A Dark and Brooding Gentleman Read Online Free PDF

appearance since my arrival at Blackloch.’
    Miss Allardyce looked uneasy and took a sip of tea.
    His mother turned her attention back to Hunter. ‘Your concern is overwhelming. I think I can see the precise nature of the matters so important to keep you from me.’ Her eyes were cold and appraising as they took in the small cut on his cheek and the bruising that surrounded it. She raised an eyebrow and gave a small snort.
    ‘You have been brawling.’ He made no denial.
    Miss Allardyce’s eyes opened marginally wider.
    ‘What were you fighting over this time? Let me guess, some new gaming debt?’
    He stiffened, but kept his expression impassive and cool.
    ‘No? If not that, then over a woman, I will warrant.’
    A pause, during which he saw the slight colour that had washed the soft cream of Miss Allardyce’s cheeks heighten.
    ‘You know me too well, madam.’
    ‘Indeed, I do. You are not changed in the slightest, not for all your promises—’
    There was the rattle of china as Miss Allardyce set her cup and saucer down. ‘Mrs Hunter …’ The woman got to her feet. ‘I fear you are mistaken, ma’am. Mr Hu—’
    His mother turned her frown on her companion.
    ‘Miss Allardyce,’ Hunter interrupted smoothly, ‘this is none of your affair and I would that it stay that way.’ His tone was frosty with warning. If his mother wanted to believe the worst of him, let her. He would not have some girl defend him. He still had some measure of pride.
    Miss Allardyce stared at him for a moment, with such depths in those golden-brown eyes of hers that he wondered what she was thinking. And then she calmly sat back down in her chair.
    ‘Ever the gentleman, Sebastian,’ said his mother. ‘You see, Miss Allardyce, do not waste your concern on him. He is quite beyond the niceties of society. Now you know why I do not come to Blackloch. Such unpleasant company.’
    He leaned back in his chair. ‘If we are speaking bluntly, what then has prompted your visit, madam?’
    ‘I am having the town house redecorated and am in need of somewhere to stay for a few weeks, Sebastian. What other reason could possibly bring me here?’ his mother sneered.
    He gave a bow and left, vowing to avoid both his mother and the woman who made him remember too well the dissolute he had been.
    After the awfulness of that first day Hunter did not seek his mother out again. And Phoebe could not blamehim. She wondered why he had not told Mrs Hunter the truth of the cut upon his face or revealed that his mother’s companion had not spent her money upon a coach fare after all. She wondered, too, as to why there was such hostility between mother and son. But Mrs Hunter made not a single mention of her son, and it was easy to keep her promise to her father as Phoebe saw little of the man in the days that followed. Once she saw him entering his study. Another time she caught a glimpse of him riding out on the moor. But nothing more. Not that Phoebe had time to notice, for Mrs Hunter was out of sorts, her mood as bleak as the moor that surrounded them.
    Tuesday came around quickly and Phoebe could only be glad both of her chance to escape the oppressive atmosphere of Blackloch and to see her father.
    The Glasgow Tolbooth was an impressive five-storey sandstone building situated at the Cross where the Trongate met High Street. It housed not only the gaol, but also the Justiciary Court and the Town Hall, behind which had been built the Tontine Hotel. There was a small square turret at each corner and a fine square spire on the east side, in which was fitted a large clock. And the top of the spire arched in the form of an imperial crown. The prison windows were small and clad with iron bars, and over the main door, on the south side, was built a small rectangular portico on a level with the first floor of the prison, the stairs from which led directly down onto the street.
    Phoebe arrived at the Tolbooth, glad of heart both to be back in the familiar cheery