Irresistible Read Online Free PDF Page A

the tasks for them. Her hands might as well be busy while she listened to their nonsense and their idle chatter, she had always said when they had thought to protest. She had cooked for them sometimes too, though none of the other officers’ wives would have so demeaned themselves. They had wangled many an invitation to sit at Walter Armitage’s table.
    Strangely, Nathaniel thought now as he smiled down at her, genuinely glad to see her again, as they all were, they had never really thought of Sophie as they had thought of other women in her position. They had not thought of her as frail and in need of their chivalrous gallantry. Yet she must have been very young indeed when she went to the Peninsula with Armitage and she was small enough to arouse the male protective instinct. But she had always seemed more like a comrade than a mere woman, someone with whom they had all been thoroughly comfortable. Even Armitage had seemed to treat her more as a friend than as a wife. Though there was no knowing, of course, what sort of a relationship they had had within the privacy of their own billets.
    Poor Sophie had listened to many a story that would have caused other ladies to swoon quite away—and told in the sort of coarse language that would have caused additional fits of the vapors. She had never flinched and had never reproached them—neither had her husband. It had never occurred to them to modify either their language or their topics of conversation around her. Not that they had not respected her, but—well, they had respected her as an equal.
    Everyone had liked Sophie. Perhaps because Sophie had always appeared to like everyone. It would have been hard to find a more cheerful soul. And she was beaming up at them now with all the old good humor, all the old air of camaraderie, even though she had been a widow for almost three years. And the old slight shabbiness of clothing. And the old untidy wisps of curly brown hair escaping the brim of her bonnet. Damn but it was good to see her again.
    “We are real enough to bellow ouch if you pinched us, Sophie,” Nathaniel said, “as are you, by Jove. Are you still basking in the glory of Walter’s fame?” Perhaps, he thought too late, the words had been too carelessly spoken. Perhaps she grieved too deeply to do any basking. But one could not somehow imagine Sophie distraught with grief—certainly not after three years.
    “Oh, yes indeed,” she said, smiling. “I thought people would forget within a fortnight. But it has been almost two years now since my day at Carlton House and still people remember what a great hero he was. Doors are still wide open to me despite my extreme lack of presence. And now Sarah and Lewis are here for the Season with their mama and papa and they are being received with deference because they are Walter’s niece and nephew. It is most gratifying. Walter would be thrilled—and amused, I daresay.” Her eyes twinkled with merriment.
    “Everyone loves a hero—and a heroine, Sophie,” Nathaniel said.
    “Walter would be genuinely pleased for you, Sophie,” Kenneth said. “And what is this about your lack of presence ? You are as conceited as you ever were, I see.”
    Sophie laughed and then sobered. “Oh, pardon me,” she said, turning to the young lady half hidden behind her. “May I have the honor of presenting my niece? Walter’s niece, that is. Sarah Armitage, daughter of Viscount Houghton, here for the Season with her parents and her brother. Four of your uncle Walter’s dear friends, Sarah.” She presented each of them in turn while her young niece—she could not be a day over eighteen, Nathaniel decided—blushed and curtsied and peered shyly up at them.
    “Your horses are eager to be moving,” Sophie said with great practicality after they had all made their bows to the girl and gazed at her appreciatively, “and I daresay you all are too. And my dog is eager to find new trees to sniff. It has been a great pleasure to