Shadow Play Read Online Free PDF

passed before she faced him, her black-gloved hands gripped together. She reminded him of a kitten on the verge of bolting. She began, "My name is—"
    "I know who you are."
    "Then I suppose you know why I've come to see you," came her timorous voice.
    He took a step toward her; she backed away and continued. "I understand you spoke to my father shortly before he died."
    "So?" he replied. "What about it?"
    "He asked for your help with certain... matters."
    "And I told him in no uncertain terms that I wasn't interested."
    She dropped her clenched hands to her sides. That, as well as the set of her small shoulders, was evidence of her growing anger.
    He walked to a chair near the open window and dropped into it, tipped back against the wall, and took up a dead cigar from the windowsill. He relit it before looking at her again. "Not interested," he repeated.
    "Surely for the right price—"
    "Not for any price. I like living too much, Miss St. James."
    ' 'But you went to Japura" before and returned unscathed.''
    "That's a matter of opinion, chere."
    "But your bravery has become legend. You are a hero, sir."
    Gripping the cheroot between his teeth, he laughed and narrowed his eyes. In the glow of the nearby lantern the veil could not entirely hide the fiery glint of his visitor's curls. He saw the portrait again in his mind's eye and experienced a stirring of frustration, just as he had at the church, as he tried to see beyond that frilly black gauze.
    Withdrawing the cigar from his mouth, he exhaled a stream of smoke through his nose before saying, "Tell you what, Princess. Take off that hat so I can see who I'm talking to, and I might reconsider."
    "Don't be absurd. I'm in mourning."
    "I'm not and I don't like talkin' to a friggin' shadow."
    She gasped. A silent battle was waged between them as she stubbornly refused to move and he obdurately continued to stare. Unexpectedly, with a flourish of taffeta skirts, she whirled back toward the door as if she meant to storm from his presence in fury. She'd taken no more than two steps, however, when she stopped. Hands clenched at her sides, she appeared to totter in indecision. Finally, she grabbed the bonnet from her head and flung it to the floor.
    She spun around, and the caustic grin slid from his lips.
    Despite the rigidity of .her slight figure in its cumbersome mourning attire, Sarah St. James painted a poignant portrait of grief and despair. This was no woman, but a child. Her small face was the color of warm ivory. Her enormous turquoise eyes were red-rimmed, their magnificent shape and color exaggerated by the slant of her light brown eye- brows. Her lionlike mane of gold hair spilled over her shoulders and back. Her face did not fit the accepted standards of Victorian beauty, for her cheekbones were too pronounced; giving her face hollows and angles. And perhaps her mouth was a touch too full and red to suit most men's idea of perfection. But to a man such as he, it was a mouth that conjured up images of passion and pulse-pounding desire. In a flash
    Morgan believed the rumor of a smitten Arab sheikh, willing to forgo his entire harem of wives in order to own her.
    He dropped his chair to the floor and tossed the cigar aside. Standing, he moved to the window and turned his back to Sarah to stare out over the Demerara River. He took a breath before speaking. "What your father asked me to do is against Brazilian law. More importantly, it's against Rodolfo King's law. While one may escape Brazilian officials, one does not escape King... at least not for long.-'
    "But you worked for him—"
    "It's common knowledge that signing on with King is like selling yourself to the devil, Miss St. James. No one simply works for Rodolfo King. He owns you, body and soul, for as long as he needs you. When he tires of you, or grows angry, you die a very unpleasant death." He leaned against the windowsill, allowing-the night air to cool his brow and clear his head of memories. "I escaped, for