To All the Rakes I've Loved Before (A Honeycote Novella) Read Online Free PDF

when I was going through something of an ordeal.” She smiled, and an adorable dimple surfaced on her cheek. “You are going to need someone to care for you for a few days, and I am in a position to do it.”
    “Where is Samuel?”
    “I told him to go home to Winnie.” She tugged at the blanket and it billowed up, floating over him before settling lightly on his chest.
    He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of freshly laundered linens. Good lord, her offer was tempting. But no. “I can’t stay here.”
    “Why ever not?” She shot him a saucy grin. “Concerned for your reputation?”
    “I’m concerned about one of ours.”
    “No one knows you’re here. Mama returns in four or five days. Do you think you’ll be sufficiently recovered to venture out by then?”
    “God help me if I’m not. But you must realize that you are the one with everything to lose. Think of the risk.”
    She shrugged as though she cared little. “You’re already here. I don’t go out in society, so why should I care what they say about me?”
    “You don’t go out? Not even to Almack’s?”
    She gave a slight shudder. “No.”
    “Balls?”
    She sank into the chair beside his bed and shook her head.
    “The theater?”
    A wistful look flitted across her face but disappeared so quickly he might have imagined it. “No. I occasionally go for walks in Hyde Park, but I avoid the promenade hour.”
    “But you’re a young and beautiful heiress. You shouldn’t miss out on all the revelry.”
    She scoffed at that. “I have no wish to take tea with the same women who scorned me after… your house party. I have no desire to attend soirees with the same women who made sport of my weight.”
    Her weight? “Why would they—”
    “In any case, we’re not talking about me. You are the one who looks like you just fought Goliath.”
    “David won. I can’t say the same.”
    Amelia leaned forward, and for a moment, he was sure she was going to ask who’d hurt him. “I realize accepting help may be a blow to your manly pride, so if it helps, just think of this as repayment of a debt.”
    It was his turn to smile. “Miss Wimple—”
    “Call me Amelia, please.”
    “Amelia.” He’d already begun thinking of her as Amelia but liked the feel of her name rolling off his tongue even more. “You owe me nothing. And yes, it’s difficult for me to rely on someone else. But if you’re sure about this… I’ll try.”
    “That’s good, because you really have no alternative,” she said cheerfully, “unless you’d like me to deliver you into the hands of your mother.”
    “No.” The picture of his disfigured face was fresh in his mind. If his mother were to see him like this, it would break her heart.
    “I have a proposition for you.”
    “I’d like to hear it,” he drawled. Perhaps the next couple of days would be even more interesting than he’d anticipated.
    “I’ll do my best to keep your presence here a secret from your mother, if you’ll make me a promise as well.”
    “Anything.”
    “Promise you won’t pretend with me.”
    What? “I don’t understand.”
    She perched on the edge of the bed and took one of his hands between hers. A shot of desire, unbidden but fierce, swept through him. “Don’t try to hide your pain from me. Don’t attempt to talk to me like we’re at a dinner party when I know it hurts you to breathe. Be genuine with me… and tell me what you need.”
    A few wicked thoughts crossed his mind. He shoved them aside. “Thank you. I shall.”
    “We must start by changing these bandages”—she lightly touched the one at his crown—“and then I’ll have a nice bowl of soup sent up.”
    Amelia unwound the old, bloodied strips carefully, but they still stuck to his hair and skin. His head felt warm and wet where a few of the gashes began to bleed anew. She pressed her lips together in a thin line as she worked, as though she felt every stinging sensation he did.
    When she’d finally cleaned