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He'd have to look into calling on Miss Priscilla Standish as soon as he settled this business of the orphan.
Half an hour later he was escorted by a clerk to Mr.
Pendenning's private salon, where, the young man informed him, the lawyer would join him shortly.
Knowing there would be lengthy paperwork to sort 30 THE UNTAMED HEIRESS
out, Adam suppressed his irritation at the delay. The salon to which he'd been shown was dimly lit, the curtain of the single window drawn against the light. While his eyes adjusted from the bright sunlight of the brisk late-winter afternoon he'd just left, he
scanned the room, his gaze settling on a newspaper left atop a side table.
He was striding to pick up the paper when a rustling noise in the corner of the room distracted him. His vision of welcoming a small, grieving moppet into the family embrace was shaken when what he'd dismissed as an assortment of black rags piled in a chair, suddenly unfolded its length and rose phoenixlike to face him.
The image of a woebegone child died altogether as the Creature approached. Sticklike legs and narrow bare feet protruded below a faded black gown more than a foot too short for her emaciated frame—which was nearly as tall as his own.
Adam's shocked impression was of a walking scarecrow, until the Creature halted before him and extended one bony hand.
The girl's nose protruded beaklike from her thin face. With her sharp cheekbones, lusterless, tangled black hair and the feral dark eyes fixed intently upon him, Adam was put forcibly in mind of a bird of prey about to attack.
When the Creature's lips curved into a mocking smile, he realized he'd been simply staring at her, mouth agape, his face no doubt clearly mirroring his thoughts.
Painfully conscious of having, for the first time in his almost thirty well-bred years, failed to summon polite words of greeting, he felt hot color flush his skin. Before he could get his lips working, the Creature withdrew the hand he'd not managed to shake and made him a curtsey.
"You must be Lord Darnell," she said, her voice low-pitched and husky. "How.. .charming to meet you."
CHAPTER 3
Though the girl was the least attractive example of femininity Adam had ever beheld, her curtsey was graceful. Moreover, the sardonic look in those snapping black eyes and the irony in her greeting told him she was shrewd enough to have guessed what he thought of her appearance.
Rather than being embarrassed, though, she seemed to derive a scornful amusement from his discomfiture as he stood, still staring, the frilly doll in one hand.
Before Adam could decide whether he was more offended or diverted by the girl's antagonism, the door opened and a short, bespectacled gentleman hurried in. Seeing the two of them facing each other, he halted abruptly.
"Oh, dear! Lord Darnell, I had hoped to discourse with you privately before...well, I see 'tis too late for that. Arthur Pendenning, sir, at your service," he said with a bow. "You've introduced yourselves, Miss Lambarth?"
"His lordship and I have indeed met," the girl replied. "As you insisted. Now, if you and I could finish our consultations, I'll be on my way."
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"There's no need to hurry," Mr. Pendenning said. "Knowing that you have just finished an exhausting journey, I've ordered some refreshment. Shall we not sit together and chat while we partake of it? Please, Miss Lambarth. Lord Darnell, you will remain with us, I trust?"
Rather against his will, Adam murmured a polite ac ceptance.
Far from appearing a grief-stricken waif in need of her relatives'
support, the girl seemed almost hostile—and entirely undeferential, either to him or the lawyer. He struggled to resist the urge to let his initial shock at her appearance turn to dislike at her rudeness.
He shouldn't judge her too harshly, he reminded himself. After all, she'd had no mother to guide her for years and, Lady Darnell had warned him, by the time of his death, her late father had become practically a hermit. She probably wasn't to blame for what appeared to be a decided lack of proper maidenly deportment.
"Ah, here is the tray," Mr. Pendenning said. "Lord Darnell, Miss Lambarth, if you would both sit?"
While the servant removed the cover before bowing himself out, Adam deposited himself on the sofa and Miss Lambarth walked with obvious reluctance to perch on the edge of an adjoining wing chair.
Did she think he would bite? Adam wondered with a touch of humor, watching as she covertly watched him from the corner of her eye. She seemed less wary with the lawyer, who seated himself near her and began pouring tea.
Adam was about to make some light remark to try 34 THE UNTAMED HEIRESS
to set her at ease when suddenly she turned toward the teapot, sniffing the air.
Mr. Pendenning extended a cup to her. Cautiously she accepted it, holding the delicate china at arm's length and inspecting the contents, then bending to sniff the liquid.
The awful suspicion that perhaps the girl was not all right in the head had begun to form in Adam's mind when, just as suddenly, she smiled. A passionate intensity lit her face, briefly imbuing her thin features with an attractiveness Adam felt almost like a shock.
Before the shaken Adam could begin to wonder at his unexpected reaction, she turned her expressive eyes on the lawyer. "Tea, is it not?" she asked Mr. Pendenning.
"Yes, my dear. Have you drunk it before?"
"Not since Mama left. But I remember it was good."
"Taste it and see what you think."
She took a sip. "Oh, yes! It is good!"
"Some people prefer it with a bit of cake or biscuit. Should you like some?"
She put down the cup and inspected the tray he offered her.
"Cake. It is.. .sweeter than bread, isn't it?"
"Have you not eaten that, either, since your mama went away?" Mr. Pendenning asked.
"No. Is bread and water not the normal fare for prisoners?" she asked, a bitter note in her voice. "Augmented occasionally, when
I managed to slip out and visit Mad Sally, with wild berries from the woods."
"I think you will find the cake even sweeter than berries. Do try some." Though Mr. Pendenning's tone 35
remained light, as Miss Lambarth reached for the proffered slice, he glanced at Adam and shook his head, outrage in his eyes.
Beginning to comprehend now what the lawyer was attempting to demonstrate, Adam watched her intently, astounded by Miss Lambarth's delighted exploration of food so ordinary most Londoners of her class would scarcely have given it a second glance.
His heart contracted with pity as she tasted the cake. Once again he felt an odd sizzle of contact when another brilliant smile lit her face. "Tis wondrous good!"
"Eat as much as you wish, my dear. You must be famished after so long a journey." Something about the lawyer's tone led Adam to think the man was referring to more than Miss Lambarth's recent trip to London.
After nibbling the cake, she tasted the biscuits. Then Mr.
Pendenning uncovered another dish and gestured to it. "Have one of these, too, if you like."
Giving him a quizzical glance, she picked up one of the round objects and rolled it between her fingers. "So smooth," she said, and lifted it to her nose. "Smells sweet, like berries. Does one eat the whole?"
"No, one peels it first." Mr. Pendenning demonstrated how to section out the fruit. "It's called an orange."
Her totally unexpected, musical peal of laughter startled Adam. "Of course! Like the color. I've read about them, but the book had no illustration, so I didn't know what the fruit looked like."
'Take a bite, my dear. 'Tis somewhat sweet, like a berry, but different."
36 THE UNTAMED HEIRESS
Her dark eyes alight with curiosity now, she took the piece of fruit the lawyer sectioned off for her and bit into it, laughing again as juice spurted onto her chin and she brought up her other hand to catch the drip.
The hand that, until this moment, she'd kept within the folds of her shabby skirt. As she wiped her chin, Adam stared in horrified fascination at the jagged scar that ran from the base of her thumb to her wrist.
The lawyer, Adam noted, was staring, as well. In the sudden silence Miss Lambarth darted a glance at Adam, then Pendenning.
Her smile faded and her face flushed as she quickly shoved the damaged hand back into her lap.
Adam heard Pendenning's soft hiss of an explicative. "Please, do have some more, my dear," the lawyer entreated.
"Thank you, I've had enough. I'll finish the tea."
"You've had barely half a slice of cake and only a bite of the
biscuit. I thought you said you hadn't eaten since arriving in London this morning," the lawyer said.
"I've had nothing since yesterday, but this was quite sufficient.
I'm used to eating.. .lightly," she said, irony once again coloring her tone.
Lord in Heaven, Adam thought, glad that Mr. Pendenning seemed able to carry on the conversation without him, for the almost unbelievable conclusions flooding his mind rendered him speechless. Suddenly he was fiercely glad that Lady Darnell had been called upon to receive her cousin's child. After what he'd just seen and
37
heard, even if the girl had possessed two heads and a tail, Adam would have felt compelled to take her in.
Miss Lambarth finished her tea and set down the cup. "Thank you, Mr. Pendenning. That was wonderful." She gave him a wry look. "As I'm sure was rather evident, 'twas more variety of sustenance than I've had in a decade."
