To Tempt the Devil (A Novel of Lord Hawkesbury's Players) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Streets. Years ago, he’d wanted to get out. The constant hum of tens of thousands of people living almost on top of each other had felt suffocating, especially trapped as he was with his stepfather. The house had been a dead, cold heart in a city that was too busy to notice.
    But now London felt alive and free, not cloying, and the house was full of memories of James and their mother and few of his stepfather.
    “Thank you,” James said, wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve.
    Rafe nodded. “It was a good pie. I haven’t eaten one like that since I left London.”
    “I don’t mean just the pie.” James stared off down the street, his eyes unfocused. “I mean for taking care of the Crofts. They need me.” His voice caught and he cleared his throat. “She needs me. Lizzy’s parents aren’t good company for her these days. Poor old Croft can hardly see and his wife’s feeble. Perhaps I should have agreed to marry Lizzy.”
    “It wouldn’t be right with the debts hanging over your head. You did the most honorable thing in delaying her, although you should have told her why you couldn’t wed yet.”
    James’s only reaction was to sigh.
    “I’m not sure what I can do to help her,” Rafe said, steering the conversation away from marriage. “How am I supposed to look after her when she won’t even talk to me?”
    “She will. Give her time. She just needs to get to know you. It can take her a while to feel comfortable around strangers.”
    “I’m not a stranger.”
    “You might as well be. What do you think of her, anyway?”
    “I liked her.” She seemed gentle and good, just as James had described her. What he hadn’t described were her big eyes and tiny waist which emphasized the curves of hip and breast. Nor had he mentioned her lips. They were made for—
    Whoa . She was his brother’s intended. Lizzy Croft was not available to fulfill Rafe’s fantasies.
    Fortunately there were many other women who were. London was full of curvy young women. He watched one of them walk past, her swaying walk emphasizing those curves.
    “You’re lucky to be betrothed to such a girl as that,” Rafe said. “I mean, such a girl as Lizzy.” He glanced at James but his brother didn’t seem to have noticed the woman or Rafe’s distraction.
    “We’re not betrothed,” he said absently, almost as if he’d said it so many times it just slipped out.
    “But you have an understanding.”
    “She’s my very great friend. We’re meant to be together.”
    Rafe watched his brother closely. He was wrong. James’s head might be turned to Rafe but his gaze, half-hidden beneath lowered lids, followed the woman down the street. “I see,” Rafe said slowly. “Glad to hear it.”
    James frowned. “Oh? Why?”
    “She’s a nice girl, not the sort you can dangle your wick into then leave.”
    “Don’t be such a barbarian. Of course she’s not like that. Anyway, what would you know? You’re nearly thirty. You should be settled by now with your own nice girl.”
    “I’ve been busy earning a living.”
    “Huh. Some way to earn it. A mercenary for hire, offering your services to the highest bidder, whoever that might be. No allegiance to any man or country.”
    Lucky he didn’t know that Rafe had been working with a more elite group, a far more dangerous and less reputable band than the mercenaries he’d first joined seven years ago. There was already enough disdain in James’s tone, there was no need to fuel it by telling him he was an assassin.
    “I’ll wager you killed people too,” James said, looking at Rafe sideways.
    “Never Englishmen.” He tried to make it sound like a joke. It wasn’t. He was, however, lying about the Englishmen. He’d killed one only a week ago.
    James threw up his hands. “Then don’t go around offering to do it!”
    “Do you think this Gripp fellow will cause her any problems?”
    “I don’t know.” James threw up his hands. “If she says he will then he will. But I