Nicholas: Lord of Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

half the night.
    “Let’s take the bench,” Lady Leah said. “This is a day so lovely one wants simply to be still and drink it in, to save it up.”
    “Such wistfulness,” Nick said as he lowered himself beside her. “Do you fear we’ll have no more such days?”
    “The future is at best unpredictable,” Lady Leah said quietly. “For example, who could have predicted we’d cross paths twice in twenty-four hours?”
    Pleasure—and relief—welled. “I wasn’t sure I was supposed to acknowledge that other, equally delightful meeting.”
    “I hadn’t thought to ever see you again.” She was smiling as she said it, a soft, inwardly pleased curving of full lips.
    Nick let himself bask in that smile and in the memory of those soft, delectable lips, until his blood began to stir in unmentionable places. “Everybody sees me. I am too big to sneak anywhere. What you hadn’t thought was to kiss me again.”
    “My lord.” The frown was back in force. “We are in public.”
    “Private enough.” Nick knew exactly where the footman stood, and the younger sister, and that the breeze put both upwind of this surprising conversation. “If the weather allows it tomorrow, may I meet you here again?”
    “Whyever would you want to do that?” Leah’s voice was even, but a slight shift in her expression suggested Nick’s request did not meet with her approval.
    Nor his own, exactly, but he’d puzzle that out later. “I have put a few things in train you need to know about,” Nick said, purposely keeping his gaze on Emily and the honking, quacking gaggle paddling about before her.
    “What could you possibly be up to that would affect me, my lord?”
    Nick grinned, despite his attempt to emulate a fellow just enjoying the weather. “You sound like my grandmother, all starch and vinegar. I’m going to relieve you of your intended’s offer.”
    Beside him, Leah went still in the way she had the previous night. Not just still physically, but mentally.
    “Has it occurred to you,” she said, her voice very low, “Hellerington may be replaced by something worse?”
    “What could be worse than being wife to a disgusting old man who will likely give you diseases you cannot recover from?” Nick’s own tone had become the least bit clipped, and he was rewarded with a sharp intake of Leah’s breath.
    “Being his mistress,” she said, so quietly Nick had to lean toward her to hear her.
    Silence, while Nick considered the horror she’d just admitted. Her father wasn’t content to marry her off; he must end his daughter’s life in illness and disgrace as well. No man who called himself father should be free to perpetrate such misery on his daughter.
    “That would be evil,” Nick said. “And I shall not allow it.”
    ***
    From the window of his first-floor suite, Gerald Lindsey, ninth Earl of Wilton, had watched his two daughters link arms and stroll off toward the park. Well, his daughter and that creature his wife had presented to him. He wasn’t pleased with the amount of time Emily spent with Leah, but Emily liked her older sister, and as long as they both dwelled under his roof, it was an association the earl could closely monitor. Soon enough, he’d see Leah taken off his hands, and if he played his cards right, Leah’s marriage would foot the cost of Emily’s come out and wedding.
    A scratching at the door interrupted his plans for Emily.
    “Enter.”
    The upstairs chambermaid bobbed a deep curtsy. “My lord.”
    “Well?”
    “She danced with a Lord Valentine Windham,” the maid said, careful to keep her gaze on the floor. “And described him to her sister as tall, green-eyed, and very much a gentleman.”
    “He’s also very much Moreland’s only unwed surviving son and legendarily besotted with his music. Leah will never get an offer from that one. What other confidences did the ladies exchange over their morning tea?”
    “In the course of the evening, Lady Leah was introduced to a Lord