Daring the Duke Read Online Free PDF Page B

been the multiple brushes with Chalmers today that had set her teeth on edge.

    This was a job for a green lad. If she was going to risk her neck while being pressed into service, the least Travers could do was come up with something more challenging. She activated the mechanism. A concealed drawer popped open. She removed the stack of papers, closed the door, and reset the leaver.

    Audrey tucked the papers under her shirt and into her breeches. She would read them later, before giving them to Travers. She needed all the ammunition she could accumulate to save Faye. And if blackmailing her blackmailer was the only way to free her sister, she’d do it.

    Audrey moved toward the window. There was no use dawdling. Only striplings made the mistake of lingering at a scene. She was halfway to freedom when she stopped.

    The air had changed. Her scalp prickled, and she whirled around to face the other person in the room. So silent. How had she missed him? Why had he waited to show himself? And why hadn’t he sounded the alarm?

    She lashed out with her right foot, but her blow was deflected. A shaft of moonlight settled in front of her, cut in twain by her body. She was silhouetted in the light, easy to see. Cursing inwardly, she dove and somersaulted away from the desk. She grabbed one of the knives from her left sleeve and hurled it at the figure.

    The knife was somehow blocked, and the steel clattered harmlessly across the floor. The sound was deafening in the otherwise silent house. Audrey could hear the walls waking from their heavy sleep. The inhabitants would be next.

    She needed to incapacitate her assailant as silently as possible and get the hell out of the house. She could discern a faint outline, and though the man was tall and broad-shouldered, he wasn’t a beefy thug. She might be able to sustain his weight before he hit the floor. She grabbed a bust on the edge of a side table and launched herself at the figure.

    Her aim was perfect, but at the last instant the man stepped to the side and pulled her tightly against him. The bust dropped soundlessly on a padded settee. The man’s ironclad grip sent alarm bells ringing in her head. He was so quick, so steady. She jerked uselessly for a few seconds but was unable to free herself. He was too strong.

    If she was caught, all was lost. She couldn’t be caught, wouldn’t be caught. A dark cell and malicious smiles swirled in her mind. Panic gave her strength.

    She was off-balance and made a final effort to swipe his legs. It worked.
    The poorly executed manoeuvre sent the man to the floor, but he never loosened his grip, and she landed on top of him.

    The thud echoed through the house. The stirrings began. Audrey tried to break free, but the man’s grip was firm; he wouldn’t release her.

    A door opened downstairs. Footsteps sounded in the foyer.

    Audrey squirmed and tried to kick her captor. His legs coiled around hers, locking her in place. No mere toady, but a seasoned professional. Her panic neared hysteria. She was headed straight to jail, or worse, straight to the hangman’s noose.

    Footsteps sounded on the bottom of the stairs.

    She tried to free one of the knives at her waist. His hold tightened.
    Confusion joined the panicked emotions flitting through her brain. The main wasn’t trying to hurt her; he was restraining her. Toying with her. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was testing her.

    She pulled her head back to slam into his nose, but he anticipated the move and rolled them over, pinning her beneath him. The action rolled them in the patch of moonlight streaming through the window. Audrey got a first look at her captor and froze.

    Eyes that would be bright green in the daytime speared her with their darkness. She caught a brief whiff of pine as the footsteps continued their ascent.

    She would have known his identity earlier had her mind not gone into a panic like a green girl on her first job. Trapped. Everything she had worked