Read Love Is Blind for Free Online

found himself smiling and relaxing in the company of a woman other than his mother for the first time since arriving back in London. For the first time in years, really.
    The time he'd spent with her after that had probably been no more than half an hour, between their sitting and talking and the five dances his mother claimed they'd shared, yet it seemed like mere moments. Adrian had smiled and laughed more in that time than he had in all the years since his injury. For the first time in a long while, he'd felt whole and undamaged.
    Any woman who could make him feel like that deserved his interest, and yes, Adrian acknowledged to himself, he was most definitely interested. Which would please his mother no end, he thought. However, there was a problem. The very thing that had allowed him to relax in her presence was also the source of the problem. Clarissa could not see him, but she was not permanently blind, merely temporarily so. He worried about what would happen when she could see again, when she saw the horror of the man she had spoken and danced with. How would she react? Would she shrink from him as if he were a monster? Faint in horror at the sight of him? It hurt him to consider either option.
    "Shall I find out more about the chit for you?" Lady Mowbray asked, drawing Adrian from his thoughts. He peered at his mother, unable to answer. A large part of him wanted to say yes, but another very large part was afraid, and Adrian hadn't been afraid of anything in a very long time.
    Suddenly irritated with the entire matter, Adrian turned away without answering and moved toward the door. He'd had enough of so-called polite society for one night.
    "You will not speak to Lord Mowbray again."
    Clarissa stared blindly across the coach's dark interior at the blur that was her stepmother. Lydia had not just yanked her away from the man she'd danced with, but had dragged her across the dance floor, out of the ballroom, and straight out of the house entirely. Her stepmother had been so obviously furious that Clarissa had kept her mouth shut as Lydia shouted orders, demanding their carriage be brought around at once.
    Her silence hadn't seemed to ease the woman's upset, either, and Lydia had dug her fingers painfully into Clarissa's arm as they waited, as if afraid she might flee at any moment and rush back inside to throw herself at the man.
    Other than that cruel grip, however, Lydia had ignored Clarissa, giving off a positively frigid air as they waited for the carriage. Once the coach had stopped before them, she'd practically shoved Clarissa into the vehicle, then taken the opposite seat and glared at her until they were in motion.
    "Is that the name of the man I was dancing with?" Clarissa asked, realizing only now that she didn't know the man's name. Had he known hers? she wondered, then glanced warily at her stepmother as the woman's teeth snapped together with a click.
    'Yes," Lydia snarled. "Lord Adrian Montfort, the Earl of Mowbray . And you shall stay away from him completely."
    Clarissa hesitated, debating whether it was wise to question her stepmother when she was so angry, but she simply couldn't help herself, and blurted, "But why should I stay away from him? He behaved like a perfect gentleman, and if he is an earl—"
    "He did not behave like a perfect gentleman," Lydia countered at once. "He danced far too close to you, and he should not even have approached you without a proper introduction."
    Clarissa bit her lip. She supposed that hadn't been well done of either of them, but still...
    " Mowbray was a rakehell when he was younger," Lydia continued. "He ruined many a poor girl. No doubt that is why God saw fit to ruin his looks."
    Clarissa bit back the protest she wanted to make at
    this satisfied claim; it would do no good anyway, she knew.
    "You will stay away from him. He can have no good intention toward you. He will merely toy with your affections and further damage your already shredded reputation. Your