Liberty for Paul Read Online Free PDF Page A

expression on her face and her gaze was leveled on his waist. But he didn’t even care. He was beyond caring. “See something you like,” he teased, hoping to distract her with his words so he could grab his clothes.
    Her face turned crimson and she pulled her eyes up to his face, not quite meeting his eyes. “Actually, no I didn’t. I think I would’ve liked what I saw much better if that scar,” she pointed to a jagged scar he had on his left hip that ran from his hipbone to half an inch from another part of his anatomy, “went just a little further over,” she said, her eyes flashing fire.
    “You’re a bloodthirsty one, aren’t you,” Paul said easily. Leave it to her to want him emasculated, as if this whole situation wasn’t bad enough already.
    “I’m not bloodthirsty,” she said hotly. “It’s just a shame, that’s all.”
    “A shame I was not unmanned?” he asked disbelievingly. “I think that part of my anatomy has suffered at your hands enough already, thank you.” What had he ever done to her to make her have this hatred for him?
    “How did it happen?” she asked quietly, ignoring his remark.
    Paul was in awe. Her voice had been so quiet it was hard to be certain, but he could have sworn her tone had held a hint of sympathy. “When I was twelve, my brother Sam and I found my uncle’s old fencing rapiers. Never having had a fencing lesson, we started wildly swinging them around at each other. Neither of us realized the protective tip wasn’t on Sam’s very well until in one undisciplined swing, Sam’s tip flew off and his rapier cut me.” Paul saw her wince and added ruefully, “Although you’ve expressed disappointment that his rapier did not travel further, I’m rather glad it stopped where it did.”
    “I’m sorry for my remark, it was most unkind of me,” Liberty said softly, still looking at his scar.
    “It’s all right,” he assured her. Compared to all the other things she’d said or done, that was nothing. “May I have my clothes now?”
    His words pulled Liberty out of her trance. Looking down at the clothes in her arms and her own gown, she bit her lip before she looked up and met his eyes again. “I…I...”
    It didn’t matter what she was going to say or do next because just then, the door to his bedchamber swung open and was followed by a shriek of surprise.
    Though Paul had his back to the door, he knew who it was; and just for further confirmation, he knew with certainty he’d guessed right when Liberty turned as white as chalk.

 
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
    “What’s the meaning of this?” roared Papa.
    Neither Mr. Grimes nor Liberty said anything.
    Liberty saw Mr. Grimes swallow hard and his face turn bright red, but he didn’t say anything. Drat the man. Couldn’t he say something and get them out of this mess? Isn’t that what gentlemen were good for? They helped damsels in distress, didn’t they? Granted she never really considered him a gentleman; and she was the one who took his clothes; and he was standing in front of both of her parents and their butler naked—of course covering what he felt was important—but couldn’t he do something ? This was not how she saw the evening going when she’d cried off early at Brooke’s and snuck into his room to take his clothes.
    She’d slipped in during his bath and with all the stealth and silence of a cat, removed all his clothes from his trunk and off the bed. Who in the world laid their clothes on their bed? Why he didn’t drape them over the screen like the rest of the world, she’d never know. But she’d always thought he was a weird one, so she hadn’t dwelt on it too long while collecting his clothes.
    Standing in the shadows by the screen, she’d waited for him to dunk his head into the bath. That’s when she grabbed his towel. Getting his dirty clothes, the ones she still had clutched to her chest, was harder to do. She’d stood in the shadows while he dried off, then, when he'd