Wanted: One Scoundrel Read Online Free PDF Page A

beside her, watching and admiring. He inhaled rapturously. “I haven’t had a good cup of coffee since I left France.”
    She handed him the cup with a small sideways smile. “Then consider it a perk of your new job.”
    Their fingers brushed as he accepted the cup.
    “I expect I’ll discover a few.” He smiled down at her.
    Relief welled up. “Then, you haven’t changed your mind? You’ll speak for the Women’s Advancement League?”
    “Miss Smith, you’re stuck with me.” He waited till she’d sat, then sat himself. “And if we’re to be co-conspirators—which frankly I prefer to seeing myself as a puppet—my friends call me Jed.”
    “Jed. It’s a very American name.” She offered him the plate of Maud’s tea cakes, hoping the happy smile that insisted on breaking through didn’t look ridiculous. She had an ally. A paid one, but none the worse for that. She understood that a man had to live.
    “I’m named for my maternal grandfather. Thank you.” He accepted a tea cake.
    “I’m named for some stupid heroine Mother was reading about in a novel. Esme is actually short for Esmeralda.” She dared him to comment.
    “I think Esme is a lovely name.”
    He really was a charmer.
    And she was charmed.
    Mentally, she shrugged. Stuffy and formal weren’t part of her nature. “Please, call me Esme.”
    “Delighted to, Esme. Here’s to our partnership and the advancement of universal suffrage.”
    They toasted one another with their coffee and tea cups.
    The satisfied gleam in Jed’s eyes bothered her for a moment. Then she dismissed her caution and hopped up to collect a stack of papers and a couple of books from the corner of the desk.
    “I’ve put together some background reading for you. The newspaper clippings give you a sense of the colony’s political situation, the books are treatises on women’s suffrage and the rights of all people, and I’ve included a couple of my most popular pamphlets, outlining the aims of the Women’s Advancement League.”
    Whatever he might have said in response was lost to the noise of Uncle Henry’s entrance.
    “Got the world sorted out yet?” He dragged a chair up to their circle in front of the fireplace. Esme poured him a cup of tea and added milk and two sugars. He snaffled a tea cake, broke it and tossed half to Kelly. “Or has Reeve seen the dangers and retreated out of self-preservation?”
    “Swan River is not dangerous,” Esme said indignantly.
    “No, but you are.” Uncle Henry was in fine form, happy to be home. He turned to Jed. “Did she tell you of the time she decided to test Amberley’s new pedal boat? She plowed it straight into a swan’s nest. Fortunately the cygnets all got out of the way, but mama swan pecked her good.”
    “I still have a scar on my arm,” she said with dignity. “And it was Mr. Amberley’s steering that was flawed, not my captaincy.”
    “Captaincy.” Uncle Henry choked on his second tea cake. “That pedal boat was no bigger ’n a bath tub.”
    “Nonetheless.”
    Jed intervened. “I’m glad you survived your ordeal, Miss Esme.” The “miss” was a polite compromise for public consumption. Laughter lurked in his brown eyes.
    Esme found her mouth quite dry. She sipped her tea and brought them all back briskly to business. “How soon do you think you can read the papers? I would like to introduce you to supporters of the Women’s Advancement League at a quiet afternoon tea before launching you on the wider society.”
    “Like a boat,” Uncle Henry muttered. “And see what happened to it.”
    “It’s not that I like to fool my friends, but the more people who know a secret, the less secret it is. And if you can convince friends, then you can convince our enemies. Would Sunday afternoon be too soon?”
    “Not at all. I’m a natural-born politician: I can lie with the best of them.” Jed grinned before his expression turned rueful as he regarded the stack of papers. “As for preparation, I’ll