The Seduction of Miss Amelia Bell Read Online Free PDF

see to today, sweeting.” Alice came in and went straight for the
     windows to pull open the curtains. “Finish yer breakfast and let’s get on with the
     rest of this miserable day.”
    Amelia sighed and snuggled deeper into her pillow. She didn’t want to get on with
     it as much as Alice didn’t want to.
    “I know, gel,” her nursemaid agreed after hearing Amelia sigh in her bed. “But at
     least yer husband will die someday and ye’ll be freed from the subjugation of his
     will. This treaty will stay in effect forever, and England will always come out on
     top.”
    “I know ye’re unhappy about the treaty with England, Alice. But I’m sure everything
     will be well with ye.”
    “Of course, ’twill, my joy,” her nursemaid agreed, turning to smile at her.
    “I thank God each night for ye, Alice,” Amelia told her, loving her like a mother,
     “and fer Sarah, too.” She yawned. “Fer had I been raised by my mother, I fear ’twould
     have been her that I took after. I would not care about the consequences of my own
     actions…or words…and Walter would be enough fer me.”
    Alice appeared before her and pulled the coverings off. “I love ye like my own, but
     there’s no time to ponder such things.”
    “But there must be time,” Amelia pressed. “I don’t want to leave my bed yet. Please
     Alice, just a few moments. Sit and chat with me.”
    Her nurse scowled at her but gave in easily. “Ye look worn out and exhausted,” Alice
     said upon closer inspection. “Were ye awake all night with Sarah again?”
    “Well, aye, I was. The time escaped me. Truly.”
    “Gel, if yer mother discovers ye…”
    “I know.” Amelia buried her face in her pillow, hating that her friendship with Sarah
     was forbidden. Amelia knew that if her mother discovered them together, Sarah might
     get sent away for it. So Amelia did her best to make certain that her mother didn’t
     discover her. Until early this morning, when she fell asleep in the garden. Today,
     someone had seen her.
    “Alice.” She sat up in the bed. “Have any of the guests arrived early?” Mayhap if
     her nursemaid knew him…
    “Only Lord Lamont and two of his men.”
    Lord Lamont! Of course! The man in the garden was one of Lord Lamont’s men! Chewing
     her lip, Amelia picked at a speck of dirt on her nightdress. Dare she speak his name
     and rouse Alice’s curiosity as to how she knew it? She had to. She had to know who
     he was. “Of Lord Lamont’s men, are any of them called Edmund?”
    “I don’t believe so.” Alice threw her a probing look. “Why do ye ask?”
    Indeed, why did she ask? She couldn’t tell Alice that she’d been careless and fell asleep in the
     garden and that when she woke up there was a beautiful man watching her sleep.
    “Sarah mentioned him.”
    Alice thought about it for a moment. “There’s the baker yer mother hired from Ayr.
     He arrived yesterday and has been preparing his cakes all night.”
    Was the man in the arcade the new baker? No, Amelia shook her head. Bakers were rotund
     little men with flour staining their noses. Weren’t they? They weren’t tall and broad
     shouldered, with jaws dusted gold and chiseled by a master sculptor, or golden hair
     that curled at their napes and seemed to absorb all the light in the garden. Oh, she
     would never forget waking and looking into his eyes, of feeling terrified and enthralled
     at the same time, so thrillingly aware of a man’s potent power.
    Alice spotted Amelia’s gown hanging over a chair and left the bed to get it. She held
     up the gown for inspection. The pale lilac fabric shimmered against a beam of sunlight
     spilling in from the window. The gown was lovely, boasting a long, pointed bodice
     and satin petticoat, and, in keeping with the fashion as her mother insisted, voluminous
     three-quarter-length sleeves, pleated at the dropped shoulder and cuffs.
    “Oh, look at these wrinkles! I’ll have to have them smoothed out. Oh, and