Let Me Be The One Read Online Free Page B

you put it on if I said I objected?"
    Elizabeth did not answer immediately. She gave the question serious thought. "You know," she said finally, "I do not believe I would."
    His eyebrows lifted as he challenged her in dry tones. "Not even if I commented on the spray of freckles appearing on your nose?"
    She shook her head. "I don't freckle."
    "Then for the simple protection of your fair skin from the sun?"
    "No, not even then. Not today. It is a glorious sort of day to be bareheaded, is it not?"
    "Indeed."
    Elizabeth felt the urge to laugh again. She gave in to it because it seemed so natural and right, as if surrendering were a victory of a kind, not one that came in the aftermath of a battle, but one that arrived in the course of time, like spring treading lightly on the heels of winter. She could not say that, of course. He could not possibly understand what she barely understood herself. Still, he was in some way responsible for this moment, while she could take comfort that she finally had the capacity to enjoy it.
    Northam picked up the threads of their earlier conversation regarding his friend Eastlyn. "As to the matter of his lordship, the marquess, what I meant was that without Marchman, South, or me being present at the baron's table... well, it is not the same thing at all. There is a tendency—regrettable, some would say—to encourage one another in certain lapses in conduct."
    Elizabeth pulled her gaze away from Northam's forearms before he noticed she was staring. They were not nearly so pale as her own and the fine hairs that covered them were like gold dust. She concluded this was not the first time this summer that his lordship had rolled his sleeves to his elbows and enjoyed the out of doors in a more natural state. "Lapses in conduct," she murmured before her thoughts continued down a most wayward path. "I suspect you are putting a good face on it. No doubt you were all terrors in your days at Hambrick Hall."
    "Terrors?" He shook his head. "No, not even the worst we could come up with would inspire someone to call us terrors. We were..." He paused, searching for the right description. "Cheerfully annoying."
    "I see. And now?"
    "Now we are simply ill-mannered."
    Elizabeth laughed. "I rather doubt anyone thinks so, else you would not be so in demand."
    "In demand?"
    "Oh, come now. There is no need to be modest. You must know it is quite a coup for the hostess when you accept an invitation."
    "Are you speaking of me alone, or of me and my friends?"
    "Actually I was referring to you all individually because, in truth, I did not know you were fast friends."
    "So the baron and baroness are very well pleased to have all of us here?"
    "Well, yes. Can you doubt it? Though I don't understand about Mr. Marchman. I don't remember writing out his invitation, and I cannot say with any certainty when he arrived."
    "West came as a favor to me—with our hostess's blessing, of course. It seems she answered this correspondence on her own."
    "As she is wont to do from time to time. I do wonder that she never mentioned it to me." The oversight was odd. The baroness usually made a point to apprise her of all changes. "He was not at dinner last night either." And his absence had not caused the same disturbance that Northam's and Southerton's had. Clearly Lady Battenburn hadn't been expecting him until the picnic.
    "No, he is only here for the day. When we finish our business he will be leaving."
    Though curiosity goaded her, Elizabeth could not inquire about the nature of their business. "Why do you call him West?"
    Northam shrugged. "We had to call him something, and the other directions were already taken."
    Northam. Southerton. Eastlyn. It was easy for Elizabeth to imagine that as a young boy at Hambrick, Marchman must have despaired of fitting in. "Poor Mr. Marchman."
    "I would not refine on West's tender feelings too long. He will grow into his name the same as we all have."
    Elizabeth's brow puckered. She turned to look