Read Grace for Free Online

her head back to look up at him, her wide smile causing a distracting dimple to appear on each side of her mouth. “Did Faith put you up to posing as a nobleman? Or was it Patience? I know they both think that I’m at my last prayers, but really, I’m not, sir. If I marry, I’ll marry when I’m ready and not a moment before.” She looked through the crowd for one of her sisters, but did not see them anywhere.
    Trevor stopped dancing and drew her hand through his arm, resolutely ignoring the fetching dents in her cheeks. He led her toward the French doors she had so desperately wanted to reach earlier, the curious eyes of the entire village following. Whispering began as soon as they stepped outside, most guests wondering about the mysterious man who seemed so familiar with Grace Ackerly. Those who had spent time in London and already knew his identity hastened to spread their knowledge. Before the doors had completely closed behind Grace and Trevor, nearly everyone in the room knew the noble identity of the handsome stranger who had just disappeared out onto the darkened terrace with Grace.
    A few steps from the door, Grace stopped and pulled on his arm to halt Trevor, an inexplicable sense of alarm threading through her. He turned to face her, his eyes a deep, rich jade, gentle in the flickering torchlight from thegardens that bathed them both in a warm orange glow. He did not make her wait. “My friend and I are traveling to his new home, which lies about two hours west of here. We stopped to dine at the inn on the edge of the village and encountered your younger sister Mercy.”
    At this alarmingly ambivalent statement, Grace’s eyes grew round, and Trevor took her hands in his, speaking hastily to reassure her.“She’s just fine, Grace, really. She admired Sebastian’s team, and when we left, unbeknownst to us, she followed us alongside the road on horseback for a short way. While she was trying to get ahead of us for whatever reason, she jumped a hedge onto the road in front of our vehicle and simply miscalculated just how close she would be to the coach when she landed. Her horse spooked and threw her, and she got a rather nasty bump on the head, but we got her home all right, and . . .” He trailed off at the sudden look of blazing anger on Grace’s face.
    She pointed a shaking finger at him, then actually poked him in the shoulder with it to punctuate each word. “What took you so long to tell me?” She whirled away from him, storming back inside in a flurry of green silk skirts to search for her father and sisters.
    “The opportunity hadn’t exactly presented itself,” he muttered dryly. He strode after her, now oblivious to the renewed stares of the villagers, his long legs easily eating up the distance her furious pace had put between them. “Miss Ackerly, if you’ll just slow down, I’ll be happy to explain.”
    “Explain what? That you nearly killed my sister, and thought you’d slip that information to me between partners on the dance floor?” She tossed the words over her shoulder at him.
    “You’re hardly being fair, Grace,” he pointed out reasonably.
    “Fair!” she hissed. She rolled her eyes skyward and took a deep breath. “Well, at least make yourself useful and haveour carriage brought around.” She stopped walking and peered at the crowd in search of her father or one of her sisters, giving Trevor a second to stop and gather his thoughts, but before he could say anything, she rounded on him again. “I don’t suppose you had sense enough to summon a physician?” Without waiting for an answer, she threw up her hands in disgust and hurried away.
    Struck speechless by Grace’s rapid veer from scathing contempt to unaffected friendliness, then to a demonstration of one of the quickest tempers he had ever witnessed, Trevor stared after her, then looked around the room at the now blatantly distrustful faces of the villagers. He shook his head and shrugged at them in rueful