Read The Constant Companion for Free Online

and threw open the door. “Lord Philip Cautry,” he announced in a triumphant voice and, as Lord Philip walked passed him into the room, he gleefully closed the door behind him and ran off to tell Mr. Rider the glad news.
    Lord Philip raised his quizzing glass and surveyed the young lady seated beside the fire. She was so engrossed in the pages of a book that she had not even heard him being announced or was aware that anyone else was in the room.
    He strolled lazily over to the fireplace and stood looking down at her. Constance suddenly became aware of another presence and her eyes flew upward from the page and, with a frightened gasp, she let the book drop to the floor. She rose nervously to her feet and surveyed the man in front of her.
    He was very tall with harsh, yet handsome features. He wore his black hair long and confined at the back of his neck by a thin, black silk ribbon. His evening coat appeared to have been moulded to his broad muscular shoulders. His cravat was a miracle of sculptured perfection, and diamonds sparkled on his shoe-buckles and on his long white fingers. His eyes were heavy-lidded and as green as grass. There was no flicker of brown or hazel to mar his emerald stare, which was catlike, unwinking and thoroughly unnerving.
    Constance’s eyes flew to the closed door and she gasped. “Sir, we must observe the proprieties,” she said. “The door is closed and I am unchaperoned.”
    “That,” he said coldly, “was, I gather, the idea, Miss Limrighton.”
    “Why does everyone keep calling me Miss Limrighton?” said Constance. “My name is Lamberton, Constance Lamberton.”
    “Not Sir Edward’s daughter?”
    “Yes,” she said dutifully, “Sir Edward was my father, and Lady Amelia Godolphin has given me the post of a companion to her, which is very kind and generous of her ladyship because without her charity I would starve,” she ended thankfully with the air of a child successfully reciting a lesson.
    “You amaze me,” he said coldly. “But it seems there is some mistake. Poor Evans. He always does make a mull of things. You see, my sister wished him to arrange for me to meet a certain Miss Limrighton in private with a view to fixing my interest. It appears he fixed on the wrong lady. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Cautry, Lord Philip Cautry, at your service.”
    Constance gave him a stricken look. “Oh, I feel sure neither your sister nor Lady Amelia would wish me to be alone with you.” She threw another anguished look at the closed door.
    “Do not fuss so,” he said testily. “I am not in the habit of seducing virgins.”
    “Why not?” asked Constance naively, the champagne suddenly rushing to her head and remembering all she had heard of the rakish Lord Philip. “You seem to seduce everything else.”
    “Bite your tongue, miss,” admonished his lordship with an amused glance towards the champagne bottle. “Tell me instead how you came to have this post as companion.”
    Constance was still wondering whether she had actually said the dreadful thing she thought she had just heard issuing from her own lips, but she marshalled her wits with a heroic effort and plunged into a long tale of the death of Aunt Maria and Lady Amelia’s letter. Then she put a faltering hand up to her forehead as the full effect of the champagne hit her. “I-I f-feel very faint,” she stammered. “It’s so hot in here.” She swayed and he caught her in his arms, looking down with amusement at the wide, magnificent hazel eyes which were staring dizzily up into his own, and despite himself he tightened his grip.
    A faint seductive perfume came from the slight body in his arms and he realized with a slight shock that she smelled of soap. Extreme cleanliness in a female was a refreshing and exciting novelty, and it was only when she began to tremble slightly that he came to his senses and held her away from him.
    “You are lucky, Miss Lamberton,” he said, “that I am used to dealing