Read The Spare for Free Online Page A

was handsome, handsomer even than Fitzalan. Handsome, she thought, without actually being handsome, at least not in the manner of Fitzalan's faultless looks. Once, long ago, that mouth might have been gentle, but now the stern, cheerless face chilled to the very bone. With some effort Olivia kept her smile, though her cheeks ached with the effort.
    "The earls of Tiern-Cope," he said in voice about as blithe as basalt, "once owned nearly every soul in Far Caister. So I'm told."
    Olivia called on a hard-won ability to speak in modulated tones whatever the cost. No one, absolutely no one, could take offense at her reply. No groveling toady could be more obsequious in the face of insult. "I've heard the same."
    "Only nearly?" Fitzalan said. "My dear Sebastian, why on earth didn't you own them all?"
    His head moved enough to take in Diana and her brother without losing sight of her. The plane of his cheek caught the light and cast the rest of his face in stark shadow. Olivia shivered at the sight. What a terrifying man. "A failing on the part of my ancestors."
    If Fitzalan had made the retort, she was sure they would all have laughed merrily, but the captain sounded as though he'd like to reach through the years and show the earls Tiern-Cope what it meant to be noble. No one moved. Like people increasingly horrified that a pebble dropped down a chasm had yet to hit bottom, no one spoke. No one dared.
    Olivia hurried to fill the silence. "The earls of Tiern-Cope have been the pride and lifeblood of Far Caister for so long no one hereabouts thinks anything but that they could be master of us all."
    "Including you, Miss Willow?" His eyes landed on her like the sharp edge of a knife. Her headache pulsed, a slash of pain along her scar that made her long to lie down in a darkened room.
    "Certainly, my Lord." She felt sorry for Miss Royce. A husband with no joy in him would be worse than remaining a spinster at twenty-four.
    The blue eyes stayed on her with relentless chill. "Why aren't you married?"
    "I beg your pardon?"
    He stared until she felt the size of a walnut about to be cracked beneath his heel. "You heard me."
    Fitzalan groaned. "Sebastian."
    By the merest of margins she kept a light tone. "Never loved and never in love, I suppose." A bald-faced lie, but the truth was not his affair, no matter how horrible his aspect.
    "What of your relations?" A smile slid over his face, then vanished like seawater into sand. "Did my ancestors once own yours?"
    "Sebastian. Not now."
    She pasted on another vapid smile, but the wall of cheerful nonchalance crumbled under that deepening gaze. "Happily for the Willows, the relation was more testamentary than proprietary."
    "Indeed." Though his expression didn't change, his voice sneered.
    "Sebastian!"
    With a quelling look at Fitzalan, he bowed. "How fortunate for you, Miss Willow." When he left her to claim the seat nearest the fireplace, an excruciating silence filled the room. It was, Olivia thought, like having a wild animal to visit. Everyone watched him warily, uncertain of his tameness except for Fitzalan, who apparently knew he wasn't to be trusted. The viscount went to the sideboard and grabbed a bottle and a glass. "Drink?"
    The blue eyes fixed on Fitzalan. "Help yourself, James."
    "Don't mind if I do. Sherry anyone? Diana? Miss Cage?" He shrugged when his sister shook her head. "Miss Willow?"
    "Oh my, no, thank you. I never touch spirits in the afternoon." Olivia gave a mental roll of her eyes. For pity's sake, she sounded like somebody's aged aunt, the one nobody much liked.
    "Well, I do." Fitzalan filled his glass. "Cheers."
    "You should follow Miss Willow's example, James."
    "No, Sebastian." Fitzalan settled his weight on one hip. "I don't think I ought."
    "Suit yourself."
    "You're enough to drive any man to drink."
    "I did warn you, James." Another smile appeared and then vanished, incongruously young in that ageless face. "I have all the manners of a sailor."
    She'd never seen