The Raven Prince Read Online Free PDF

animal beside her. After a bit, the dog sat down but still watched her. When the clock over the mantelpiece struck the noon hour, she put down her quill again and rubbed her hand. Cautiously, she stretched her arms overhead, making sure to move slowly.
    “Perhaps you’d like some luncheon?” she muttered to the beast. Anna opened the small cloth-covered basket she brought every morning. She thought about ringing for some tea to go with her meal but wasn’t certain the dog would let her move from the desk.
    “And if someone doesn’t come to check on me,” she grumbled to the beast, “I shall be glued to this desk all afternoon because of you.”
    The basket held bread and butter, an apple, and a wedge of cheese, wrapped in a cloth. She offered a crust of the bread to the dog, but he didn’t even sniff it.
    “You are picky, aren’t you?” She munched on the bread herself. “I suppose you’re used to dining on pheasant and champagne.”
    The dog kept his own counsel.
    Anna finished the bread and started on the apple under the beast’s watchful eyes. Surely if it was dangerous, it would not be allowed to roam freely in the Abbey? She saved the cheese for last. She inhaled as she unwrapped it and savored the pungent aroma. Cheese was rather a luxury at the moment. She licked her lips.
    The dog took that moment to stretch out his neck and sniff.
    Anna paused with the lump of cheese halfway to her mouth. She looked first at it and then back to the dog. His eyes were liquid brown. He placed a heavy paw on her lap.
    She sighed. “Some cheese, milord?” She broke off a piece and held it out.
    The cheese disappeared in one gulp, leaving a trail of canine saliva in its former place on her palm. The dog’s thick tail brushed the carpet. He looked at her expectantly.
    Anna raised her eyebrows sternly. “You, sir, are a sham.”
    She fed the monster the rest of her cheese. Only then did he deign to let her fondle his ears. She was stroking his broad head and telling him what a handsome, proud fellow he was when she heard the sound of booted footsteps in the hallway. She looked up and saw the Earl of Swartingham standing in the doorway, his hot obsidian eyes upon her.

    Chapter Three

    A powerful prince, a man who feared neither God nor mortal, ruled the lands to the east of the duke. This prince was a cruel man and a covetous one as well. He envied the duke the bounty of his lands and the happiness of his people. One day, the prince gathered a force of men and swept down upon the little dukedom, pillaging the land and its people until his army stood outside the walls of the duke’s castle.
    The old duke climbed to the top of his battlements and beheld a sea of warriors that stretched from the stones of his castle all the way to the horizon. How could he defeat such a powerful army? He wept for his people and for his daughters, who surely would be ravished and slain. But as
    he stood thus in his despair, he heard a croaking voice. “Weep not, duke. All is not yet lost. . . .”
    —from The Raven Prince
    Edward halted in the act of entering his library. He blinked. A woman sat at his secretary’s desk.
    He repressed the instinctive urge to back out a step and double-check the door. Instead he narrowed his eyes, inspecting the intruder. She was a small morsel dressed in brown, her hair hidden by a god-awful frilled cap. She held her back so straight, it didn’t touch the chair. She looked like every other lady of good quality but depressed means, except that she was petting— petting for God’s sake—his great brute of a dog. The animal’s head lolled, tongue hanging out the side of his jaw like a besotted idiot, eyes half shut in ecstasy.
    Edward scowled at him. “Who’re you?” he asked her, more gruffly than he’d meant to.
    The woman’s mouth thinned primly, drawing his eyes to it. She had the most erotic mouth he’d ever seen on a woman. It was wide, the upper lip fuller than the lower, and one corner