A Pair of Rogues Read Online Free

given her a hug and dusted off her dress before she was led away.
    Nurse had scolded, of course.
    Christina emerged from her memory to find Louisa gazing at her speculatively. “Perhaps that was the incident that angered your mother.”
    “Oh, no. We made a pact of secrecy before Nurse carried me off. I never told on him, and I’m certain that Robert never did. Nurse would not have wished to either, or she would have been blamed for letting me play with the boys.”
    “I hope you haven’t nourished a disgust for Ned all these years,” Louisa said on a questioning note.
    “Of course not.” Christina chuckled. “I should think he would be the one to have a disgust of me.” If he did not, he would be one of the rare ones. She had managed to offend most people with her antics. Gazing at her sister-in-law now, Christina wondered how long it would be before she managed to offend Louisa’s sense of propriety, as well.
    “I don’t think Ned recalls the incident.”
    Christina knew a moment of disappointment. “No, of course he would not. Why should he remember a little girl he met just once?”
    Louisa sighed. “Yes, men are so insensitive. They never cherish romantic moments.”
    “Romantic? Louisa, you cannot be serious.”
    Even Louisa laughed. “Well, perhaps not. Perhaps you and Ned were never meant to be a couple. I can see that now.”
    “A couple?” Christina felt a curious fluttering in her stomach. “What on earth are you saying?”
    “Oh, I must not mention it,” Louisa said, rising from her couch. “Just a silly notion of mine. But dear Robert is entirely opposed.”
    “Opposed to what?”
    Louisa’s smile faded. She breathed a heavy sigh. “You will think me quite silly, considering what you have just related, but knowing you both, I had thought . . . I had just briefly hoped that you and Ned might make a match.”
    “How absurd.” Christina felt the feebleness of her smile.
    “Isn’t it? At least . . . it is, I suppose?”
    “Of course it is. Why should you hope for such a thing?”
    Her eyes cast down, Louisa fingered the skirt of her dress. “It’s Ned. I know he’s lonely. He may seem like a rogue, and I do not doubt he gets up to the worst possible mischief, but I do think he would make a wonderful husband for some fortunate girl. And you seem so alike in the way you both took to the baby. And of course, it would be lovely to have him in the family . . . .”
    Louisa was rambling, and Christina knew she should stop her, but an image of Ned’s handsome face had come again into her mind. She had never forgotten that face: his big, dark, laughing eyes with their hint of secret delights. They had swum before her vision many times, almost as if he were twirling her still.
    She gave her head a mental shake and said, “You are being fanciful.”
    “Yes, and so Ned told me.”
    “Ned told you . . . .” Christina felt color rushing to her cheeks. “You never had this conversation with Ned!”
    “Well, not this precise one, I don’t believe.”
    Christina burst into a laugh. “Louisa, you are outrageous. The poor man. You will be quite fortunate if he even shows up at the Abbey tomorrow. I expect he will avoid me like the plague.”
    “It is just as well.” Louisa shook her head despairingly. “As I told you, Robert would not hear of it at all. In fact, he would much prefer that Ned not meet you. He does not trust him.”
    “Indeed.” Christina could feel her hackles rising. How dare Robert concern himself with whom she should meet!
    She was no longer a schoolroom miss. She had been restrained long enough—at her school, sometimes forcibly when her rebellious nature had led her to commit unpardonable acts. Coming to London was supposed to mean freedom, and, she had hoped, a blessed end to her unrelenting restlessness. She’d be confounded if she would allow Robert to dictate her taste in men!
    But she had learned one thing, at least, at that dismal seminary. She gave Louisa her