The Reluctant Reformer Read Online Free PDF Page B

and thus Maggie would be perfectly safe. She found it ironic now that it had taken her some amount of persuasion before she had convinced him to stay behind.
    â€œIdiot,” she chided herself under her breath. Despite the fact that Banks probably would have been left to wait in the kitchens, and therefore would have been helpless to prevent her kidnapping, at least there would have been someone to notice her disappearance. Maggiewasn’t at all certain that Madame Dubarry would think twice when she did not return. Men had already started arriving in search of evening entertainment when the brothel owner had hustled her up the back stairs to Maisey’s room. The woman was likely now too busy tending to business to notice Maggie’s absence. And who knew how long Banks would wait at the house before deciding to come in search of her?
    Yes, she thought resignedly, she was in a fix all right. Now she just had to figure a way out of it. Getting untied would be a good start.
    A new thought made her sit up abruptly. Good Lord! Her hands had been tied under the cape. Her captors would have had to open the cape to get to her hands. Which meant that they had seen the indecent scrap of red silk she was wearing! And what must they have thought of that? she wondered with dismay.
    She peered around the dark interior of the carriage. Maybe they hadn’t thought anything at all. Maybe it was dark enough here that they had not really seen what she was wearing. She had just started to nurture that hope when she realized that even if they had seen very little while binding her in the carriage, most likely they would get an eyeful when they arrived wherever they were going. With her luck, it would be bright as daylight when they decided to untie her, which would provide a lovely view of everything.
    Damn Maisey , she thought irritably. If the girl hadn’t insisted on the switch… And damn Frances, too, for good measure , she added, feeling peevish. Heck , she decided while she was at it, damn Gerald as well!
    Groaning inwardly, Maggie let her head drop back again. This situation just got better and better. She really had to escape. Giving up relaxing on the cushioned seat, she began to struggle with her bindings. They were extremely well tied and very tight. They resisted being undone no matter how she tried.
    All Maggie managed to do with her struggles was to tire herself out and rub her wrists raw. She gave up long before the first creeping fingers of dawn spread across the sky.
    The carriage rolled to a stop in front of a manor house. Sitting up, Maggie winced at the pain the action sent through her now sensitive wrists and peered out the window, frowning at the immense structure. It was large—huge—obviously the home of a wealthy man, but the stone building looked awkward. It crouched rather than rose into the sky, and it cast dark shadows on the surrounding estate.
    Frowning at the sight, Maggie tensed as the carriage rocked; someone was alighting from the driver’s bench. She wasn’t terribly surprised when the door opened and revealed the caped and hatted man who had been in the carriage with her when she had first awoken—not that she could see much more of him now than she had while he was in the dark carriage. While the sky was beginning to lighten, the coach now stood in the shadow of the mansion. She did, however, recognize the man’s voice as he murmured an apology and leaned in toward her.
    She understood the reason behind the polite apology as he quickly scooped her off the cushioned seat and out of the carriage. In the next moment she found herself hoisted like a sack of potatoes, the sudden impact of his shoulder in her stomach knocking the wind out of Maggie and effectively eliminating any possibility of hershrieking for help. Not that there appeared to be anyone about to offer that help, she saw with dismay. Turning her head to glance frantically one way, then the other, Maggie