The Abandoned Bride by Edith Layton Page B

insisted that most English persons are actually pleased when a foreigner mangles their language, since it confirms their secret belief that anyone not privileged to be born on English soil hasn’t the wit to master it. In fact, she insisted that the more bizarre the speech, the more convincing she would be. If she had used only her own slight accent, she assured me, then she might well come under suspicion, but if she spoke some incomprehensible jumble, she would never be doubted for a moment.
    “I am really most impressed by her astuteness,” the baron commented expansively, “for I thought that Germanic-Slavic-French mélange she invented was the stuff of music halls. She is a far better actress than I gave her credit for. Now I wonder why it is that she only plays minor parts at the Sadler-Wells theater where she is usually employed.”
    As the baron sat quietly, apparently musing upon this theme, Julia found herself regaining her wits. Once her initial shock faded she found it replaced by a growing anger, a sense of injustice done which threatened to overcome her. But she reined in her emotions, reminding herself sternly that whatever else she might wish to do, she was in the unfortunate position of being alone with a mad person again.
    She gazed at the gentleman as he relaxed in his chair. He was so neatly groomed, so ve r y handsome with his pale skin and wide clear long-lashed eyes, that she found that she could understand his family’s reluctance to confine him to some sort of custodial care. No matter how deranged he might be, his comportment gave little evidence of it. It could be that they cherished some unreasonable hopes for his recovery. Even if this were a misguided ambition, Julia found comfort in the very fact that his family had not placed him under restraint. If he were actually violent, she reasoned, no doubt he would not be running about loose.
    So she pasted an artificial smile upon her lips, and then ventured to speak, softly and clearly, in much the same tones that she had often used with Toby when he had found an excellent hiding place when they played at Hide and Seek and then refused to disclose his whereabouts to her.
    “Why it was a capital scheme, to be sure,” she said slowly, “and there is no question that it did succeed. For here I am, and until the moment that I laid eyes upon you, my lord, I’ll swear that I had no idea of your charade. It was all ve r y well done,” she concluded, giving him a reasonable facsimile of an approving smile.
    The baron raised one dark, high, arched brow and looked at her very curiously as she continued.
    “I concede that you have won. And very handsomely too. You were awfully clever. But now the game is up, and I find that I really must return home.”
    Julia forced herself to her feet and, discovering that her lower limbs still functioned, was able to give the gentleman a more realistic smile.
    “It has been most interesting,” she said sweetly, “and I confess that I have enjoyed the game as well, even if I did lose.”
    She planned to go on to enumerate the various ways in which she had found his scheme successful, and had begun a slow imperceptible movement to leave, when he rose from his chair and advanced purposely toward her. The sight of his cold and set features and the realization of his anger, as evinced by his tightly clenched hands, caused her words to catch in her throat.
    He stood before her, not an arm’s length away, and she realized that though his frame was slender, it was deceptively so. There did not seem to be padding in the firm wide shoulders of his tightly fitting blue jacket, and the set of his clenched teeth enabled her to clearly see the clean lines of musculature that ran from his jaw to his strong neck. Now, she felt real terror.
    “You are either a fool, Miss Hastings, which I sincerely doubt, or you are laboring under some foolish misapprehension,” the baron said, reaching out to take her chin in his hand and