Say You Love Me by Johanna Lindsey Page A

presence. Whatever he’d meant to send to her no longer mattered; it was food that concerned her the most now, and her lack of means for obtaining any. He’d left her no money and no transportation. If he didn’t show up soon, she was going to be in serious trouble, the very kind she’d sold herself to avoid.
    But, of course, he would show up. She had no doubt of that. It was just a matter of when. But he’d undoubtedly forgotten that there was no food in the cottage, and when he still hadn’t made an appearance by that afternoon, her hunger prompted her to ignore his warning about showing up on his doorstep. There was no help for it. She had to make an effort to find him.
    The moment she opened the front door she found his letter instead. It had been tucked into the edge of the door and fluttered to the ground when she opened it. Of course, she didn’t know it was from him until she broke the seal and read it.

Dear Kelsey ,
My father’s messenger pounced on me as soon as I walked in my house. I’ve been summoned to Haverston with all due haste, which means I should have been there yesterday. I don’t dare waste another moment, which is why I’m sending this note rather than myself .
Don’t know what this is about, but I should return within a day or so. If not, I will send word. But you should be fine until we meet again. Until then…
    Yours Respectfully,
    Derek
    She should be fine for a day or two? When he’d obviously left so quickly that he forgot to arrange for the things she needed to make the cottage livable? And how soon would it be before he realized he hadn’t made proper arrangements for her and rectified that? When he was worried about why his father had summoned him and so would be thinking about that rather than about her? It could be several days…
    This was so inconsiderate! So thoughtless! And because she was already so hungry, Kelsey lost her temper completely and tossed his letter into the fireplace, where she would have liked to toss Derek Malory instead.
    It took her about thirty minutes to track down his house, which was the largest in the area, very large indeed. It wasn’t just a country house, as she’d been thinking; it was a full-blown estate, with stables and working farms, and an abundance of tenants.
    She asked to speak to the housekeeper and explained to the woman that Lord Malory had rented her the cottage for a short time while she was vacationing and had promised it would be properly furnished and stocked with provender, which it wasn’t. A simple matter to be rectified, or so she had hoped. The housekeeper didn’t make it so simple.
    “I don’t have anything to do with the tenants on Lord Jason—er, Lord Derek’s land, m’lady. I’ve got enough to do seeing to this big old manor and the lazy help I’ve got to work with. Lord Derek’s factor sees to the tenants and keeps ’em happy, he does, and I’ll send him ’round to you just as soon as he returns at the end of the week. He’ll take care ’o your complaints right quick I’m sure.”
    “You don’t understand,” Kelsey tried to explain. “I’ve already paid for the use of the cottage and didn’t bring any money with me, only the few clothes I would need, because I was assured that food and bedding and everything necessary would be provided.”
    By then the housekeeper was frowning. “Let me see your lease, then. I have to account for everything in this house, including the food. I can’t be handing it out to His Lordship’s tenants without his say-so, and he didn’t say so to me when he was here last night.”
    There was no lease, of course. And the only proof Kelsey had that she even knew Derek was the letter she’d tossed into the fire.

    Because of that, she was forced to say, “Never mind. I’ll make arrangements for credit in Bridgewater if you’ll just direct me to it.”
    “Certainly, m’lady,” the housekeeper said, agreeable again now that she didn’t have to dole out anything