Ravishing in Red Read Online Free PDF Page A

bad burn surrounded it by three inches. She doubted a surgeon could have done more than clean it like this.
    “Did you get a good look at him?” he asked. “The Domino?”
    “Is that who you think it was?”
    “I am sure of it. He must have overheard me ask for directions to this chamber and thought Kelmsleigh was here. Did you see his face? Would you recognize him?”
    She turned her sight inward. She tried to slow down the explosion of action. She had caught a glimpse of the intruder’s face beneath his broad-brimmed hat when the firelight washed it as he moved toward them. She remembered his shock, first at seeing she was even there, blocked by Lord Sebastian’s body, then when he saw the pistol in Lord Sebastian’s hand.
    “Yes, I believe I could recognize him. Do you think he is still here?”
    “He just shot a man. He will be long gone from this inn by now. It is good that one of us got a look at him, however. It might be useful later.”
    He sounded determined and angry. She doubted his continued interest in the Domino would benefit her own cause.
    He brooded while she dabbed and cleaned. He turned his attention from the fire to her with a dark scowl. “You should not have come here. What were you thinking?”
    “I was thinking that no one else cares about the truth, so I had better take up the cause myself.”
    “You created an unneeded complication and distraction.”
    “I do not believe that a man of your consequence is a slave to distraction. Nor do I have illusions that I am the sort of woman to make a man forget himself. However, I remind you that any distraction that resulted in this wound was of your own making.”
    His eyes blazed at her accusation, but the flames lowered fast enough. His face remained set in a stern expression but he did not blame her outright again.
    Audrianna’s own blood was up now too. The recent events and conversations begged for explanations.
    “You referred to a bigger scheme, Lord Sebastian. What did you mean by that?”
    “I do not believe that your father was guilty of negligence. I do not believe that the bad gunpowder that left those soldiers defenseless was an accident.”
    His response appalled her. He implied that her father had deliberately sent bad powder to the front! “How dare you! Is it not enough that he was unjustly disgraced to the point of despair? To now accuse him of—”
    “He was the last check on quality in a long line of checks. The distribution could not occur without his signature. Whether he was guilty of carelessness or conspiracy, attention settled on him for a reason, Miss Kelmsleigh. I am sorry, but that is the truth of it.”
    She wanted to hit him for the insult. She dabbed more firmly while angry tears blurred her sight. “That is not the truth. You are mistaken. My father was not guilty of anything at all.”
    Suddenly his hand closed over hers, stilling it against the arm that she cleaned. His hold suggested that she had been hurting him more than she realized and he now merely stopped her. However, his firm grasp of her hand, and her close approximation to the face still stoical in its countenance, produced an unexpected flow of intimacy.
    Her dismay at his insinuations about her father mixed with a new astonishment. She realized that his continued hold of her hand was intended to comfort her distress.
    No one had done that before. Not since the scandal first broke. Not Mama, who was so distraught, first with worry and then with grief. Ce rtainly not Roger. Not even her cousin Daphne, who had treated the whole episode as a book whose cover would be better closed forever.
    Now this man who had all but handed her father the rope to hang himself made this small attempt to soothe her. She should shake off his touch and ignore the effort. She should tell him she wanted no comfort from him of all people.
    Instead she could not move for several moments. She closed her eyes and accepted the humanity of his concern as it flowed into her