More Than You Know Read Online Free PDF

for you, Miss Bancroft?"
    "Stickle says you've refused him."
    Rand blinked. “Stickle?” He couldn't have heard her correctly. “You are permitted to call Evan Markham, the Eighth Duke of Strickland, Stickle?"
    Claire felt heat in her cheeks again, but she managed to keep herself from touching them. “He is my godfather,” she explained. “It was the best I could manage as a child. And he's not so high in the instep as he'd like to have you think."
    "Then we already have a difference of opinion,” said Rand, “but I'll accept that you believe it. Did he send you here?"
    "Oh, no,” she said quickly. “I doubt if he knows I'm gone. He wouldn't approve. He thought that I should invite you back to his house, but I didn't think you'd come.” She paused and risked a glance his way. “Would you?"
    "I don't know."
    Claire nodded. “Then it's good that I didn't leave it to chance. Luck is overrated, don't you think?"
    "I'm inclined to believe we make our own,” he agreed.
    Her smile was tentative and did not reach her eyes. “Yes, well, that's what I've come to realize.” At her side was a small beaded bag. She reached for it and opened it, extracting Strickland's cheque. “We both want you to have this,” she said. “You shouldn't feel that it obligates you in any way.” She held it up. “Please, won't you take it?"
    CIaire held it out for what seemed an eternity to her. At last she felt it being tugged gently from between her fingers. She let out her breath slowly and settled back against the sofa. “Thank you. I confess that I was afraid you wouldn't deign to accept it. It's all very well for us to say there is no indebtedness, but that cannot account for your own feelings. I explained to my godfather that by drawing the draft too generously, he had placed you in an awkward position. He was not trying to purchase your services, Captain Hamilton, only recompense you your full due."
    Claire fell silent and the silence stretched uncomfortably. Had she said something to offend him? What had happened?
    "Captain?"
    Rand turned over his hand and let the small, torn pieces of the cheque flutter to the carpet. Not once did her eyes follow their movement. There was a slight tremor to his hand as he picked up his cup and saucer.
    "When were you going to tell me that you're blind, Miss Bancroft?"

Chapter Two
    Claire Bancroft's smile held a touch of irony. “You're the one with a pair of good eyes, Captain. It wasn't something I was trying to hide. I thought you could see for yourself."
    He could, now that he knew what to look for. On brief acquaintance she was clever at disguising what set her apart from others. When she had never quite met his gaze fully, he had considered it a measure of her shyness. At the moment she seemed to be intuitively aware of his scrutiny, but she didn't flinch from it. Instead her chin came up a notch, almost defiantly, inviting him to take his fill.
    Rand did not think she had been blind from birth. Her almond-shaped eyes were as deeply brown as bittersweet chocolate, the irises and pupils clear of any obvious imperfection. He imagined that her blindness had come upon her gradually, over the course of years. He guessed she was not yet twenty-five. When was the last time she had seen anything clearly? he wondered, and what was the last thing she saw? “How long?” he asked.
    "Eighteen months,” she said. “I suspect that surprises you. It does most people who aren't afraid to pose the question."
    Was this the ordeal Strickland had spoken of? Rand wondered. “Was there something you wanted this morning? Besides to return Strickland's cheque.” There was no point in mentioning what he had done with it. The duke would suspect a problem when it was never presented to his bank for cashing. Claire Bancroft did not have to know.
    She hesitated. She had carefully considered what she would say on the carriage ride to his townhouse. She'd had further time to refine her plea while she waited for