If He's Wild Read Online Free PDF Page B

hell, you are right. There lies the cause of all that anger and loathing, the whispered demands for retribution. She had something to do with their deaths. I did not see them at first. They appeared half the way through the dance, which was alarming, I might say.”
    “They sensed that you could see them, understand them perhaps. One can only wonder how long they have waited for just such an opportunity. That might explain why it was such a strong, violent, even upsetting visitation. They were desperately hungry for someone, anyone, to hear their pleas and so rushed at you too fast, too overwhelmingly.”
    “You seem to understand these things better than I do.”
    “’Tis not my gift. I can calmly sit back and study it.” Alethea sipped at her drink. “And you are right. This is all connected to what I saw. She is the one who threatens him.”
    “If what I just saw is the gathering of those whose deaths she has caused, she is a bloody, dangerous bitch,” Iago snapped, “and you will not have any more to do with her.”
    “How forceful you sound,” Alethea murmured. “I am devastated that I cannot heed and obey.”
    “No, you are not.” Iago cursed and dragged a hand through his hair, disordering his neat queue. “If I tried to send you back to Coulthurst, you would probably just turn around and come back here the first chance you got. On foot if you had to.”
    “I can be stubborn.”
    “Why? You do not know this man, have never even met Lord Redgrave before this eve. This is not your danger or your responsibility. You could leave me all I need to properly warn him and go home.”
    “Uncle, we have already stomped down that path,” she said gently. “In a rather strange way, I have known the man since I was a small child. He is in danger. The moment I knew that, all of this did become my responsibility. After what you have seen, I believe we can assume Madame Claudette is not some honest émigré, one fleeing for her life. Recall what else we thought about her, about her choice of lovers, and you must see that our responsibility grows even stronger. Not just to the man, but, perhaps, to England herself.”
    “What the bloody hell do you two know?!”
    Alethea looked at Lord Redgrave, startled by his abrupt intrusion into what she had thought was a private conversation. He looked a little pale, and his hands were clenched into tight fists at his side. He had followed them, something she had not anticipated, and had obviously overheard at least some of what she and Iago had been discussing. The look of angry suspicion he was giving them was probably justified. When she opened her mouth to reply, the sound of laughter warned her that someone was approaching and there would soon be far too many ears close by to hear what the three of them might say to each other.
    Redgrave scowled toward the sound. “Later. Meet me at my house in one hour.” He glared at Iago. “If I do not see you there, rest assured, I will hunt you down.”
    “Oh, dear,” murmured Alethea as she watched Lord Redgrave stride away. “Do we obey?”
    “I think we must,” replied Iago. “He did not ask what the devil we were talking about or what we meant, did he?”
    “Ah, me, no. He asked what we knew. Perhaps the danger I must warn him about will come as no surprise to him. It will just be a matter of making him believe me.”
    “My dear niece, if that man overheard everything we have discussed here, either he will have a few burly men waiting for us to take us off to Bedlam or he will see what you have to say as positively reasonable.”

Chapter 3
    “I want to know everything you two know about the Vaughns,” Hartley demanded of Aldus and Gifford as he poured them each a brandy. “Everything and quickly. They will be here soon.”
    Hartley sat down on a plush settee facing his two friends. They had said little as he had dragged them away from his cousin’s ball, brought them to his house, and ordered them into his best