The Beautiful One Read Online Free PDF Page A

name?”
    She hesitated before replying. “Yes.”
    He’d never done anything like this before. He shouldn’t have had the words. “I will pay you to spend the night.”
    Her brows drew together in puzzlement. “There is no need. I am already obliged by the weather to remain tonight, and I’m sure your ward is well settled in her chamber, though I shall certainly check on her.”
    He stepped closer, so that only an arm’s length separated them. Her cheekbones showed angularly under taut skin, suggesting hardship, and together with her shabby gown and bonnet, told of an existence at the edge of what was acceptable. And yet, if life had brought her troubles, she didn’t seem mastered by them. She hadn’t let him bully her, and that emboldened him to speak now. That, and the attraction he’d felt since he’d traded words with her in the rain.
    She was pretty, but in an unusual way that wasn’t apparent at first glance. There was something about the way she moved, a lithe grace; it wasn’t feminine exactly—not unfeminine either. It was the sort of athletic grace of a child who might clamber up a tree or take off running after a colt. Her face was smart, neat, interesting.
    Actually, he imagined that with steady meals and a little grooming, she would be quite lovely. Doubtless she was unaware that she had an appealing look of dishabille with her bonnet hanging from its strings around her neck and her wild black curls floating in a blowsy halo about her head.
    â€œNot for my ward,” he said, wanting to stop himself from saying one more wicked word even as he gave in to the despair that told him nothing mattered anymore. “For me.”
    A pause as realization dawned and color flooded her face. “I cannot believe you would propose such a thing.”
    Her breathing had quickened, and a distant part of his mind was shouting that he was a devil and he’d shocked her horribly. But he was unmoored from that man now. He reached up and put his palm against her cheek. Dear God, the soft warmth of a woman’s skin, the give of her smooth flesh.
    He read mutiny in her eyes as she pushed his hand away. “How dare you!”
    â€œI’m willing to make it worth your while. You have the look of someone who would put a hundred pounds to good use.”
    His answer was a forceful slap that left his cheek burning, as alive to sensation now as the hand that had touched her.
    Her eyes crackled furiously at him. “You, my lord, have behaved like a beast from the moment I met you. For the sake of your niece, I hope you will be able to find your humanity. It has clearly gone missing.”
    She turned and strode toward the door.
    He’d already gone this far. He addressed the back of her head. “How do you know I won’t do something dastardly to her? Or neglect her?”
    She paused in front of the door, her spine as straight as a duchess’s. “I’m willing to take that chance.”
    He laughed, a sound that disgusted him. She turned to face him.
    â€œWhere is your soul?” she said in a low voice, looking him straight in the eye as if she’d already seen the worst that life had to offer and what he’d just done didn’t astonish her. Where did she get the damned spirit to stand before him, resilient?
    â€œWhy are you so calm? Have you perhaps drawn such a proposal before?”
    She blinked at his words, as if he’d hit a nerve. “Must the volume of a woman’s protest gauge her innocence?” she demanded in a husky voice.
    â€œYou are very sure of yourself.”
    â€œWhat else is there in this life?”
    She walked through the doorway and was gone.

Three
    Anna pulled the library door closed behind her with shaking hands. The viscount’s manservant appeared out of the shadows, and she wondered if he’d heard any of what had just transpired. But he merely nodded when she said she