Silver Sea Read Online Free PDF

dull... but something deep within me yearns for fresh experiences."
    Filled with pride, he cradled her fine-boned face in his hands and kissed her tousled dark-auburn curls. "I understand better than I care to admit. Did you imagine that you acquired your character out of thin air?" Nicholai stood, lifting her to her feet. "I will let you remain in England on one condition."
    "Anything!" She was flushed with excitement.
    It occurred to Nicholai that his daughter was as incautious as Nathan Raveneau had been when they'd exchanged these same words. "I want you to allow someone to look after you until your twenty-first birthday. That's just four months from now, but my hope is that Walter Frakes-Hogg will lose interest by then if he realizes that you are being guarded."
    Clearly taken aback, Adrienne searched his face. "A—protector? How very odd, Papa! What sort of person would want to hover over me in Harms Castle?"
    "As it happens," he boomed, "I've discovered a grand fellow! His name's Nathan—uh—Essex, and he's had experience at this sort of thing—"
    "Do you mean he's some sort of thug'? Really, Papa, it just won't do—"
    "Mr. Essex will be arriving at any moment to meet you," he insisted. "I am afraid that you have no choice, my girl."
    No sooner had she opened her mouth to utter another protest then a sharp knock came at the door to her father's suite. Adrienne's heart was beating fast; she felt rather like a doe, cornered by hunters in the forest. Reaching for her new fan, she opened it and created a calming breeze.
    "Welcome, Mr. Essex," Nicholai was drawing the younger man into the sitting room. When Adrienne beheld them together, her first traitorous thought was that the Essex fellow was nearly as handsome as her father. Gleaming black hair, fashionably wind-blown, set off a face that could have been a buccaneer's but for a simple pair of gold spectacles. He gave her a faintly sardonic grin that heightened her first impression. Essex was tall, with a lithe yet powerful physique, and he moved with graceful self-assurance, suggesting a person of quality.
    But then Adrienne remembered that he had been hired by her father to look after her, and she noticed his worn top boots and coat. Nathan Essex was a working man.
    He seemed to know his place, for when he approached her, he bowed his head and didn't extend his hand. "It's an honor to meet you, Miss Beauvisage."
    Even as she began to reply, Adrienne knew a delayed shock of recognition that was sharpened by the sound of his voice. "You—you're the coachman, aren't you!"
    His eyes came up, blue with a glimmer of sea-green in them, and settled on the open fan. "Oh— no..."
    "What's this all about?" Nicholai demanded, stepping between them.
    She stamped her foot. "Where did you find this rude, hideous— person, Papa?"
    Nathan heard himself bark, "Before you call others rude, miss, you might examine your own behavior! Besides rude, you're spoiled—"
    "Arrogant!" Adrienne pointed back at him.
    "Pretentious!" he parried.
    "Oooh! Insolent!"
    Horrified, Nicholai held up a hand. "You both will be silent this instant!" He could feel the sparks flashing through the air between his daughter and Raveneau. "I will hear Adrienne first, then Nathan."
    "Papa, I hope you have proper references for this brute, because I don't believe that he can be qualified to protect me from a mosquito, let alone a dangerous man!"
    "Gammon," Nathan muttered.
    "I want only to hear— briefly —how and where the two of you met previously," her father said. "Leave out your opinions of Mr. Essex's character."
    "Oh, all right. I was proceeding along Oxford Street after my appointment with you yesterday, Papa, when I chanced to see a simply exquisite fan in Mr. Ralna's shop. It happens to be an historical relic." She fluttered her new possession for emphasis. "My own hack driver was making an effort to move out of the flow of traffic, but this odious beast refused to give way. He's a common coachman,