Argent (Hundred Days Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

ago, when we trekked west as far as the Missouri. Chas sent some men to take stock of an outpost, for a fur venture. The country, the people...” Her smile was radiant. “I struggle imagining its equal anywhere on earth.”
                  Spencer looked her over, mind aching at her growing enigma. “You went west, just the three of you?”
                  Alexandra's blue eyes narrowed. “I traveled with Chas’s foreman Mister Mattingly, his sons and his wife. Chas was occupied and Paulina does not travel au provincial .” She spit the accusations half under her breath, dodging Paulina’s cocked ear. “Three scouts, two white guides and our native guide. Some of his people traveled with us, coming and going. At harvest time, there is a great deal of trading and communicating between the tribes.”
                  “Goodness,” breathed Laurel. “Were you not overwhelmed the whole time? I have heard the frontier can be very savage.”
                  Shrugging, Alexandra chewed her lip. “Anywhere can be, it seems. But those are often the places to find adventure.”
                  Spencer shifted in his chair, frustration growing by the moment. It was her. Alexandra was the same woman he had taken to the garden, playful and willing, adventurous. He had kissed the lips smiling at him now. The pieces just didn't fit. The woman before him was soft spoken if frank, a little demure and perfectly sweet to their hostess with not a hint of passion. He stared at her, puzzled.
    Lost in his confusion, he drifted away, only catching himself when her brows lifted in question. “Something troubles you, Lord Reed?”
                  “It does.”
                  Her brows rose higher, and for just a breath Spencer swore something spilled into her gaze, something she'd kept bottled up, more which lurked just below the surface. Just as quickly as it came, the cork was stuck back in and Alexandra claimed her forgotten book, not a ripple to her expression.
                  Looking from her to the others, he caught Paulina's narrowed eye, first on Alexandra and then on him. Understanding dawned at last. His lady from the garden was in there somewhere, hidden as much from her family as from him. What hold did Paulina have over her sister-in-law?
    In the end, it didn't matter a fig. She was in there, and he would draw her out.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
                  Alix stuffed her trunk until it strained, its lid creaking at an excess of eyelet and lace. She would pack a single trunk and save herself trouble. Paulina would demand three, even four, for a weekend. Limiting her own accessories, Alexandra could spare herself a speech from her sister-in-law about the woman's deprivation without shawls, petticoats, muslin and silk gowns. Rooms too hot or too cold could spell Paulina’s death, of course, and only the most callous would deny the woman a necessity. Nine pairs of slippers and twelve silks in nearly the same color; who had the right to pass judgment on what Paulina required in order to survive?
    Not much longer , Alix smiled to herself, latching her trunk. Chas might be saddled with Paulina and that was a sad pit of his own making. But she was not, and soon their mutual tolerance would be at an end. She would take the same leap she had made years earlier getting on that ship, and this time she would not get off for any number of Silas’s threats. She’d pinched what little money Chas had deposited on her shares to a miserly degree, eking out one meager return at a time. Cheated from the sale of their family house in Malton, hers in accordance with Father's will, progress had been glacial. Now and then she had made an investment, a small one with its return guaranteed. Each exchange moved her one step closer to her coup: to buy up any and every share of Paton & Son Shipping, enough that Silas would be forced