Angel's Devil Read Online Free PDF

strenuously as he was the liquor that flowed in abundance through the
room. Most of his acquaintances, and even a few of his socially acceptable
former mistresses. had stopped to greet him and welcome him home, but he wasn't
much in the mood for frivolous conversation. He was saving all of his attention
for Angel Graham.
    By the time he
claimed her for their waltz his leg ached, and he was nearly as tired as he was
angry. For the first few turns they waltzed in silence, her slender hand tense
in his as she obviously sensed his annoyance.
    "No cane
tonight?" she asked finally, raising her brown eyes to his.
    "It was
mostly for show," he returned shortly. "I should like to know, Lady
Angelique," he said evenly, "how it has come to pass that half the
wags in London are discussing my interest in the woman my cousin has been
courting?"
    She blanched.
"What?"
    "You
appear to be surprised."
    "I
am." She frowned. "Louisa and Mary only asked how we knew one
another, and I said we'd returned to London together. I don't know where they
got the idea that you were interested in me, or I, you. I should have known
better than to say anything to those silly gossips with their odious innuendos."
    "Yes, you
should have," he agreed.
    Angelique
glared at him, apparently not in any better humor than he was. "I
apologize, my lord, but surely you don't expect me to believe that you haven't
had much worse said about you."
    "Rather
blunt, aren't we tonight, my lady?" he responded cynically. "I shall
be as well. Ordinarily I wouldn't give a flying leap what anyone might think
about my actions, but I've been away for quite some time. I'd rather hoped to
be able to redeem myself with my fellows." His voice sank into the murmur
that, in the past, had caused several worthy gentlemen to give up frequenting
White's while he was in town. "You've now made things even more difficult
for me. I do not appreciate that."
    "Then you
likely shouldn't have accepted the offer of a ride back to London with
us," she stated, her dark green skirts swirling against his legs.
    He hadn't expected
her to challenge him. Angelique Graham, though, didn't exactly seem the type
to retreat. "If you had informed me that you were engaged to my cousin, I
might not have accepted that ride."
    Angelique
glanced over at Simon, waltzing with Miss Jenny Smith. "As he is your
cousin, and as we have been engaged for three months, I thought he might have
informed you already." She sniffed. "And besides, when I invited you
to share our coach, I had no idea who you were."
    He pursed his
lips. Even her discovery of his identity had had little discernable effect on
her. "So we should be blaming Simon for this mess."
    She shook her
head. "My parents, I think. They're the ones trying to keep the engagement
a secret." She grimaced. "They are obsessed with respectability, and
are convinced I'll do something outrageous before the wedding and Simon will
beg off."
    "I
see," he murmured, impressed and disarmed by her honesty. “Apparently
then, you took quite a risk, inviting both Brutus and myself to join you."
He paused as the rotation of the dance took them close to the line of
bystanders and their sharp ears.
    With the long
evening, straying strands of Angelique Graham's copper hair, coiled into a bun
at the back of her head, had come loose to caress her high cheekbones. The hint
of a smile touched her full, red lips. "Actually, I thought that with a
stranger sharing the coach ride, Mama wouldn't be able to rail at me as much
for taking in another pet."
    He raised an
eyebrow, though where Angel was concerned, he had little difficulty imagining
a version of the Dover rescue occurring on several other occasions.
"Another pet?" he repeated.
    "Well,
there haven't been all that many, but Mama remembers every one, and all of the
supposed problems they might have caused."
    "I
see," he returned with a grin. "So I was merely a distraction to keep
your parents from realizing the true issue at hand:'
    She