Lady Knightley's Secret

ANNE ASHLEY

Miss Elizabeth Beresford had become an heiress upon her grandmother's death. Her sister, Evadne, thought she was very clever when she engineered that Elizabeth would be trapped overnight in the cellars with Evadne's brother-in-law.Except that the plot misfired and it was Sir Richard Knightley who became entrapped with Elizabeth! Richard was not unwilling to marry, for Elizabeth had changed beautifully from the young girl he remembered. It was Elizabeth who was reluctant, for she loved him and there was something she couldn't tell him.…

RICHARD BEGAN SEARCHING THE CELLAR ONCE MORE.

“I’m looking for more candles. We may as well try to keep as warm as we can.”

Elizabeth watched in some amusement as he began to light them. “I feel like a sacrificial lamb placed at the altar,” she quipped, seeing the semicircle of light.

There wasn’t so much as a ghost of a smile around Richard’s mouth, however, and the expression in his eyes was faintly disturbing. “That, my dear girl, is precisely what you shall be if we’re not rescued soon.”

Anne Ashley was born and educated in Leicester, U.K. She resided for a time in Scotland, but now lives in the West Country with two cats, her two sons and a husband who has a wonderful and very necessary sense of humor. When not pounding away at the keys of her typewriter, she likes to relax in her garden, which she has opened to the public on more than one occasion in aid of the village church funds.

Lady Knightley’s Secret

Anne Ashley

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Contents

Chapter One (#u235f0958-302e-5263-a56b-37701e3e1ffd)

Chapter Two (#u1b7953e7-5e23-5a95-ab61-20edef687d59)

Chapter Three (#u3906ed78-b4c6-5c93-9b5a-92f90547c707)

Chapter Four (#ue4ce2b67-11f0-5226-b31d-0b5254ae1e2e)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One

1815

Sir Richard Knightley woke with a violent start. He was sweating profusely and his every muscle seemed suddenly to have grown taut. What in the world had woken him? he wondered. Cannon fire? No, it couldn’t have been. Just a bad dream—that was all: nothing more than vivid memory; a deep-seated fear. It was over…Surely it must be over? He just couldn’t go through it again, not that carnage! He detected the distant rumble once more and released his breath in a deep sigh of relief. Thunder…only thunder.

Trying to ignore the throbbing ache in his shoulder, and the sudden darting pain in his left leg, he eased himself into a sitting position. His night-shirt, damp with perspiration, clung to him like a second skin. Ye gods, wasn’t it oppressive tonight! he thought, pulling the offending garment over his head and tossing it aside in disgust.

Perhaps this storm might clear the air. Mary had warned him earlier that there was one brewing. He could quite easily discern those claps of thunder getting steadily louder, even if he was oblivious to the flashes of lightning.

Instinctively he raised a hand to touch the bandage over his eyes. The sabre gash in his right shoulder had been excruciating, and so too had the lead ball which had torn through the flesh in his thigh, but it had been the damage to his eyes when that pistol had been discharged which had caused him most concern. To be deprived of one’s sight didn’t bear dwelling on. To be led about by the hand for the rest of one’s life…

A further clap of thunder, which seemed to shake the house to its very foundations, broke into his depressing thoughts and brought him back to the present by reminding him of how oppressive it was in the room. Had Mary inadvertently closed the window when she had paid that last visit before retiring for the ni