Secrets to Seducing a Scot Read Online Free PDF Page A

worried her lip. “Maybe Scotland’s social set is more interesting than London’s. Maybe I can expose a new set of stories to the readers.”
    Archer tossed his hands in the air. “London readers don’t want to hear about who is seen at the caber tossing. They don’t know Lady MacWhatsit. And they don’t care what she’s up to. They want to hear about people they know, people they admire or admonish. They enjoy guessing who you’ll be talking about next. You are their eyes and ears among Society’s elite. If you’re gone for too long, you’ll lose touch with all those people. You can’t leave London. You mustn’t.”
    She covered her face with her gloved hands. “I can’t let my father go alone. He needs me, Archer. He’s not well, and I know he hides the truth from me. If he goes
to Scotland by himself and anything happens to him …” She dared not even finish the thought.
    Archer went to her side and took her by the arms. “I’m sorry, Serena. Come here.” He enfolded her in his arms. “I shouldn’t make you feel accountable for our paper’s profits. Of course you must go with your father. You’d only worry yourself sick if you let him go on his own. In fact, help him. The faster he brings order to that savage country, the sooner you’ll come back, and the less the readers will miss you.”
    Serena gazed into Archer’s caramel-colored eyes. Handsome and energetic, Archer was to Serena an exceptional man. At almost thirty, Archer was well aware of his power to change the world, one word at a time. His boldness and rapier-sharp intelligence excited her, and their conversations sometimes lasted hours. Of all the men she knew, only Archer made her toes curl. Maybe it was not her column or London that she’d miss the most. Maybe it was this embrace, and the gentle kiss he now placed upon her lips.
    “Bugger the readers. I’ll miss you.”
    She smiled into his cravat, her heart thrumming with excitement. “You’ve been absolutely horrid to me today. I won’t miss you at all.”
    “Then I’ll leave you with this to remember me by.” He took her lips in a solid kiss that made her giddy with delight.
    “If my father saw you kiss me like that, he’d have your head on a stack of your own newspapers.”
    “I’ll cherish that thought,” he said with a wink.
     
    Serena contemplated that kiss as their town coach rumbled through the English countryside bound for an unfamiliar northern destination.

    She looked across the seat at her father. He had been reading a sheaf of diplomatic papers until he quietly dozed off. He slept more and more, weak as he had become following his heart seizure, yet he was more determined to return to office. Nothing could keep her father from his duty to king and country.
    Although her father was headed toward his destiny, she was moving away from hers. Not only was London her home, it was her delight, and each mile that she pulled away from it was a physical pain. It was as though an invisible thread tied her heart to that great and bustling city, and it grew tauter and tauter the farther away she drove. Until, she suspected, the cord would finally snap.
    Now it became evident just how far she had traveled from the glittering London ambience. The landscape began to change as she traveled over the rugged terrain of Scotland. Gone were the vast manicured gardens and majestic mansions of England. Now she could only see the ruins of ancient castles and tiny crofts on the edges of farms. There were endless lonely miles between villages. Even the weather seemed to belong exclusively to this bleak country, as she left the summertime sunshine behind and entered a world grayed out by mist and rain.
    And as they drove past a solitary croft enclosed on all four sides by a mossy stone dyke, only one thought filled her head.
    How soon can I get back?
     
    The woman leaned against the doorjamb of her tworoom croft. Beyond the mossy stone dyke, a quarter mile from her farm, a