Her Master's Touch Read Online Free PDF Page B

the premises on her person. That would
complicate matters greatly. So, perhaps a lovers' spat was in
order, one that would send the lady off in a huff for a week or so,
enough time to locate the opal and abscond with it.
    ***
    Cedrid Hadleigh raised the opal, and the gem
burst into fiery flashes. "What are you talking about? Napoleon and
Josephine? Burning of Troy ?" he said to Damon, his eyes
focused on the gem. "I thought it belonged to the gypsies."
    "It did," Damon replied, "but before that, it
belonged to Empress Josephine. It disappeared after her death, and
that's when it fell into the hands of gypsies."
    Cedric eyed the stone with renewed interest.
"How much is it worth?"
    "Enough to clear my name, pay my way to
England, and restore Westwendham." Damon took the opal from
Cedric's hands and slipped it into a velvet pouch, then placed the
pouch in a strongbox and shoved it under his desk. "You were asking
about a loan?"
    Cedric stared at the strongbox for an
inordinate amount of time, then shifted his gaze to Damon.
"Three-thousand rupees would tide me over until the crop comes
in."
    "Three-thousand ! Good God. You want a
bloody fortune! I'll loan you five-hundred."
    "But... I've got a staff of forty-four."
    "Then dismiss that Delhian mehra of
yours!"
    "Get rid of Hasan?" Cedric said, forlorn.
"But a chap's got to eat."
    " Not like a maharajah! Get yourself a
British cook." Damon eyed Cedric with vexation. Bloody hell! The
man should feel lucky to have a square meal. The problem was,
Cedric had never known hunger, never stared at a pastry cook's
window while dreaming of eating plum cakes or raspberry tarts.
Never stood by an eating house, inhaling the sultry air wafting
from the wall gratings while imagining sinking his teeth into an
eel pie or a round of beef or a pen'orth of pudding dripping in fat
and plump raisins...
    Cedric slumped into a chair. "I can't get rid
of Hasan,” he groused. “He uses almonds and pistachios instead of
rice and lentils and no one knows until they taste it. He cuts the
almonds to look like rice and the pistachios to look like lentils,
so you think you're getting khichri . And once tasted, the
dish is never forgotten. And with his roghni rot —" Cedric
kissed the tips of his fingers with a smack "—the bread's no
thicker than paper."
    Damon dipped his pen in the inkstand and
scrolled a note, and handed it to Cedric. "This is it, old chap.
Keep your mehra or dismiss him, it's up to you. But you
won't get another rupee from me until this is paid in full, with
interest."
    Cedric took the note. "Perhaps it will see me
through until harvest—"
    " Damon !" Mara glided into the library,
sari swishing against her ankles, cheeks flushed with anticipation.
"I come for black horse."
    Damon looked at her with at start. He'd
completely forgotten to send word that she not come. "I didn't get
the horse," he said.
    "What you mean? Not get horse?"
    "My lord? If I might interrupt." Eliza
appeared in the doorway, clad in the skirt and décoletté blouse
she'd worn at the horse fair. But now a bibbed apron stretched
tight across her breasts and hugged her tiny waist. "Could you
direct me to the sitting room?"
    "Damon!" Mara gasped. "Who is this...
person?"
    "My name is Eliza," she replied. "I'm the new
housemaid." She turned to Damon. "I am sorry to disturb you, but
like I assured you at the horse fair, I truly want to please
you."
    "If you want to please me," Damon said, "you
will leave at once."
    She batted her lashes. "Yes, my lord, if you
will direct me to the sitting room."
    Mara leveled furious eyes on Damon. "You must
take me for complete, what you say, ninny! Am I to believe this
woman is housemaid?"
    "It's true, my lady," Eliza said. "Lord
Ravencroft offered me a job as a cook, but when I told him I could
not cook, he offered me the job as a housemaid which—"
    "Eliza!" Damon cut in. "Enough. The sitting
room is down the hallway to your right. Leave at once, and do not
disturb us again."
    Eliza