Desire and Deception Read Online Free PDF Page A

prison for fraud, and might even hang. Prison! The very word struck terror in her heart. To be locked away, in a cold dark cell . . .
    Matthew had been right. She had to leave Carlin House at once. She would put what few things she needed in a bundle and wait till everyone was asleep, then slip out to meet him.
    "But I cannot take you with me, Ulysses," Lauren whispered.
    The cat blinked his wide almond-shaped eyes and yawned, while Lauren stared at the canopy overhead. Matthew would help her, as he had said. Once they managed to make the nearest seaport, they could find a ship and leave England. . . .
    But now, in the damp darkness of the Thames waterfront, her knee paining her fiercely, Lauren was close to panic as she recalled how disastrously their escape had gone awry. Matthew had insisted on going to London where they could more easily elude Burroughs's men, but they had made it only as far as
    Reading before Matthew had nearly been killed. Then he had abandoned her, intentionally making himself a target and giving her a chance to flee. Afterward, her flight had taken her to London where she waited fruitlessly for Matthew to arrive; then to the waterfront where Burroughs's men were still searching for her; then to the London Dock where she boarded the Leucothea and met Captain Jason Stuart.
    And that was the final blow. As incredible as it seemed, she had stumbled directly into the path of one of the men she wished most to avoid.
    Jason Stuart, the man she was contracted to marry.

Chapter Two

    Jason reached the gunwale in time to see his cloaked visitor flee up the stone steps from the quay. Watching her stumble through the cargo on the dimly lit wharf, he frowned, puzzled by her strange behavior.
    The entire day had been rather uncommon, Jason reflected as he stared after her. When the Leucothea had docked that morning, he had been met with the disturbing news that the United States had declared war on England. That intelligence immediately raised the question of whether his American first mate, Kyle Ramsey, would continue to sail with the brig. Then later that day, when Jason responded to his father's injunction for a personal appearance, he had learned something else equally disturbing.
    He had been too busy to consider the implications of either event until he had seen to his ship. But when Kyle finally joined him in his cabin, the two of them spent the remainder of the evening drinking Jason's best brandy and discussing the problem Kyle's citizenship posed. Years before, the Ramsey family had moved from England to a plantation on the Mississippi River, and though Kyle hadn't lived in America for long before he took to the sea, he felt a certain loyalty toward his new country.
    Wanting his friend to make the choice, Jason had refrained from using his considerable talents of persuasion, but he was pleased and relieved by Kyle's decision to stay with the Leucothea . Only when the problem was satisfactorily resolved, did Jason mention his own quandary. "There is one more thing," he said, pausing to choose his words. "The summons from my father . . ."
    "Ah, yes," his inebriated first mate interjected. "The urgent message which was waiting when we dropped anchor. Let me guess—Lord Effing ripped up at you for disgracing the family honor. Or was it merely that you didn't jump when he said jump?" Kyle snorted as he replenished his glass from the crystal decanter on Jason's desk. "You get such summons regularly, Jase . What d'you do to twig the old man's nose this time? It can't be those investments you made in the East India Company—that was last time. You should have taken me with you. I would have recommended an indulgence in spirits for my Lord Effing . Easier to stomach a rebellious son, you know." Kyle took a large swig of brandy and grinned. "On second thought, that wouldn't do. His lordship might drown in the stuff."
    "He had something else in mind, however," Jason said before Kyle's loosened tongue took him off