Son of a Duke Read Online Free PDF Page B

information to the damned French.   It had been a pleasure to shoot the bastard.   Nathan reached out and removed the man's handkerchief from his coat pocket to cover his face.   He straightened up and turned to speak to Miss Quinton.
    "Why did you do that, sir?"   She had her lips thinned out, no longer turned up at the corners, her head cocked looking quite perplexed.   He thought he heard Jane laugh behind him.
    "I do not want your delicate sensibilities to be offended by the look of death."   Nathan smiled gently.
    "I assure you, sir, my sensibilities are far stronger than you might think.   A dead body is just a dead body.   I have seen far worse."   She straightened her head and rolled her shoulders back.   She became a full two inches taller, or perhaps that was an illusion.   But Nathan took a step back anyway.
    And that time he definitely heard Jane snort.
    "I apologize for making an assumption, Miss Quinton.   Please forgive me."
    "Of course, sir."   She nodded.   "What do you plan to do with the body?   It is quite upsetting to my staff."
    Nathan pulled his gloves off and tucked them into the pockets of his greatcoat, bumping into the pistol still in his pocket.   He bent down and rolled Archer over from the bent position he had landed in.   It was pretty spectacular that the bloke had plummeted off the balcony after the bullet had smashed into his chest.   Nathan really had not expected that to happen.  
    Alec squatted down beside him and leaned close.   "I warned you."
    "Yes, please do remind me to heed your warnings in the future," Nathan whispered back.
    They both stared at the body without a bloody clue what to do with it.   This was Rogers's territory.  
    And as if on cue, Rogers appeared.  
    "Very sorry, sir.   Was detained by a very large, irate butler in the entranceway."   Shiny Flip Rogers looked like a weasel that had been smacked in the face with a rug beater.   But really the most trustworthy and kind fellow once you got to know him.   True, he was a body snatcher.   But he only sold the bodies to the really elite schools of medicine, none of those dodgy, experimental quacks.    
    Alec and Nathan stood, moving apart to allow Rogers and the two men he had brought with him to approach the body.   He would take Lord Archer off their hands, and no one would miss him.   And the dead lord would be contributing to the advancement of science.   How thoughtful of him.      
    "Irate butler?"   Nathan quirked an eyebrow at Miss Quinton.   He thought he saw her assess the statement for a moment as if the description did not match an idea she held in her head.   But she quickly recovered and moved on.
    "Would you not be irate, Mr. Black, if someone went and got himself shot and kept you from your bed?"  
    Nathan found he had no response.  
    Miss Quinton's mouth returned to its normal position, corners slightly turned up.   She actually looked pleasant then, looking up at him from under the stark white cap on her head.   He noticed thin tendrils of hair had fallen out from under the cap around her ears.   It was brown.   No, red.   Maybe both.   The thousands of candles around them were setting it on fire, and he wasn't sure what color it really was.  
    He cleared his throat.   "Mr. Rogers," he pointed behind him, "will move quickly and get Lord Archer removed, so that your staff may finish their cleaning and be in bed before long."  
    "Lord Archer?"   Miss Quinton bent her head to look at the body.
    "Yes, the, um, dead man."   Nathan watched her face, fascinated by the movement in her eyes, wondering what she could possibly be thinking.
    "That is not Lord Archer, sir."      
    Nathan had not thought she had been thinking that.
    "Of course, it is Lord Archer."   Nathan turned back to the body.
    "No, it is not."   Miss Quinton stepped forward and actually bent down.   "This is his brother, Frederick.   Or Mr. Westley as his brother is the elder and inherited