Absolute Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page B

and his eyes followed that hand to where she pointed.
    Charles sucked in a breath. Her finger, her lips, her throat all but forgotten in his sudden fear. “Will they bite us?”
    “No, silly! They ’ re just fox cubs. I imagine their mother is off looking for lunch,” Amelia said.
    Charles righted himself suddenly, his gaze darting around the shadows in the wood for the slightest movement. “Are we lunch? We should go...should we go? I think we should go. I think we should leave, in case—”
    A raucous peal of laughter cut him off.
    “Hugh, don ’ t! Damn you twice. He ’ s unused to the wild,” Amelia said softly.
    “Twice already? We ’ ll see about that. Besides, that ’ s ridiculous. He lives in the country, just as we do. Why wouldn ’ t he know about animals?” Hugh replied stiffly.
    “My father, he doesn ’ t let me run about the estate without a governess,” Charles said, annoyed that they played games around him, the secret messages he wasn ’ t privy to. Damn them both, he thought, knowing it made no difference, that it didn ’ t count in their game and never would matter.
    “A governess?” Hugh replied in haughty disbelief. “What on earth do you do with a governess? Take tea?”
    “Hugh! Damn you three times.” Amelia smacked his arm, and Hugh looked to her. “You will cease this instant. If Charles isn ’ t comfortable in the forest, we shall return to the manor. I ’ m sure there are plenty of adventures we can have in the attics. They ’ ve been storing things up there for centuries. We shall have a treasure hunt.” She turned to Charles with a grand smile, and he grimaced.
    “Dust,” he returned quietly.
    Her smile faded. “Well, then, we shall...we shall...find something to do on the way back to the manor house. Charles, would you lead the way?”
    Charles was all too happy to lead them from the forest, across the moors and back to some semblance of civilization. Even if it meant an afternoon of dust. He could feel his skin itching already.
    “Amelia,” Hugh whispered, but Charles heard anyway. He didn ’ t dare turn back, though, knowing that Hugh hadn ’ t wanted him to hear, so he wouldn ’ t be the one to give himself away.
    “Hugh, what are you going to do with those?” she replied in just as much of a whisper.
    Silence. The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. His heart sped. He knew there was to be a prank in his future.
    “I forbid it,” Amelia said vehemently.
    Charles turned at that, in time to see her eyes dart back to Hugh then he continued on.
    Then her voice became softer, more insistent. “You will leave them here on the moors where they belong, Hugh, or I ’ ll not speak with you again.”
    “Amelia, please? It ’ s merely for fun,” the boy replied.
    “No, absolutely not. Leave them now, or damn you forever.”
    Charles realized abruptly that their voices had dimmed more from distance than control and stopped to turn around. He saw Hugh pull several lumpy forms from his pockets, letting them drop to the soft earth, only to have them spring to life, scattering in all directions.
    Charles knew his mouth was gaping. He could feel the breeze on his tongue. He snapped his mouth shut.
    Frogs. Or toads. Did it matter which? Hugh had been planning yet another prank, this one involving those slimy creatures from the pond. And she— she —had saved him.
    In that moment, he knew that he cared for her for this, for if he ’ d stepped into a shoe to discover a wet snapping mouth and a long sticky tongue, he was quite sure the prank would have been his end.
    It was then that Hugh looked up at him and scowled. Damn him forever is right, Charles thought. Charles hoped it was merely the fact that Amelia had thwarted his recalcitrant efforts, but it was entirely possible that Charles had been looking on Amelia with rather a different sort of gleam in his eye, one that Hugh had not appreciated.
    Well, Amelia may have foiled Hugh this time, but