My Surrender Read Online Free PDF

with you before you put a crease in my trousers,” he ordered in an odd, rough voice, lifting her to her feet.
    She backed away feeling rejected and, feeling foolish for feeling so, she hunted for something to say that would cover her discomfort. “Why don’t you tell Ram and Kit you aren’t their traitor?” she asked. “Father Tarkin would not have any objection.”
    “Because I’ve worked far too long and made far too many—” He stopped abruptly before continuing in a voice made purposefully careless. “If Kit and Ramsey discovered I’d stayed the course, as it were, there would be nothing for it but that they must come hieing back, guns blazing and swords drawn, to aid me whether I require it or not. Terrible glory mongers. Always have been.”
    Charlotte was not deceived. “You’re protecting them.”
    “No,” Dand answered. “I am protecting what I, what we, have worked so long to accomplish. I have no desire to spend the rest of my days mucking about in French stables and garrisons, charming though they are.”
    He pushed himself to his feet and brushed past her, heading for the window overlooking the little park across the street. When he spoke his words again took her by surprise. “You’ve cut your hair.”
    She touched her short cap of feathery red curls. “Yes. What of it?”
    “It’s a bold look. Wanton.”
    “Wanton?” She laughed at the prudish word on Dand Ross’s lips. “Oh, I don’t think it quite wanton. Perhaps a bit artful.”
    “And that is the effect you are striving for? Artful?” He didn’t turn as he spoke but continued looking out the window. “The abbot will be disturbed.”
    “The abbot doesn’t have so many agents willing to do his bidding that he can be choosey about those who do. And I give satisfaction. You can’t deny that.”
    “So you have repeatedly told me and, I fear, the abbot,” he answered. “Am I to presume that these new trappings will somehow let you make yourself even useful to Mother Church?”
    “And England,” she added.
    “And being artful is how you have managed to finagle your way from what was to have been a simple intermediary to your current status as a full-blown intelligencer?”
    “It only makes sense, doesn’t it? The more I became part of a certain fast set, the more information I came across. The more I knew, the easier it was to acquire additional information.” She frowned. “Why do you sound so disapproving?”
    “Do I sound disapproving?” he asked with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’d only meant to relate my concern for your welfare. You see, there is this matter of a vow I made to your family, something to do with an eternal obligation, throwing myself into the jaws of death to save your lovely hide should the need arise.
    “But as I have an inordinate affection for my own life, poor though it be, I thought perhaps merely shaking a warning finger at you before you actually dove into peril might suffice. Saving damsels is such a deuced time-consuming venture, don’t you see?”
    She preened. “Do you really think my hide is lovely?”
    “You know it is,” he replied matter-of-factly. “ ’Twould be a sorry waste to see it turned into a worm’s meal. No. I won’t have it. You are the only Nash left who hasn’t a full-time bodyguard sleeping in her bed. If you die, I shall count it a personal failure.” He paused. “I suppose I could marry you.”
    He waited and when she only raised one of her coppery brows at him, nodded. “No? Of course not. You’d be a fool. And you are most decidedly not a fool, are you, Lottie?”
    He did not wait for her answer but half turned from her. “So, there is nothing for it but that you must live without my protecting you twenty-four hours a day.”
    She laughed. “Don’t worry, Dand. I won’t be plunging into peril, nor do I intend to be turned into a feast for the maggots. And, tempting as it is to throw you a yellow rose and demand you fulfill