Unlacing the Innocent Miss Read Online Free PDF Page A

he thought them to be brown. She appeared to be neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin. Her features were not of outstanding beauty, yet she was not uncomely. Miss Rosalind Meadowfield was a woman who would easily blend unnoticed into whatever background she was placed—an ideal attribute for a ladies’ companion…and a thief.
    She stood at the other side of the room, totally silent and motionless as if she were hoping that they would forget about her.
    ‘Sit down and eat,’ Wolf directed.
    She eyed the table dubiously and made no move. ‘Who are you, sir, and why have you abducted me?’
    ‘You already know the answers to both of those questions, Miss Meadowfield,’ he said and did not even look up from his ale.
    ‘You are from Lord Evedon.’
    ‘You see, you do know, after all.’ He looked at her and smiled cynically.
    ‘I am surmising that, from Mr Kempster’s presence.’
    ‘Then you surmise correctly, miss.’
    She met his gaze and he could see the suspicion and fear in her eyes. ‘Why has he sent you?’
    Wolf raised an eyebrow. ‘Yet another question to which you already know the answer.’
    She swallowed hard and gave a small shake of her head. ‘I beg to differ, sir. What is his intention?’
    She knew. He was sure of it, yet he told her bluntly. ‘Unsurprisingly, his intention is the capture of the woman who stole his mother’s jewels.’
    She made a small sound that was something between a laugh and a sigh of disbelief. ‘And he has sent you to fetch me back to him?’
    ‘You did not think that he would let you go free after stealing from him, did you?’ Wolf watched her closely.
    She glanced away but not before he had seen the guilt in her eyes. ‘Lord Evedon is mistaken. I am no thief.’ Her hand fluttered nervously to her mouth.
    She was lying, and Wolf knew all about lying and the ways in which people gave themselves away.
    ‘Of course,’ he said, ‘and I suppose that is why he is paying such a generous sum for the recovery of you and the emeralds.’
    ‘I have already told you sir, I did not steal the emeralds.’
    ‘Just the diamonds that were found within your chamber.’
    ‘I have no knowledge of how the diamonds came to be so hidden. Some other hand must have placed them there.’
    ‘That is what they all say.’
    ‘It is the truth.’ She held her head high as if she were innocent, acting every inch a lady wronged. It irritated Wolf.
    ‘Stealing from the dowager while you were acting as her companion.’ He made a tut-tut sound. ‘Such behaviour is to be expected from low-class riffraff such as myself, but better is expected of the likes of you. All your pa’s money not enough for you, Miss Meadowfield, that you had to rob Evedon’s old sick mam? No wonder he’s mad at you.’
    Normally by now they were trying to bargain with him, swearing their very souls to the devil and offering Wolf the world if they thought it would win their freedom. But Wolf had never retrieved a lady before. He wondered what Rosalind Meadowfield would offer him. Her rich father’s money, or something else? He let his eyes range over the shapeless cloak that hid the figure beneath. Not that he would accept her offer, of course; he never did. Wolf hatedthe idea of being bought as much as he hated women like Miss Meadowfield.
    ‘I am innocent.’
    Wolf gave a dry humourless laugh. ‘Of course, you are.’ He placed a slice of ham upon a piece of bread and, watching her surreptitiously as if he had not the slightest interest, began to eat.
    The colour had drained from the woman’s face to render it pale as she leaned back against the whitewashed wall as though to merge into it and disappear, her eyes staring into the fire.
    ‘Mr Stewart is expecting me. He shall enquire as to my absence.’
    ‘Mr Stewart has been informed of your situation,’ said Wolf coldly.
    ‘What did you tell him?’ Her expression was pained.
    ‘I told him nothing.’ Wolf chewed at his bread. ‘Evedon has