A Mortal Sin Read Online Free PDF Page B

each other.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
    Daphne, wearing a navy linen dress piped with white pique, and a matching linen hat, waited for Paul to arrive. She kept twisting the strap on her handbag. What if he decided not to turn up? Foolish thinking a man like him would be interested in an unsophisticated working girl, regardless of what he said.
    The Buick screamed to a halt, a foot or two from the front gate, and Paul practically leapt from the car. “Sorry I’m late.” He smiled, but Daphne thought he seemed tired.
    Dressed in a pair of tailored sports pants, with a casual blue shirt opened at the throat, he looked what he was, a devastatingly handsome playboy. Her fear escalated until she was almost overwhelmed by it. Paul had the power to destroy her.
    “You look beautiful.”
    “Thank you.” Her smile was tremulous as she allowed him to help her into the car.
    He didn’t wear a hat, and the sun picked out the strands of gold in his hair, bringing them to brilliant life.
    “Aren’t you curious about where I’m taking you? I’m sorry for being late, by the way. I slept in.”
    “It’s all right.” What’s wrong with you Daphne Clarke? You have no right questioning him about what he did last night, it’s his own business.
    “Where are we going?” She touched his arm.
    “To Healesville.”
    “Healesville! It’s miles away.”
    “Not in a car. I thought we could go to the Sir Colin McKenzie Sanctuary, would you like that?”
    “Love it.” She laughed happily.
    “Jean’s suggestion,” he admitted with a grin.
    “Oh.”
    “I spoke to her last night. Wallabies, koalas, wedge tailed eagles, just Daphne’s cup of tea.”
    “It makes me sound dull.”
    “You’re interested in tropical diseases, or so I hear.”
    “Jean again. Yes I am. Molly Gratton, one of my doctor friends, well her father practices medicine in Singapore and she got me interested. She intends taking over his practice when he retires.”
    “Do you mind if I drive with the window down?” he asked.
    “No.”
    “It might clear my head.”
    “Does it need clearing?”
    He gave a rueful grin. “Yes, afraid so.”
    They drove along in companionable silence for a time, and it did not take long for them to pass through the suburbs leading on to the open road.
    “Tell me about yourself, Paul. Where you went to school, that sort of thing.”
    “I attended Eton, after that Oxford for a couple of years. Left before finishing my course, and went into the family business.”
    She took her hat off so the warm breeze could blow through her hair, and she laughed out loud at this unaccustomed feeling of freedom. “This is wonderful. Do you lead a very social life in England?”
    “I suppose so.”
     His fingers on the steering wheel were long, slender and quite tanned, as were his arms. A gold watch on a brown leather band nestled amidst the dark hairs growing just above his wrist. He would have shaved recently, yet his cheeks and chin still had a bluish tinge.
    When one of his hands clasped hers, heat fired her cheeks, but she did not try to pull free, even when his thumb caressed her knuckles.
    “I don’t bite, you know.” His voice flowed over her in a feather light caress.
    “I suppose you get plenty of invitations during the Debutants coming out season?”
    “He laughed. “Yes, I’m on the eligible males list.”
    “Right background and everything?”
    “Yep,” he answered with a wry grin.
    “I think it must be exciting. Tell me about it. Some of the things you might do, so I can compare it to the information I’ve read.”
    Was she teasing him? Here was a chance to tell her his correct name, yet fear held him back. One word. Illegitimate. He launched into a description of the last Eton versus Harrow cricket match, and about Simpsons in the Strand, where only men were allowed to lunch in the ground floor restaurant.
    “Oh, how unfair,” she said.
    “It opened in 1828, or thereabouts, as a chess and coffee