Quick, Amanda Read Online Free PDF

I wish. I happen to like my privacy and I have
    no love for the Social World. It defeats me why I should explain my habits to you, however."
    "Please, sir, I need your help in securing justice for someone who was once very close to me."
    "How close?"
    Phoebe swallowed. "Well, to be perfectly precise, at one time he wished to marry me. My family was
    against the match on the grounds that he had no fortune."
    "Not an uncommon situation," Gabriel observed grimly.
    "I am aware of that. My friend went off to the South Seas to make his fortune so that he could return
    and ask for my hand. But he never came back. I eventually learned that he was murdered by a pirate."
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    "Christ. You want me to help you track down a damn pirate? I have news for you. It would be an
    impossible task. I have spent most of the past eight years in the South Seas and I can assure you that that
    part of the world has more than its share of murderers."
    "You do not understand," Phoebe said. "I have reason to believe the killer has returned to England. At
    the very least, someone who may know the killer has returned."
    "Good lord. How did you come to that conclusion?"
    "Before he left to seek his fortune, I gave my friend one of my favorite manuscripts as a keepsake. I
    know he would never have sold it or given it away. It was all he had to remind him of me."
    Gabriel stilled. "A manuscript?"
    "A fine copy of The Lady in the Tower. Do you know it?"
    "Bloody hell."
    "You do know it." Phoebe was excited now.
    "I am aware of the existence of a few copies," Gabriel admitted. "Was yours French, English, or Italian?"
    "French. Beautifully illuminated. Even more lovely than The Knight and the Sorcerer. The thing is, my
    lord, I have heard a rumor that the book is back in England. Apparently it is now in someone's personal
    library."
    Gabriel eyed her sharply. "Where did you hear that?"
    "From a bookseller in Bond Street. He had it from one of his best customers, who had it from an odd
    little collector in Yorkshire."
    "What makes you think it is your copy?"
    "The bookseller told me that it is the French version of the tale and that the colophon at the end gives the
    scribe's name as William of Anjou. My copy was created by him. Sir, I must locate that manuscript."
    "You believe that if you find the book, you will find the man who killed your lover?" Gabriel asked softly.
    "Yes." Phoebe blushed furiously at hearing Neil described as her lover. But this was not the time to
    explain that Neil had not been her paramour, but her most virtuous and devoted Lancelot. His love had
    been pure and noble. He had kept himself always at a chivalrous distance, asking only to serve his lady in
    the manner of a true knight of old.
    The fact that she had never felt more than a warm affection for Neil was one of the reasons she harbored
    guilt about his death. If she had truly loved him, she would have defied her family to marry him. But she
    had not loved Neil and Phoebe could not abide the thought of a marriage that was not based on true
    love.
    "What was the name of this man who meant so much to you?"
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    "Neil Baxter."
    Gabriel sat unmoving for several seconds. "Perhaps the present owner of the book merely happened to
    purchase it somewhere along the way," Gabriel suggested coldly. "Perhaps he knows nothing about your
    lover's fate."
    Phoebe shook her head firmly. "No, I do not believe that to be the case. You see, Neil wrote to me
    occasionally after he left England. In one of his letters he mentioned a pirate who was harassing shipping
    in the islands. He said the man was not a normal sort of villain, but an English gentleman who had turned
    to piracy and had become the scourge of the South Seas."
    "He would not have been the first to do so," Gabriel pointed out dryly.
    "My lord, I believe that such a villain would have taken