The Seduction of Sarah Marks Read Online Free PDF Page B

across the walls. Long shadows. Of him. She sucked in her breath. “Sir, you are wearing nothing but a nightshirt!”
    A chuckle came from him and hovered in the air above her. He climbed into bed. She scrambled out the other side. “You are indecently clothed.”
    He craned his neck and gave her an up and down glance. “And you aren’t? Perhaps I should rethink my assessment of you —that rag you wear is rather offensive the way it flops around your feet and pools on the floor. And in case you haven’t noticed, the sleeves hang well past your fingertips and the neck of it rises to your chin.” He crossed his arms behind his head. “Ugly as sin…the gown, not you. Now if you please, get into bed. We’ve a long journey ahead of us on the morrow, and I am fatigued.”
    She shoved her sleeves to her elbows. They fell right back down.
    He watched her intently, and then a slow burn of a smile worked its way along his mouth.
    A shiver ran through her.
    “I’ll blow out the candle once you are in bed, madam. Otherwise, you’ll likely tangle yourself in that ungodly thing, trip and fall, and then where will I be? Out of the bed to look after you…me in a nightshirt and you in a nightrail. How positively indecent . How would that appear to someone running in here to see what the racket was about? Only to find me helping my clumsy sister to her feet, and both of us in an improper state of dress, daring to don the very rags they loaned us. Tsk, tsk, tsk .”
    “How dare you mock me.” She stomped toward a chair where an extra quilt lay folded, but her feet snagged the hem. She caught herself before she fell.
    He snorted.
    Kicking free from the tangle and ignoring his sarcasm, she lifted her skirt past her ankles and carried the blanket to the bed. She rolled the bulky quilt lengthwise, and setting it firmly between them, crawled into bed.
    He lifted on an elbow, all humor gone from his countenance. His dark gaze shifted back and forth from the bundle to her. “Is this your way of seeing that I don’t come near you?”
    Lightning flashed and thunder boomed again, jarring her senses. Shaken by the storm and the way he regarded her, Sarah gave him her back and yanked the covers up to her ears. “Will this devil of a storm never cease?” She bit her lip and hauled in a shaky breath. How in the world had her life come to this?
    “I hope you realize, madam, that what you have just done is called bundling and is meant to separate an unmarried couple who are promised to one another, but caught in a circumstance where they must sleep in the same bed for lack of space. Might I remind you that we are supposed to be seen as brother and sister, that we are not in a heated state where we cannot keep our hands off one another, and we have no parents monitoring us?”
    “You are crass and unforgivably rude.”
    “How so?”
    “Humming merrily along in a bathing tub in the middle of a storm.” Her words trailed off into little more than a mutter. “Whilst I am beside myself with worry.” She couldn’t think of another response, she was so embarrassed.
    He blew out the candle, leaving only the flicker of dying embers to cast shadows across the ceiling. “Forgive me, but since I was certain you’d be most uncomfortable upon my return, humming a tune was my pitiful attempt at a bit of levity.”
    A pause and he heaved a sigh. “Truth be told, if I hadn’t done something to diffuse this dynamite of a situation, I’d likely be deep into a headache, one that’s plagued me since my war injuries. Once it takes hold, you wouldn’t see me out of this bed for days. I am bearing with your troubles, so if you please, do try to bear with mine.”
    Was that anger in his voice? Certainly irritation. Now she was the one who should make amends. “Pardon. I was merely seeing to both our comfort is all.” Feeble apology, that.
    He blew out a muttering breath in a great exhale and rolled onto his side, taking a good deal of the covers