Temptress in Training Read Online Free PDF

which really would not have been an altogether bad idea since she appeared rather formidable with her beefy fists jammed into her hips and her fiery eyes daring Fitzgelder to insult them again.
    The man happily obliged. “ This Juliet is a sixty-year-old hag! For God’s sake, where is the actress who ought to be playing this part? I had it on good authority Miss Sands was part of this troupe and that she, at least, could provide some enjoyment!”
    The nervous young Romeo darted a longing look toward the door at the back of the room. Would he bolt? Lindley couldn’t say that he’d quite blame the pup, but it appeared he chose to weather the storm. Romeo drew a deep breath, smoothed his pitiful—and dreadfully unfashionable—mustache, and stepped forward.
    â€œI’m sorry, sir, but our lovely Miss, er, Draper here,” he said, glancing around the room and then nodding toward Juliet, “is well-known for her excellent abilities. She is acclaimed by royalty, applauded by gentlemen, praised by her peers—”
    â€œAnd too bloody old to play the damn part!” Fitzgelder interrupted. “Where the hell is Miss Sands?”
    Romeo was concerned. He looked helplessly off to the side and Lindley happened to catch a glimpse of movement. Was someone there, in that little screened alcove just beside the actors’ playing area? Yes, he believed so. Someone was there; someone female, he presumed, as he caught the hint of skirts.
    â€œWe have no Miss Sands, sir,” Romeo said. “Only the actors you see before you.”
    And that, of course, was a lie. Lindley had gotten very good at sniffing those out. True, Romeo and his aged Juliet were at center stage, while the three other actors just waiting at the side for their cues to enter were the only ones who had performed thus far, but Lindley had no doubt their young leader lied. Why, Lindley had no idea.
    What he did understand, though, was that Fitzgelder hired a troupe that he expected to bring some actress named Sands. No Sands appeared and the troupe leader claimed he had no such person, yet someone was in the alcove wearing a skirt. This smelled of intrigue.
    But whose? Clearly it was not a part of any plot Fitzgelder had. The grumbling bastard was most unhappy with the way things were going, that much was obvious to a blind man. Did Romeo have some plot of his own? Lindley had no clue.
    But he knew how to find out.
    Lindley slipped out of his seat. He hadn’t been forced to attend several of Fitzgelder’s disgusting Thursday entertainments and not managed to familiarize himself with every inch of the man’s town house. He knew if he could leave the room undetected it would be a simple matter of wrapping around through the house to the rear. There he would find the musicians’ entrance into that screened alcove.
    If Fitzgelder was looking for an actress named Sands and that very woman was in this house hiding from him, then she was indeed someone Lindley would like to meet. Very much.
    Â 
    S OPHIE HID IN THE SCREENED ALCOVE AND LISTENED. The air in Mr. Fitzgelder’s crowded salon was close and uncomfortable compared to the damp evening air she’d just come in from. How near she’d been to escaping this place! But things had not gone as planned and Miss Sands’s father had sent her slinking back to warn the actress.
    Sophie had crept in through the rear of the house and made her way down servants’ passages. Certain she’d been undetected, she’d ducked into the alcove through the little doorway meant to be used by musicians. If she tiptoed close to the screen now, she could peer through to see Mr. Fitzgelder and the dozen or so inebriated guests who lounged on chairs facing the small area that had been designated the “stage.” Stepping farther back against the wall, she could still be undetected by the audience yet see out around the screen and watch the performance.
    It