabeth?” he asked quietly. “Is it Mainwaring you are out to captivate now?”
    She looked across at him blankly. “What?” she said.
    â€œBecause if it is,” he said, his voice now revealing an underlying fury, “I am here to tell you that you will not be allowed to succeed.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” Elizabeth stopped and turned to him, a puzzled frown on her face.
    â€œDo you think I have forgotten what you are like?” he sneered. “He is wealthy and he is vulnerable, is he not? And it seems that you need money again. So you have set to work. And your plan is succeeding already, damn you. I have never seen Mainwaring so taken with a lady.”
    â€œI believe I have walked into a conversation not meant for me, my lord,” Elizabeth said, breathing rather fast. “I have not the faintest idea what you are talking about, except that I realize you are being insulting. I wish you would explain yourself more clearly.”
    He turned fully to her now, his fury showing in his heightened color and in his flashing eyes. “You wish me to put the matter plainly to you?” he snapped. “I shall do so. If your position does not offer you enough in the way of luxuries, and if you need more money, you may apply to me for it. I shall give it to you. But you will not ruin a friend of mine who has had a hard life and deserves some happiness. You will leave him alone, ma’am.”
    Elizabeth’s eyes had widened. Her body was rigid, fists clenched at her side. For a moment she could not speak. “How dare you!”, she whispered at last. “By what possible right could you so insult me?” Her hand rose of its own volition and cracked across his face.
    She watched in fascination as the white marks left by her fingers darkened almost immediately to an angry red. Then she met his eyes, which still blazed.
    â€œBy God, Elizabeth, you forget yourself,” he said through clenched teeth, and then his hands clamped painfully on her shoulders and crushed her against his body. His mouth came down on hers, hard and bruising.
    Elizabeth reacted in panic. This could not happen, her mind screamed. It must not happen. Her only defense against him was distance. If she did not get away immediately, she would be lost, in the same state of raw pain she had suffered for months six years before. So she fought. She clawed at his chest with her fingernails, kicked at his shins, twisted her head from side to side, and moaned her protest. His answer was to haul her harder against him so that hands and breasts were crushed against his coat, and to open his mouth over hers so that she could not pull away.
    Elizabeth continued to moan, but gradually collapsed against him and angled her head so that his seeking tongue could slip past the barrier of her teeth. And he was Robert, the man she had always loved, the only man who had ever touched her, the only man she had ever wanted. And wanted now with a searing passion.
    But suddenly she was alone again, cold, back beside the stream close to her place of employment, only two hands holding her shoulders in a bruising grip, a pair of cold blue eyes looking at her