Frovtunes’ Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

threatened to give way. A gasp broke from her lips.
    Graham Foster straightened, smiled into her eyes, turned, and strode away. Her heart pounding against her corset stays, Moira stared after him and shivered.

    â€œShaun, my friend, I think I’m in love.”
    â€œYou don’t say.” Shaun turned from whatever he’d been contemplating outside Graham’s sitting-room window. Eyebrows as black as coal arced in genuine interest. “With whom?”
    Graham stretched out his legs on the chaise, tipped his head back, and slipped another orange slice into his mouth. He’d purchased two crates in Spain on the trip back from Africa. Now he wished he’d brought three, as Letty threatened to exhaust the supply within days. “I wish I knew,” he replied.
    â€œA little early to be drinking, isn’t it?”
    â€œI haven’t been. Did you see me walking with a woman at the ball last night?”
    â€œI saw you walking with a number of women.” Shaun moved away from the window and threw himself into a nearby armchair. “To which are you referring?”
    â€œYou saw me
escaping
the advances of a number of women. Only one caught my interest. The one in dark blue with the matching mask.”
    â€œAhhhh. Intriguing, that one. You ever discover what lay behind that mask?” Shaun leaned to pluck an orange from the bowl at Graham’s elbow.
    â€œNo, damn it.”
    â€œMore intriguing still. And since you no doubt tried, I’m quite certain your failure to do so has you stewing.”
    â€œI want you to make inquiries.”
    â€œWill do.” Shaun pierced the orange rind with his thumbnail, sending out a tangy spray of juice. He licked the tip of his thumb and made a face. “Too tart. I did manage to find out where that Miss Hughes is staying while she’s in London. Got Smythe’s secretary to spill his guts.”
    â€œSo Smythe lied.”
    â€œLike a Gypsy horse trader.”
    â€œI wonder why. How thickly did you have to line the secretary’s pocket?”
    â€œNot too much. Just sat there cleaning my fingernails with that serpent’s-head dagger I found in Dendera.” Shaun shrugged. “It seems the lady has rooms at a boardinghouse on the Surrey side of the river.”
    Graham jerked his chin toward his friend. “The Surrey side?”
    â€œSouthwark.”
    â€œWhy the devil would she take rooms there? She might have stayed here if she’d only asked. It was her home, after all, before it became mine.”
    â€œYou know how ladies are. Probably didn’t want to share the place with a new mistress.”
    â€œNew mistress, indeed.” Graham scowled and rolled his partially eaten orange onto the table beside him. “I wasn’t at all pleased to arrive in England to find my family already installed in my new home and amassing debts I’m now expected to pay. Talk about taking without asking.”
    â€œHave they spent all that much? Relatively speaking, that is.”
    â€œThat’s not the point. They had no right.”
    â€œThey
are
your family.”
    â€œAre they? They disowned me quick enough ten years ago over that cheating incident.” Graham suppressed a shudder at the memory of the injustice. He’d never felt more betrayed before or since.
    Shaun furrowed his brow in sympathy. “Didn’t help matters that your own uncle took sides against you.”
    â€œThe old cobra isn’t my uncle. Just another of my numerous distant cousins. We’re a far-flung family, one whose reach far exceeds its regard.”
    â€œStill, your immediate family has tried to make amends over the years,” Shaun reminded him, not for the first time.
    â€œAh, yes,
after
they heard I’d discovered treasure in Egypt. But I haven’t tossed them out on their ears yet, have I?” Shaun said nothing as Graham ruminated for several moments. Then a thought occurred to