Slightly Tempted Read Online Free PDF Page A

more . . . er, interesting, would you not agree?"
    "When you paused, you intended that I think of that other word, did you not?" she said. "I believe, Lord Rosthorn, you are flirting quite outrageously with me. But beware-I am not as gullible as I may look. Yes, let us waltz the Viennese way since it is moreinteresting ." She smiled at him.
    All of the sunlight and all of the warmth of a summer day were in that smile, and he realized that she was playing him at his own game-or what she thought was his game. She was far more interesting than he had expected. She might even prove a worthy foe.
    He hoped so.
    "You have talked me into it,chérie, " he told her, sweeping her into the dance, holding her smiling eyes with his own. "We will perform thaterotic dance."
    Her cheeks flushed. But she would not look away from him, he noticed. He smiled slowly back at her.
     
    ALMOST ALL THEBRITISH VISITORS TOBRUSSELS HADdriven out to the village of Schendelbeke and across the temporary bridge over the River Dender to where, on the riverbank near Grammont, the Duke of Wellington reviewed the British cavalry. The Prussian field marshal von Blücher was there too.
    It was a picturesque setting for such a spectacle. And pure spectacle it was too. First the cavalry stood still for inspection, and Morgan, sitting in an open barouche with Rosamond and the Earl and Countess of Caddick, would have sworn that neither the thousands of men nor the thousands of horses beneath them moved a single muscle. Then Lord Uxbridge, their commander, marched the cavalry past the duke, and it seemed that they moved so perfectly in time with one another that the whole force was a single unit.
    "How could any normal woman not be in love with every single one of the officers?" Rosamond asked with a laugh, though she whispered the question so that her mama would not hear. Morgan sometimes found her friend just a little silly in her enthusiasms, but really she had a point on this occasion. Morgan would not have missed the outing for anything in the world. She would probably be paying insipid afternoon calls with Aunt Rochester now if she were still in London. On the other hand, when she had tried a short while ago to draw the Earl of Caddick into a discussion on whether the necessity for military discipline ought to outweigh the human right to individuality, she had drawn blank stares from the ladies and a mere grunt from the earl.
    The Life Guards were part of the review and were turned out in all their scarlet, immaculate splendor. They were mounted on magnificent and perfectly trained horses-the best in all Europe, according to Captain Lord Gordon. He was among them now. So were many other young officers who were part of their usual group of friends.
    If ever matters did come to the point at which the British cavalry was forced to gallop into battle, Rosamond predicted aloud, the French cavalry would surely venture one look at them and take to their heels in sheer panic. The French infantry would be too terrified even to flee. Not that matters everwould get to that point, of course.
    Morgan was not so sure on either count. Alleyne had warned her just the day before that the situation was beginning to look rather grim and that it was altogether probable that the Caddicks would decide to return home to England soon. And surely, she thought, years of warfare should have taught everyone in Europe that it would be foolish indeed to underestimate Napoléon Bonaparte and the French soldiers who had always fought for him with such unflagging bravery. Many of the British, of course, were unwilling to admit that anyone was capable of bravery except an Englishman.
    She kept her thoughts to herself.
    After the review was over, Captain Lord Gordon and several of the other officers rode up to the barouche to pay their respects to the earl and countess and to chat with the young ladies. Morgan was very aware that this afternoon's visual spectacle was no circus show. It was the