The Wicked Widow Meets Her Match A Regency Rogues Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

door slowly opened and Serena appeared in the doorway. She struck a dramatic pose, her seductive stare stirring Langdon’s senses. “It is not polite to listen, Dorogoi.”
    “Is that so?” Langdon asked, beckoning for her to come in.
    Serena stepped across the threshold, her scarlet silk chemise and matching nightrail whispering with each step. She closed the door and padded across the thick Aubusson carpet. “Very impolite,” she assured him as she climbed up onto the bed. “You look tired—andtroubled. This is not the man I know. Let me ease your mind.” She winked at him wickedly then reached for his cravat.
    Langdon gently refused her offer, Serena’s observations pricking his worn patience. “That is not the nature of our relationship, but thank you for your concern.”
    “You do know what Serena was trained for, yes?” she asked, her sarcasm only made more adorable by her thick accent.
    Langdon smiled at his friend. Serena had supplied him with information for the past five years—and nothing more. They had never made love and they never would. “I respect you too much to ask such a thing of you. Besides, you might find me lacking and decide to never see me again.”
    “Impossible,” she muttered, her gaze languishing on his nether regions.
    Langdon reached inside the hidden pocket in his coat and produced a velvet pouch. “I believe this will cheer you up.”
    Jewels made Serena happy. And Langdon liked to see her happy. She’d never spoken of her life before the brothel, but in his experience, one did not end up a prostitute unless something in their past had gone terribly wrong.
    “You should not have,” Serena cooed as she took the offered gift and opened it. “But I am very glad you did!” She scooped up the emerald earrings and examined them in her hand. “They are my favorite, Dorogoi. Of course, this is not new information to you. And new information is what you need, is it not? Tell me, what can I give you?”
    Langdon watched her clip one of the earrings to her right ear, the candlelight catching the jewel’s brilliance in fiery fashion. “Dr. Rupert Crowther. Do you know of him?”
    “The King’s man, yes?” Serena asked, clipping the second earring on. “I do not think the doctor will be of much use to you, Dorogoi. He is dead.” She crawled across his legs and reached out for a handheld mirror that rested on the table next to the bed.
    “I know. It is not the doctor that I want. It is his wife, Grace.”
    Serena scooted back to her original position and held the mirror up to her face. “What would you want with a dead man’s wife?”
    Langdon watched Serena as she admired the new baubles. “I want to get to her before the Kingsmen do. I want to save her life.”
    Serena continued to look in the mirror, but her mind was clearly working. She held the weight of one of the dropped emeralds between two fingers as though trying to decide if the doctor’s wife for a pair of earrings was a fair trade.
    “You will not harm her, Dorogoi? Give me your word.”
    Langdon reached out and took the mirror from Serena, then held her tiny hand in his. “I give you my word. She will be safe, Serena.”
    “No woman is safe in London,” she replied with wisdom that outmatched her years.
    Langdon’s heart pinched at the sound of her voice. On several occasions in the past he’d offered to pay Serena’s way out of the city and set her up with a cottage on one of his properties. But she had refusedand would never tell Langdon why, only that jewels were harder to come by in the country.
    “Mrs. Crowther will be safe, Serena,” Langdon assured her. “If I get to her first.”
    Serena fiddled with the earring as she thought, finally releasing the jewel and letting it slowly swing. “Do you know, I believe you should buy me another gift, my Dorogoi. There is a shop, Huntleys, on Bond Street. Give them my name—but do be discreet. Mrs. Crowther does not boast many friends, yet those she