Her Secret Fantasy Read Online Free PDF Page A

servant, Aadi, who had just come padding out, barefoot and turbaned as always.
    “Yes, sahib.” Aadi removed Derek’s coat smoothly from his shoulders, whisking it away to hang it up for him.
    Tugging his white shirtsleeves back down about his wrists, Derek strode across the sitting room in his waistcoat and made his selection from the liquor cabinet.
    “Join me?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at his brother.
    Gabriel declined with a wry shake of his head. “Purnima has forbidden me from drinking spirits yet. She’s made me a pot of tea instead. Some ayurvedic business.”
    “Ah, well, you’d better do as she says. Purnima knows,” Derek said sagely. “For my part, I find myself in need of stronger stuff.” With that, he tossed back a large swallow of French brandy.
    Perhaps no English officer was overly fond of that nation on the whole, but such fine liquor was rarely to be found on the other side of the world. Derek intended to enjoy all of Europe’s pleasures while he could.
    Especially those of the female variety.
    “Went that badly, eh?” Gabriel prompted.
    “Actually, no.” Derek turned to him, lifting his glass to offer himself a deserved toast. “Damned vexing, but I am happy to say the mission is accomplished.”
    “What, already?” his brother exclaimed.
    Derek nodded, a grin breaking across his face. “The vote was taken, the measure passed. The army will soon have its haul of gold.”
    Gabriel stared at him in amazement. “Well done, little brother!”
    “Ah, those chaps just needed a bit of persuading,” Derek said modestly.
    “I can’t believe you got it done in one day!”
    “I can’t believe they only have one man on the committee who has any damned military experience,” Derek countered with a snort. “Edward Lundy, nabob of the East India Company. He was once a field officer in the Company’s forces, but now he works behind a desk. Fairly high-placed, I understand.”
    “So, they’ve got Company men on this panel, then.”
    Derek nodded. “Three. There are nine members in all, three from the House of Lords, three from the Commons, and three from the Company’s upper echelons, like Father used to be. Far as I can see, the Lords are the ones who are really in charge. I’m supposed to check in with the chairman, Lord Sinclair, in a day or two to find out when the money will be ready for transport.”
    “God knows the army will be glad to finally have it. Three million pounds sterling, you say?” Gabriel mused aloud. “It must be killing them to hand it over.”
    “I know.” Derek flashed a grin. “Of course, it’s not like they have any right to keep it. Parliament merely put them in charge of doling out the army funds. I imagine they would’ve liked to hold on to it as long as they could. Probably hoping everyone would forget they had it,” he added cynically.
    “Let’s just hope their tardiness hasn’t needlessly cost too many of our men their lives,” Gabriel muttered.
    The brothers exchanged a grim, knowing look.
    “It isn’t real to them somehow,” Derek remarked after a moment, swirling the contents of his crystal goblet. Then he shook off his brooding. “Bloody civilians.”
    “God knows,” Gabriel agreed, and Derek poured himself another splash of brandy, blocking out the hideous memory of his last battle and the arrow that had gone through his brother’s torso. The one that had been meant for
him.
    In the thick of the fight that awful day, Derek had been engaged with three other swordsmen, heedless of the archers. Gabriel had seen the threat but had been unable to push Derek away fast enough. Instead, he had done the only thing that there was time to do to shield him, and had willingly stepped into the arrow’s path.
    Derek was not sure he could ever forgive himself for not seeing it coming, for not being fast enough. Gabriel was not just his brother and fellow officer. He was also his closest friend, and as his big brother had always