Lost in a Royal Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page A

status.”
    “Dominic will not be going with them?”
    “No. Queen Charlotte wishes to see him in the way of a respectable trade, or perhaps a position within the Church.”
    Sir Anthony snorted in disbelief. “That seems unlikely.”
    Linnet allowed herself a tiny smile. “I agree he is ill-suited for either choice.”
    Ironically, if Dominic’s life hadn’t changed so drastically when he was a young boy, he likely would have found himself in trade. His father had been a butcher in Smithfield, but he’d died in an accident when Dominic was seven and the boy’s mother had succumbed to a fever some months later. That had thrown Dominic onto the notice of the parish, where he’d eventually been selected by the queen to be raised with the princes. It was surely one of the most ill-advised charitable impulses Linnet could imagine, since it meant Dominic had been raised far above his sphere. The boy could no more return to the shops of Smithfield than he could be recognized as a member of the royal family.
    Sir Anthony turned and stretched a long arm to reclaim the brandy decanter from behind him. He poured a glass and then held up the cut-crystal bottle, lifting a questioning eyebrow at Linnet.
    “No, thank you,” she said. She was already feeling muzzy-headed from her fortified tea. But she appreciated the gesture and the comfortable lack of formality between them. It was almost as if Sir Anthony was treating her like . . . a friend.
    Sir Anthony absently swirled his brandy, no doubt pondering the problem she’d tossed his way. Linnet knew it was a complicated one, involving a concocted reason for why he wanted Dominic—one that would satisfy the king.
    “I know it’s a lot to ask,” she blurted out. “But Dominic is in a terrible situation, and I simply can’t let him go back there.”
    “Agreed, but I’m not sure I’m the best person to take him.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk. “Why do you think I’m the appropriate guardian?”
    Linnet gnawed on the corner of her bottom lip. How could she explain without sounding like someone who’d spent a considerable amount of time studying Sir Anthony’s character?
    Which she had, of course.
    She shrugged, hoping he would honor her request without requiring any further explanation. But of course he didn’t. Instead, he watched her with endless patience, a strangely calculating smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
    Linnet blew out an exasperated breath. “It’s because I believe you would understand a boy like Dominic. The challenges he faces. Your backgrounds are nothing alike, but you were both orphaned at an early age. You also know what it means to have the weight of expectations placed on your shoulders, the sense that more is required from you than from other people.”
    She hesitated when his mouth transformed from a smile into a flat line. He didn’t look precisely angry but his eyes had narrowed, and he studied her with an intensity that made her uneasy.
    “Go on,” he prompted.
    Linnet took hold of her flagging courage. The stakes were high, and she couldn’t afford to back down now. “You were one of the youngest magistrates in the City, and you also rose very quickly to your positions in the Home Office and at Court. It is a great honor, but difficult, I imagine, and rather isolating. Dominic is isolated, too. He needs someone to understand what that’s like for him.”
    By the time she fell silent, Linnet’s pulse was racing. Sir Anthony’s eyes glittered with a hard gleam, the one that she’d learned to recognize and avoid. What kind of fool would dictate the nature of his temperament to so powerful a man?
    She swallowed hard. “Forgive me,” she said. “I had no right to ask you to do this. If you can just take Dominic for a few nights until I—”
    “Linnet, you mistake me.” His deep voice cut across her babble.
    Drat. She’d clearly offended him. “Yes, I know it was presumptuous of me,