A Scoundrel by Moonlight Read Online Free PDF

caught the faint edge as he mentioned the scene of their nocturnal encounter.
    “You promise not to browbeat her?” his mother insisted.
    He muffled a growl. He wasn’t in the habit of badgering the servants. At this rate, the girl would be in such a state by the time he questioned her, she’d be in hysterics.
    “Do you need anything, my lady?” she asked with a calmness that belied that prediction.
    “Just my book and spectacles,” his mother said and accepted them with a smile. “Don’t stand for any nonsense from James.”
    Miss Trim’s smile was faint as she curtsied and preceded him from the room with a poise that wouldn’t disgrace a debutante at Almack’s. As he followed, Leath couldn’t help thinking that she was the damnedest housemaid he’d ever seen.
    Nell’s heart hammered with dread by the time she reached the library. She knew Leath chose this room to intimidate her. Goodness, after his tiff with his mother, she might yet face dismissal. It was clear that he wanted to get rid of her. If he did, how would she gather the evidence against him?
    Before she was summoned, her eavesdropping had been enlightening. The newspapers were right. Leath’s political career was in trouble. Good. When Sedgemoor used the diary to expose him as the villain he was, all hope of public office would evaporate.
    Nell had arrived at Alloway Chase despising Lord Leath. But that was before she’d listened to him battle with a mother he loved over something he considered important for her sake, not his own.
    Mentally Nell kicked herself. His kindness to his mother didn’t mean anything. With his family, the marquess mightact the civilized man, but at heart he was a monster. If she forgot that, she was lost.
    She stood straight and quiet in the center of the library as he prowled across to sit behind the desk.
    “It’s too late to pretend humility, Miss Trim,” he barked, making her start.
    When he’d spoken so tenderly to his mother, the beauty of his deep baritone had struck her. Now his voice was like a gunshot. Of course it was; she was a lowly servant. And he didn’t like her, despite those disturbing moments last night when she’d sensed male interest. This morning he’d regarded her like a cockroach in the castle’s pantry. Should the Marquess of Leath ever condescend to visit that prosaic location.
    “Yes, my lord,” she said meekly, intending to needle him.
    She succeeded. He growled and gestured toward the chair in front of the desk. “Sit down.”
    “It’s inappropriate for me to sit in your presence, sir.”
    “It’s inappropriate to answer back, my girl.”
    He had a point. She sat and concentrated on her lap to avoid those intense deep-set eyes.
    Last night, his size had struck her as remarkable. Since then, she’d told herself that nervousness alone had painted him as such a powerful physical presence.
    It wasn’t nervousness. He was tall and broad and dauntingly muscled. Clearly he found time for plenty of exercise away from his parliamentary activities. The portrait in his mother’s room was of a young man, long and lean and with a touch of innocence in his face. When she dared to glance up, there was nothing innocent about the man studying her over steepled fingers. He clearly awaited her full attention. She shivered and prayed he didn’t notice her disquiet.
    “Tell me about yourself.”
    The mad urge rose to announce that she was DorothySimpson’s sister and she was at Alloway Chase to ensure that he never ruined another woman.
    “Well?” he asked when she didn’t answer. “Cat got your tongue?”
    She licked her lips in uncertainty and suffered a jolt when his eyes focused on the movement. Immediately she was back in that strange dance of hatred and fascination. She’d been mistaken to think he’d conquered last night’s sensual awareness.
    Oh, dear Lord, this was an unholy mess.
    “I’m a little frightened,” she admitted.
    “Rot.” He arched those formidable black