The Care and Taming of a Rogue Read Online Free PDF

felt on hearing the news herself last night running through her all over again. “Captain Sir Bennett Wolfe has returned to England. Alive.”
    Her mother’s light-colored eyebrows lifted. “But Captain Langley’s book describes his death. And the foreword by Wolfe’s own uncle says he agreed to the publication because the captain would have wanted the discoveries they made known to the world.”
    “Apparently—well, obviously now—the captain and the marquis were both wrong. I saw Bennett Wolfe myself.”
    “And you’re certain it was he?”
    “He’s John Clancy’s friend. John introduced him to our reading club.”
    “Well. And they say the age of miracles is past.” Her mother reached out and squeezed Phillipa’s hand. “And you were able to meet a hero of yours. That is pleasant, indeed.”
    Pleasant . Logic-minded as she liked to consider herself, “pleasant” did not describe the tingle in her chest when Captain Wolfe had looked at her. Yes, she knew he might not be everything she’d dreamed before she’d read Langley’s book, and yes, she had a question or two that she wanted him to answer, but he was still Bennett Wolfe.
    “Tell me,” her mother said after a moment, startling her out of her reverie, “what does the famous Bennett Wolfe look like?”
    “He…looks like an adventurer,” Phillipa replied.
    “Handsome?”
    Abruptly uncomfortable, Phillipa stood and went to the window. “Livi seems to think so. He has pretty eyes.”
    “Well. Then I hope I shall have the opportunity to meet him, as well.”
    “I don’t know if you will or not, Mama,” Olivia said, strolling into the bedchamber. “Sonja said that Lady Stevenson said that Lord Stevenson said that the last time Captain Wolfe was in London, he only stayed for a week, and then he went to his new estate. And that was with Prinny knighting him.”
    “In his Golden Sun of the Serengeti he wrote that London seems very crowded,” Phillipa noted. She couldn’t imagine being away for so long and then not staying home long enough to unpack a single trunk. She wasn’t precisely a diamond of the ton —that was Olivia—but she did enjoy a great deal of what London had to offer. Theater, museums, reading clubs…She stifled a scowl. At times she positively did feel like a bluestocking, drat it all.
    “Crowded or not, I hope he stays for a time. You should have seen him, Mama. He’s an absolute Adonis.” Livi turned to face her younger sister. “Whose version of him do you believe, Flip? His, or Captain Langley’s?”
    His . “You care about his character, Livi?” she asked aloud, lifting an eyebrow. “Before you’ve learned about his yearly income?”
    “Ha. He earned over five thousand last year, for your information. Both from the stipend Prinny granted him and from his book sales. And I don’t want anyone making fun if I dance with him.”
    The smile Olivia flashed could have lit up an entire ballroom. And for the first time Phillipa could remember, she wished her sister wasn’t quite so pretty, quite so vivacious, and quite so skilled at the art of idle conversation. It wasn’t that she was jealous; heavens, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself if everyone clamored for her company. Rather, if Captain Wolfe meant to stay in London for only a short time, she wanted more of an exchange than a passing request to borrow a book.
    This man of the Renaissance, after all, had learned things in person that she had learned only from books. Some of them, from his books. And so she didn’t want him spending all his time dancing with the belles of the ball. She wanted him to talk. To her. And she had an excuse to approach him. He did still have her book, after all.
    A thrill ran through her. And only to herself would she acknowledge that perhaps it wasn’t completely about the opportunity to talk to a great explorer. Perhaps a little of it was because Olivia wanted to talk to him, too, had even tried to talk to him last