Read Devil Takes A Bride for Free Online Page B

then, the parlor doors swung open and Lizzie glanced over, flashing a quick, warm smile as the dowager and her doctor came in from the drawing room. Hastily setting her project aside, she rose to greet them.
    Frail but regal, Augusta, the Dowager Viscountess Strathmore, sat her wheeled Bath chair like a throne as her handsome young doctor gallantly rolled her in. Her Ladyship still commanded a stately beauty, her wrinkled skin taut across her high cheekbones. Her blue eyes were rheumy, but as bright and shrewd as ever.
    â€œHere we are, then.” Dr. Andrew Bell had a cherubic face, a tousle of blond hair, and big, brown, puppy-dog eyes. In the environs of Bath, he was considered a fine catch, quite making his fortune. He ran a thriving practice and had recently enhanced his medical reputation by inventing the wildly popular Dr. Bell’s New Pills for Bilious Complaints. Even the local vicar swore by them.
    â€œSo, Dr. Bell, how do you find your patient today?” Lizzie asked with cordial cheer. As an afterthought, she turned and put the lid back on the glue, with a suspicious glance at Pasha.
    â€œRight as rain, I am happy to say,” he declared with an amiable smile.
    â€œTold you so,” Lady Strathmore clipped out, brushing a few long cat hairs off her black bombazine skirts with an air of brisk nonchalance. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”
    â€œAnd we are glad to know it,” he agreed, meeting Lizzie’s gaze with a twinkle in his eyes at old Ironsides’s curmudgeonly manner. “I vow it must be the excellent care that Miss Carlisle is taking of you that is to account for it, my lady.”
    â€œBosh,” Lizzie muttered, blushing slightly as she bustled over to poke the hearth fire back to life lest Lady Strathmore catch a chill.
    Dr. Bell watched Lizzie with attentive interest; the dowager observed him with a narrow smile. “Won’t you stay for tea, dear boy?” she purred, then gestured to Lizzie to ring the bellpull.
    She obeyed, even as Dr. Bell touched his hand to his heart with a fond wince. “I wish I could, ma’am. Alas, I must look in on the Harris children. The whole brood has come down with the measles.”
    â€œOh, dear. We shall add them to our prayers.” Lizzie turned to him, fretting at the news. When the weather was fine, their neighbor’s rambunctious children sometimes visited, bringing cheer and laughter into the house. “Do tell Mrs. Harris that if there is anything I can do to help, she need only ask.”
    â€œHow thoughtful you are, Miss Carlisle. I am sure she will appreciate your kind offer.” His gently admiring gaze was a little too intent for Lizzie’s comfort, but thankfully, Margaret, the maid, appeared just then in answer to the bell.
    The skinny, sallow girl dropped a curtsy. “ ’Ow might I be of assignation, milady?” she asked proudly.
    All three of them looked at the girl in bafflement for a second; then Lizzie winced with private chagrin at her pupil’s blunder.
    â€œWhat a bizarre question.” The dowager turned to Lizzie, nonplussed. “Whatever does the silly creature mean? Assignation?”
    â€œAh,
assistance,
ma’am,” Lizzie soothed, coloring a bit. “She meant assistance.”
    â€œPardon my corrigendum, ma’am,” Margaret piped up, undaunted. “I seem to have misunderspoken myself.”
    â€œDaft gel, have you been in the liquor?” Lady Strathmore demanded.
    Margaret gasped. “No, ma’am! Never!”
    â€œThen cease this gibberish at once and fetch our tea.”
    Lizzie sent Margaret a bolstering look, but the crestfallen maid fled. “Really, my lady, one oughtn’t mock her. She is doing her best to learn.”
    â€œI am well aware of your bluestocking proclivities, Miss Carlisle, but I will not have you ruining the lower servants with this nonsense of teaching them to read. You must desist. It