Read Dangerous Diana (Brambridge Novel 3) for Free Online

“Carter, I… I think I will need some new clothes.”
     
    The dresses that Carter brought up were fifty years out of fashion and had necklines that stopped right under the chin. They shimmered in the light as Melissa stroked a hand through them. Sharply she pulled her hands away; the colors reminded her too much of how her father’s garden in Buckinghamshire had looked, filled with flowers of all different hues. That was before his untimely death of course, on an expedition high in the Pyrenees mountains, looking for the elusive Corona del Rey that only flowered once every five years.
    A silk gown dyed a deep hue of green stood out strongly against the others. Green like the grassy slopes of the Pyrenees in the summer . Pulling off her own soiled dress, she dressed quickly in front of the mirror, cursing the buttons of the pretty dress that ran all the way from her waist to her neck. Twisting from side to side, she did up as many button and hooks as she could, but no matter how hard she stretched, she could not reach those that led from her shoulder blades to her neck.
    After a short knock at the door, Carter re-entered. “I’ve come back with your brushes… um… err”
    Melissa gasped and shuffled behind the Chinese screen that stood in the corner of the room. Biting her lip, she looked down at the dress that hung loosely around her. Could she see Earl Harding in this state? Perhaps if she always stood facing him? As she drew in a breath, the sides of the dress gaped, and fell away from her body. No . The only way that she was going to be decent in the dress would be to ask Carter to do up the last buttons . She didn’t want to incur the earl’s wrath again. If only there was a female maid to ask . Sliding back out from behind the screen to face out of the window, Melissa bowed her head and gritted her teeth.
    “Carter,” she mumbled, “I’m awfully sorry. Please could you do up these last hooks on the dress?”
    “I… um…” Carter did not move from the door for a while, as she waited tautly by the window. And then, as if making a great decision, in giant steps he strode to stand behind her and wordlessly started to hook the buttons together.
    He was extremely slow, the rhythm of his fingers pulling the button through the eye of the hook creating a hypnotic beat that quelled the quiet fear that had risen in her heart. Melissa lifted her head sharply, and, startled, opened her eyes wide, as a strong, warm finger traced her back where the last hook would lie. In the light reflection of the window, a man, much taller than Carter, stared down at the nape of her neck, his hands slightly lifted up from his side.
    Melissa shivered, a true quiver of tingling awareness. The man’s eyes blazed warmth, even in the reflection of the window. She whirled away and in one deft movement, brought her glasses to her nose.
    The earl stood just a pace front of her. His expression icily forbidding, as if the man that she had seen blurred in the window had been his fiery twin.
    She had known it was him, from the moment his finger had touched her skin. Pushing her silver frames more firmly onto her face and straightening her back, she took one step back, and then another, until her back pressed against the window sill, and there was nowhere else she could go.
    “I would ask you not to try and seduce my butler again in order to escape.” The earl’s voice contained tones of gravel, but his face remained blank. “He may fall for it, but I will not.”
    “I wasn’t trying to seduce him.” Melissa clasped her hands together. Not again! She lifted her chin. “You have not thought to provide me with a maid, and the dresses you brought me need two people to put them on!”
    It fell on deaf ears. The earl had already turned and walked straight to the door, shutting it with a bang.
    Melissa stumbled towards the bedroom chair. The man was an obstinate fool . Obstinate to continue to think that she had anything to do with the