Read The Husband Hunt for Free Online

Catriona thought. It would be a battle to win his lordship over to her side.
    "I suppose I should see that your man is made comfortable for the night," Olivia murmured as she finally   moved   toward   the   door.   "Sweet   dreams, cousin. You are in loving hands. Your hardships are over for the time being."
    Catriona made an unintelligible reply that was meant to express both doubt and gratitude. She knew she should tell the woman that Thomas wouldn't remain in this house for even one night, and she should probably sneak downstairs and attempt to talk him into staying before he got himself killed on her behalf by her brother. But her legs wouldn't obey her order to move, and a great weight of darkness pressed down upon her, the welcome oblivion obscuring even the shadow of the tall man who was standing outside her room when his sister opened the door.
* * *
    "Knight, you startled me half to death," Olivia whispered, ushering him back into the hall. "What on earth are you doing skulking about like that? What do you want?"
    "What do you mean, what do I want?" he asked, catching a glimpse of the woman curled up in bed before the door closed. "I intend to ask our uninvited houseguest a few more questions, if you don't mind."
    "I
do
mind. She's asleep, and no wonder. Imagine making that journey with only an old man to protect you."
    "She seemed to protect herself well enough with that pistol," he pointed out.
    They turned to the stairs together, Olivia descending first. "Do you blame her? Oh, Knight, I should never have forgiven myself if we had shot Lionel's cousin."
    "I'd have a hard time forgiving her if she had shot one of us."
    "Yes, but—oooh—"
    She seemed to struggle for balance before sliding down three steps and landing in an inelegant heap in the hall below. "Good heavens, Olivia," he said in alarm, hurrying down to help her. "What happened— why are you grinning like that?" He knelt beside her, his hand arrested in mid-air.
    Olivia was shaking her head, not making the least effort to rise from the floor. "It's true, don't you see?"
    He gave her a blank look. "Don't I see what?"
    "She has the Sight, it really is true. Lionel might even have mentioned it before. Perhaps fortune telling runs in the family, on the Celtic side, of course."
    "What does that drivel have to do with you almost breaking your ankle?"
    "Cat, Lionel's cousin, warned me only three minutes ago that I would fall down the stairs."
    He looked up over his shoulder at the staircase. "Well, what have we here?" He reached back for the battered portmanteau that had caused Olivia's fall. "No wonder she predicted you would have an accident. The little baggage left her baggage right where you were bound to fall over it."
    Olivia frowned at him. "She did
not
leave it there. One of the footmen did because she had nothing with her when we went upstairs. She has the Sight, I tell you, and now that I think of it, Lionel did have uncanny intuition for a man. He always knew where I had left my sewing scissors."
    "Only because he always sat on them." He hunkered down in front of her and gave her a stare that made her heart stop. "If Lionel had such astounding intuition, why didn't he save himself at Albuera instead of putting us all through the torment of losing him?"
    "Oh, Knight." Her face crumpled al the question, which seemed deliberately cruel and calculated to bring her down to earth; she had been so immersed in her own sadness that she kept forgetting he blamed himself for not bringing Lionel home.
    "Have you been drinking?" she demanded. She balanced on her knees to sniff at him. "Oh, you have."
    "Stop doing that, Olivia. You're behaving like an animal. It's annoying." He pulled away. "Smelling me. We were all drinking earlier, if you recall. We were having a nice party until the fortune teller dropped into our midst."
    "Well, Wendell liked her, and I respect his judgment. Besides she likes me." She settled back down onto the stairs.
    "What do