I Kissed an Earl: Pennyroyal Green Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

ballroom?”
    “Miss Redmond, I’m certain Le Chat would brave the gallows if he knew he might have an opportunity to dance with you. Perhaps he prowls balls for just this reason.”
    Violet laughed and gave a surprised toss of her head. The compliment was cognac-smooth and unexpected enough to dissolve the fog of her ball ennui. The French accent that clung to the edges of his flawless English made listening to him a pleasure akin to hearing the strains of a minuet floating in from a distant room.
    Lavay was encouraged to continue. “We’ve some intelligence that suggests Mr. Hardesty and Le Chat may well be the same person. Mr. Hardesty certainly appears to be wealthy, for one. But one can hardly condemn a man for wealth. And many successful traders are wealthy.”
    “I would be the last person to condemn a man for wealth, Lord Lavay.”
    He smiled at this and wagged up a pair of golden brows. “We—that is, the Earl of Ardmay and the crew of The Fortuna—have been charged by your King with bringing Le Chat to justice.”
    “It sounds dangerous,” she flattered.
    Lavay somehow managed to shrug with one shoulder, even in the midst of the waltz. Too French, perhaps, to think communication complete without it.
    “But why should a pirate be called ’the cat’?”
    “It is said this is the name he uses when he takes over ships. Perhaps it is because he boards ships with a small crew and pounces, silently from out of the fog? From out of the night?
    Perhaps it is because he is said to have no allegiance to any crown or to any person? Or his charm when he wants something, perhaps—like a cat circling one’s legs, purring? The ladies say this is so; Hardesty is said to have no heart, but happy enough to win and break them. Perhaps it is because he appeared from nowhere one day, like a stray cat, and began to take whatever he wanted. I cannot say, Miss Redmond. People do enjoy naming their pirates, for this is how myths are constructed. Pirates never seem to object.”
    At least Mr. Lavay had remembered her name.
    And as she danced, she realized she saw the earl and Lady Peregrine nowhere in the room, and wondered whether she had managed to isolate him to test her theory regarding thighs. Which was when she realized she’d actually been looking for the earl. She ceased immediately.
    Thankfully she did see Jonathan, dancing again, with a small be-muslined blonde. He looked bored. He looked like Jonathan. Not remotely piratical.
    “What has this Le Chat done?”
    “We believe Le Chat has boarded a number of merchant vessels and seized valuable cargo in just a year, And then he has sunk the ships. Four of the ships had English captains. The most recent ship is The Steadfast. He is a scourge, in other words,” he said flatly.
    “Is bringing pirates to justice a habit of the earl?”
    “Achieving the impossible is a habit of the earl. It’s how he became an earl,” Lavay said shortly. “And what drew the attention of the King to him for this particular mission.”
    “I heard he did something heroic to earn his title.”
    “You heard correctly.”
    Mr. Lavay said nothing more. But he seemed privately amused about something. “But why, Lord Lavay, would a pirate attend balls by night and then creep out to sink ships?”
    He managed a shrug again. “Power? Money? Notoriety? Vengeance? Who can say? Needless to say, he would never sink a ship if he knew you were aboard.”
    They smiled at each other, pleased with the progress of their flirtation; they understood each other almost too easily. His gray eyes smoldered with a comfortable heat, familiar but refined with a frisson of the exotic as he was French. His eyes and hands and very presence didn’t…take her captive.
    Unlike the earl’s.
    Oh! And there he was! The earl’s expression fixedly polite, watching with sleepy fascination as Lady Peregrine’s mouth moved and moved, as though she were a talking dog. A novelty. Doubtless not really listening.
    She