Haunted by the Earl's Touch - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,24
little enough money in her purse. She broke the seal and spread open the paper.
For a moment, she could not quite believe the words she was reading. She read the cold little missive again, more slowly.
Miss Wilding,
Ladbrook School is now closed as ordered by the Earl of Beresford and the property is sold. I wish you all success in your new life. Yours, Sally Ladbrook.
Closed? How could the school be closed? Why would he do such a thing? How could he? Anger trembled through her with the force of an earthquake. The paper shivered like an aspen in her fingers. A band tightened around her chest as the enormity of what had happened became clear. She was homeless.
Abandoned by her only friend in the world. It hurt. Badly.
The earl, who was leaning against the shelves leafing idly through a book, looked up from the pages to meet her gaze. ‘Bad news?’
The wretch. ‘Bad?’ She rose to her feet. ‘You take away my livelihood and then ask if it is bad?’ She gave a bitter laugh.
He straightened, frowning. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You know very well what I am talking about.’ Her voice shook with the effect of roiling anger. Everything inside her chest rocked and heaved. Her ribs ached from the force of it. For a moment it seemed she might never breathe again. But she did. And words followed. ‘You need not think this will stop me from leaving.’ She crumpled the note in her fist and threw it at him. Incredibly, he plucked it out of the air.
She marched for the door, not knowing where she was going, but knowing she could not remain in the same room with him without trying to do him a mischief.
‘Wait!’ he commanded.
She didn’t stop, but once again he beat her to the door, holding it closed with his hand above her head, while she pulled on the handle. She swung around, glaring up at him. ‘Open this door.’
He glanced down at the note. ‘This school has no relevance now.’
‘No relevance?’ She wanted to hit him for his stupidity. Instead she dodged around him and went to the window, putting as much distance between them as possible. ‘The school was my home.’
She turned to stare out of the window, wanting to bang her fist against the glass, break through it to freedom, like a trapped sparrow in a garden room.
Her stomach fell away. Even if she did, she had nowhere to go. No home. Not even a forwarding address for Sally. Was that his doing, too? Or did Sally blame her for the loss of her school? The selfish, horrid man.
Moisture burned in the back of her throat and pushed its way up behind her eyes. She bowed her head against the pressure and swallowed hard. Tried to regain her composure
The earl drew closer, his gaze puzzled. ‘Miss Wilding, surely it is not as bad as all that? You will have enough money to buy a hundred schools when you marry.’
‘Marry who?’ She whirled around and stared at him. Was that guilt she saw in his face? Guilt because he’d taken away all her options as well as her only friend.
Or guilt because he had decided that marrying her was preferable to her death? Or guilt because he planned...?
A sob pushed its way up her throat. Tears welled up, hovering on her lashes, blurring her vision. She dashed them away, clinging to her anger. ‘Ladbrook’s is the only home I remember. Everything I owned was there. My books. My mementos from my pupils. Why? Why did you have to interfere?’ She struck out at his chest with her fist.
The next moment she found her face pressed to his wide shoulder, her hand gripping his lapel and supressed sobs shaking her body.
‘Mary,’ he said, his voice achingly soft. A large hand landed warm on her back, tentatively at first and then patting gently. ‘I will have your property recovered, if that is what disturbs you.’
The urge to give in to her overwhelming longing for someone who cared battled with her good sense and won. She leaned against that broad chest, felt his heat and his power, and the steady rhythm of his heart as he held her close.
For a moment, she lost all sense of self. Forgot it was his fault things had come to this pass and revelled in the sense of being protected.
‘So, this is how it is.’ The angry voice came from the doorway. ‘What a cur you really are.’