Athena's Ordeal Read Online Free PDF Page B

certainly among the best you've fought."
    As they had lost sight of the men Sabre turned and flopped onto the bench and Jack seated herself opposite.
    "Not among the best, he is the best. I'm going to marry him."
    "What?" Jack felt her heart still in her chest.
    "I shall marry him. Then I will be a duchess. And I will be able to watch him any time that I want. Duel him any time I want."
    "Sabre, these don't sound like reasons to marry," Jack cautioned.
    Her friend gave her a speaking look. "Says the woman who married for no reasons whatsoever."
    "My reputation! You know what could have happened to Sam and my mother if it had turned into a true scandal."
    "Of course I do. I'm just saying that other than that you had no reason to marry the earl. You didn't admire him. Quite the opposite. And you had never shown any interest in marrying for a title."
    "That's true," Jack said carefully.
    "At least I have reasons."
    Jack recognized the look in her friend's eyes. Sabre would have the duke at any cost. God save Quince.
    Sabre pinned Jack with a shrewd look. “I assume that I can count on your assistance with this?”
    “Well, what do you need?”
    Her dark haired friend looked out the window again. “This isn’t a war, it’s a hunt.” She smiled. “That’s your providence, Artemis.”
    Jack thought she had best tread carefully. “When Gideon and I met he suggested seeing seduction as a war. That’s your expertise, Athena.”
    Sabre returned her attention to Jack . “Really? Well, I suppose who would know more about seduction than Lord Lucifer?”
     
    Quince and the earl faced off in the middle of the field after the ladies left. The duke didn't know the last time he had been so angry. Wait, yes he did. And Gideon Wolfe had been the cause of that, as well. He couldn’t decide if this was better or worse than the earl undermining the first bill Quince had tried to raise in Parliament. "Gideon, what on earth were you thinking, allowing this to happen?"
    Gideon, wiping down the duke's sword as part of his duties as second, asked, "What do you mean allowing?"
    "I asked you to stand for me here because I trust you. I can see that is yet again a mistake."
    "About that, I've been meaning to tell you that you were right."
    "I…" Quince realized what Gideon had actually said and it pulled him up short. "What do you mean I was right? About what?"
    "If you calm down a bit perhaps I will tell you."
    Quince stopped and focused on his breathing. He could feel the tension throughout his body, irritation prickling under his skin. But what was done couldn't be undone. And short of wresting the sword from Giddy, who seemed intent on polishing it to death, in order to run his irritating friend through with it, there wasn't much he could think of that would satisfy his unease.
    "Feeling better?" the earl ventured.
    "Just a moment," Quince said, closing his eyes. He could hear the horses shifting in their gear as they and his coachman patiently waited. Birds were singing in the nearby trees, content with the early morning Spring sunshine. The scent of blooming flowers carried on the light breeze. Bluebells, if he wasn't mistaken. That made Quince smile. He had sent Gideon's wife a bouquet of bluebells once, as a sign of gratitude when she had made him laugh. Few people were capable of that anymore, it seemed. Feeling calmer he opened his eyes and saw that he had been correct. A blanket of bluebells bloomed under the trees that bordered the clearing.
    Gideon cleared his throat and Quince glanced over to see that the earl had finally finished polishing the sword, having sheathed it to hold loosely in his off hand.
    "Would you like to go?" Gideon asked.
    "I recall there being a mention of an early breakfast," Quince looked up at the sky. "Perhaps not so early, but there is certain to be plenty at my sideboard if you care to join me."
    Gideon grinned at him. "Angry as you were, I thought you would shake me loose at the earliest