Far Too Tempted Read Online Free PDF

from home among rough soldiers. Forgive me. My deepest apologies.” His head swam, but he tried to incline it anyway.
    Finally, a crease of that somber mouth came. She chuckled. “Please, sir, I believe I’ve heard that and worse in the midst of this army. Though, I do remember enough to appreciate a fine gentleman with fine manners. I am Mrs. Bennet.”
    “Captain Bennet’s wife?”
    “For many years.” She moved a little, going out of his line of vision. A cool cloth was produced, and she came back to press it against his forehead. It felt like heaven.
    “I assure you, Colonel, I have accompanied my husband into many a battle during this awful campaign. My nursing skills have become honed in the saddest of ways. If there is anything you need, please tell me. There are few enough physicians, but one will be through here eventually to look at your wounds and how they are healing.”
    In his experience, the surgeons were harried and cynical men, overworked and all too used to death.
    “Perhaps I should simply ask you, ma’am, with your experience. What do you think? Are they healing?”
    “I think so. Now. Had you been capable of asking yesterday, my answer might have been quite different.”
    “Wounds? I suppose that means more than one?” He closed his eyes and simply enjoyed the feel of gentle fingers against his brow.
    “The left shoulder is the worst. A little lower you would be conversing with God and not myself. The one in your right thigh is just a flesh wound that needed some stitching, and there was a bullet graze along your right hand that is, at a guess, more painful than crippling. That’s all.”
    He murmured, “It feels like quite enough. Tell me, the town…our men?”
    “I prefer to not think of it, sir. Some were hanged at Lord Wellington’s orders. That I do know. My husband wouldn’t tell me more.”
    He cleared his throat with effort. “I think I can understand why from what little I saw. What’s happening now?”
    “After the victory, Colonel, Wellington is pursuing Marmont and pushing on toward Madrid.”
    The victory. Satisfied, he drifted away.
     
     
    Alex shifted, reading the letter in his hand. Around him men lay in similar positions, propped on makeshift cots or lying on rough blankets laid on the stone floor, some awake, some moaning, some eerily still and unmoving. He’d gotten used to it quickly enough in his time in Spain and at least he was mending. Too many of them were carried out each day on stretchers draped with sheets.
    “Bad news from home, Colonel Ramsey?”
    At the deep voice, he looked up. To salute was impossible in his present state, so he simply nodded politely. “General.”
    “You were frowning pretty fiercely, Alex.” General Pierson pulled up a camp stool and sat down, wearily stretching out his legs. Portly and middle-aged, he looked tired and a decade older than when Alex had met him a few years before. His red uniform was dusty and splattered with suspicious stains.
    Alex smoothed the letter across his bended knee and shook his head. “My brother tries to keep me up to date on family matters—that is when his letters reach me at all. Apparently a neighbor is engaged to be married, that’s all.”
    “It seems a far away life, doesn’t it, when such gossip matters?” A weary chuckle escaped Pierson’s lips.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “You said a neighbor. Can I assume a female neighbor?” One bushy brow lifted as the general asked the question.
    Alex laughed but it really had nothing to do with mirth. “As it happens, yes.”
    “Young, pretty?”
    Affecting carefully cultivated indifference, Alex drawled, “Both. Actually, very pretty. Would I care otherwise?”
    Pierson let out a hearty laugh, his thick shoulders quivering. “The officers’ wives will miss you, Ramsey. Their husbands may miss you on the field, but the ladies will miss your handsome face and charm in the camps.”
    Alex stiffened. “Miss me? Sir, the—”
    “You’re on