The Emperor's Conspiracy Read Online Free PDF

Charlotte could see him considering arguing with her that he had no duties to talk about. He looked down at the plate, let it go, and took two cakes.

    E dward walked beside his sister while her three boys danced and ran ahead of them across the lawns. He was glad to be out of the house, and out from the knowing, laughing gaze of Charlotte Raven. The woman was confounding and annoying.
    His work for the Crown was secret. No one knew what he did—the projects he undertook for the prime minister or the foreign secretary—but for a very small, select group. It was the only way he could be effective.
    But Charlotte Raven had somehow guessed it, or found out.
    “You should come home with me.” He had thought to be firm about it, but surprised himself when he spoke softly.
    Emma looked up at him. “I will. But not now. I’m enjoying the company I have, and they are far more sympathetic than you.” She shaded her eyes with a hand to watch the boys.
    “I’m sorry I was such a curmudgeon last night. It was not well done of me.”
    Emma shrugged. “You were right. But I did love him, and truly, for many years, he was a very good husband. Yes, he risked our money, but we were happy. It’s only in the last three years that things have become bad. And I would never have thought he was capable of what he arranged with Frethers. Never.”
    “I didn’t quite understand what you meant, when you told me that. I’m sorry. If I had, I would not have been half as stupid as I was.”
    Her mouth pulled into a reluctant smile. “I understand. I was hard-pressed to believe it, myself. If it weren’t for Miss Raven—” She stopped, closing her mouth in a definite snap.
    “What has Miss Raven to do with it?” He hadn’t meant the intensity of his question to come through, but Emma stopped and turned to him, her head a little to one side.
    “She was the one who warned me about Frethers. If shehadn’t, I’d never have confronted Geoffrey and discovered the truth.”
    “And how did she know? That’s what puzzles me. How did a society miss like her know?”
    His sister turned away, as if to watch his nephews at their game of catch, but he wasn’t fooled. She did not want to discuss this with him. Eventually she spoke. “Miss Raven’s secrets are her own. She revealed them at great personal risk to help me, and she has my steadfast loyalty for it.”
    How had he never heard of Charlotte Raven before, but now, all he wanted was to know as much about her as possible? He was fascinated. And disturbed.
    “I’ll warn you, Edward, as you once warned me.” Emma had turned to watch him, her face serious and knowing. “Charlotte Raven is not a woman whose life you can poke at without consequence. I know she has at least one powerful friend you would not like to cross.”
    “What makes you think I’m the slightest bit interested in her?”
    She laughed at him with genuine humor and walked away, shaking her head.

6

    C harlotte saw, from the way Kit stood, that he wanted her attention. He was almost straining toward her, like a dog held back on a leash.
    She sometimes wondered who held that leash. Her or Luke. Maybe it was both of them.
    She crossed the yard and came over to him, but walked past, into the stables, leaning into her horse’s stall and rubbing her flank. “You have a message?”
    “Luke wants you to come to him later.”
    She turned her head. “When?”
    Kit shrugged. “He just said later. Whenever you can, I ’spect.”
    She nodded, tried to make sure none of the disquiet she felt showed. “I don’t have any engagements tonight. We can go after dinner.”
    Kit ducked his head and Charlotte thought she had probably hidden her unease better than he.
    Luke was … not the same as he had been. Since she’dended his hopes of her returning, chosen to stay with Catherine, he’d become more and more difficult. More and more unpredictable. But even those early days, when he was still raw with disappointment, were