The Greatest Lover in All England Read Online Free PDF

contrived to look hurt. “Is memory so short?”
    â€œDon’t play the innocent with us.” Jean’s eyes narrowed. “You’re master of the Queen’s Guard. Her Majesty granted you the Sadler estate, no small plum, and the income from that extinct family’s lands. If you would but reach out your hand, you could have any widow in the country.”
    â€œWidow.”
    He repeated the abhorrent word, but Jean paid no attention. “Instead you are offending every nobleman with a maiden daughter.”
    He arched his back and flexed his arms, then locked his hands behind his head. “They could leave.”
    Sensitive Ann watched him and read the menace in his gesture. “They’re afraid of you.”
    He moved over and patted the bench beside him. “Sit, sweet sister, and tell me why they should be afraid. If they left, what could I do? I’m not likely to take a sword to all of them.”
    With a sweet, sarcastic edge to her voice, Jean said, “Nay?”
    Ann sidled over and perched on the edge, her skirt a rigid circle around her. “You have the queen’s favor.”
    â€œI am currently out of favor.”
    â€œCurrently!” Jean snapped. “Temporarily is a betterterm. No one doubts you can sweet-talk your way back into her good graces.”
    â€œYou flatter me.”
    â€œYou’ve proved yourself a dangerous man with a sword when a lord is quick with an insult.”
    â€œYou exaggerate.”
    Jean lost her temper with him. “Don’t patronize me, Tony Rycliffe. I disciplined you from the time you were a babe and I’ll discipline you now if it’ll knock some sense into you.”
    Tony didn’t laugh. If Jean chose to take a stick to him, he’d take the beating and not complain. He owed her so much. He owed them both so much.
    Leaning back against a tree, he studied his sisters. He’d seen Jean angry often enough, and she was angry now. Her swarthy complexion flushed and glowed from the tip of her nose down to her chest. She tugged at her neck ruff as if it choked her. She’d always been his disciplinarian.
    Ann. Now, Ann wasn’t angry. She was distressed. As dark as her sister, she had brown eyes that filled easily with tears, and they were filled now. She didn’t like to see her siblings at odds, and she wrung her hands and murmured soft noises.
    Tony could resist neither Ann’s distress nor Jean’s anger. Perhaps he owed them an explanation, an outline of his grand scheme. “I want to start a noble dynasty.”
    Ann laid her gloved hand on his arm. “You’re part of a noble dynasty.”
    Picking up her hand, he stripped the glove away and examined her fingers. Not a callus, not a mark to show she had ever done a day’s work. And she hadn’t, of course. She didn’t understand, and for her he bridled his impatience. “That’s not my dynasty. It bears the name of my father and my brother.”
    â€œBut you’re my brother, too,” Ann wailed.
    â€œFor that I thank you. And you.” He nodded at Jean, who understood him so much better than the gentle Ann. “But found the Rycliffe dynasty I will, and for that I must take a maiden to wife.”
    â€œBut a maiden has a father who will decide her fate, and no father…” Ann groped for words.
    â€œWill have me?” Tony concluded.
    Embarrassed, Ann looked down at their entwined hands, but Jean rallied. “You’ve gained a reputation for fighting good noblemen and seducing good noble wives—”
    â€œAnd I’m a bastard son.”
    â€œâ€”and if it weren’t for Elizabeth’s favor, you’d have been assassinated years ago.”
    â€œAnd I’m a bastard son,” he insisted.
    â€œThat is perhaps the reason.” Jean surveyed him, as stiff and pale as if the chill marble had penetrated his bones. “But feeling as you do about your