Read Forsters 04 - Romancing the Runaway for Free Online Page B

was two. I myself was twelve at the time.”
    “Astonishing.”
    “Not really.” She lifted her shoulders, as though they couldn’t stand the weight of the compliment. “I can’t really take any credit. Bianca and I connected right from the first and it carried on from there.”
    Gabe wanted to ask a great deal more. There was a wistfulness in her expression when she mentioned her father than persuaded Gabe it wasn’t him she was running away from. It also made him more curious than ever to hear the reason for her reckless behaviour. Half an hour in her company was sufficient to persuade him that she wasn’t some flighty miss escaping from a doomed love affair or tyrannical parent. But explanations would have to wait until the meal finished and the servants had withdrawn.
    Gabe changed the subject, stifling his amusement when she attacked the cream trifle placed before her with relish. For such a slim creature she had an astonishing appetite and, clearly, a very sweet tooth.
    “Have you had sufficient, ladies?” he asked, valiantly trying to keep his lips straight.
    “Thank you, yes.” Miss Cantrell glanced up, presumably saw the amusement in his expression and offered him an impish smile. “I was very hungry.”
    “Obviously.”
    “It was delicious,” Mrs. Grantley agreed, even though she had the appetite of a sparrow.
    Gabe stood. Munford helped Mrs. Grantley from her chair. Gabe offered Miss Cantrell his arm to lean on as they crossed the room and the three of them took up the chairs on either side of the fireplace.
    “Perhaps you will be more comfortable if you elevated your sore ankle.” Gabe placed a footstool before her and she lifted her leg onto it, giving him a brief glimpse of what he judged would be a well-turned ankle when the puffiness around the joint had completely subsided. “Is that better?”
    “That you, much.”
    “Tea for the ladies, please, Munford. And I shall have brandy.”
    The footman bowed and left to comply with Gabe’s orders. It wasn’t long before Miss Cantrell and Mrs. Grantley were sharing a pot of tea and Gabe was nursing a brandy snifter.
    “Thank you, Munford, that will be all.”
    “Very good, my lord.”
    The door closed softly behind Munford and his fellow footman. The only sound in the room was now the crackling of the logs in the grate and Tobias’s soft snores as he stretched out full length in front of the fire and made himself at home. Mrs. Grantley finished her tea and appeared to be having trouble keeping her eyes open.
    If Miss Cantrell found the silence unsettling, she gave no sign. That was unusual in Gabe’s experience. He had yet to meet a female who didn’t feel the need to fill silences with unnecessary chatter. He examined her countenance, her features a combination of light and shadow in the flickering candlelight. Her brow was slightly creased and he could tell from the elevated rate of her breathing that she was nervous to find herself virtually alone with him. Mrs. Grantley lent respectability to the situation but already her eyes had fluttered to a close and her breathing had slowed, indicating that she’d fallen asleep.
    Gabe leaned back in his chair, stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed them at the ankles. Then he took pity on Miss Cantrell and offered her an opening.
    “Is there something—”
    “Lord Gabriel, I ought to—”
    They both spoke at once, and broke off equally abruptly.
    “I beg your pardon, Miss Cantrell. Was there something you wished to say to me?”
    She sat forward, still with one leg on the stool, and fixed him with an intent gaze. “Firstly, I wish to thank you for your kindness. You undoubtedly saved my life.”
    “Think nothing of it.”
    “But I think a very great deal about it, that’s my difficulty. Had it not been for you I…well, I doubt I could have survived for much longer.”
    Gabe agreed with her but didn’t consider it necessary to say so. “Then it’s fortunate that I happened