The Turncoat Read Online Free PDF

house will hear me if I break her door down, and you can hack me to pieces then, if you don’t bury your saber in the doorjamb first.”
    Lytton had no facility for clever words. Wounded pride was writ large on his face, and wounded pride was a dangerous thing in a young man with a sword. He stepped in front of Kate’s door, barring Tremayne’s way. “Put the saber down, Phillip. Someone is going to get hurt, and I assure you it will not be me.”
    “I won’t let you pass, Lord Sancreed.”
    Lytton failed to anticipate the short, sharp move with which Tremayne disarmed him, and the blow that knocked him to his knees. From his place on the floor he hissed, “You are a scoundrel and a rake, sir.”
    “And you are young and foolish, and infatuated. Examine your own motives before you adopt a pose of chivalry, Phillip. You aren’t interested in preserving the lady from my advances. You are frustrated that your own weren’t more successful. The Rivals indeed.”
    Tremayne stepped over and past the wheezing boy and laid his hand lightly on the latch to Kate’s door. He would look an utter fool if it were locked.
    He pressed, and the door swung open.
    *   *   *
    K ate had heard the two men arguing in the hall. Peter Tremayne seemed to do rather a lot of arguing. Then again, so did she.
    She supposed Angela Ferrers would have laid a scene for seduction, but Kate had no intention of seducing, or being seduced for that matter. Quakers were good at convincing people. Her mother had convinced her father after all. She must simply convince Peter Tremayne to return the letter.
    She heard a scuffle, the sound of metal clattering to the floor, and her door swung open.
    She realized a moment too late that she was standing in front of the bed, and that that wouldn’t do. She stepped away, which brought her, in the confines of the small room, closer to the door. And to Tremayne.
    He stood on the threshold, one hand tucked casually into the pocket of his tunic. “Mr. Lytton has had an accident. He tripped on the carpet.”
    “There isn’t any carpet in the hall,” Kate answered.
    “Yes, well. He is extremely clumsy. May I come in?”
    She wanted to say, “Yes, please.” His pale blue eyes and crooked smile made her smile involuntarily in turn. Tonight his long hair was tied loosely at the back of his neck and snaked inky black over the gold braid on his shoulder. Instead, she observed, “The door was unlocked.”
    “Yes. Is that an invitation? Only, you see, I should like Mr. Lytton to hear you consent to my presence in your bedroom.”
    “Another few hours in your presence, Major, and I will know when I am about to be maneuvered into a corner.”
    “I was hoping for something rather softer. The bed, for instance.”
    “Give me back my letter, and I will consent to your presence in my room.” She held out her hand.
    He produced the envelope from his tunic, and this time laid it on her open palm. Her fingers closed around the letter, and Tremayne stepped over the threshold, kicking the door neatly shut behind him. “Now I have both hands free and at your disposal, Miss Grey.”
    He took another step and closed the distance between them. She backed toward the bed, then realizing it, stopped herself. “What a puzzle you are, Miss Grey,” he said and, without touching her, bent his head to brush his lips lightly against hers. She opened her mouth to speak and his tongue darted inside. The sensation shocked her, and she opened her lips farther. He pressed his advantage, running the tip of his tongue lightly over the surface of Kate’s.
    She felt his hands, still tentative, on the small of her back and at the nape of her neck. She might, she realized, easily break his grasp, if she had the will to do so, but the heat of his body as he stepped closer eroded her resolve.
    Uncertain of what to do with her hands, she slid them under his tunic, over the fine lawn of his shirt and the hard muscles of his chest. Her heart