A Well Pleasured Lady
Page 28
His body stirred at her sweet salute, and his heart stirred at her tender avowal. He wanted to convey her to their bedchamber and…and call a physician to tend her wound. Shifting her, he stood and carried her toward the door. “You will never, ever put yourself in danger for me again.”
“He was going to kill you.” She seemed to think that explanation enough.
He clutched her tighter. “I thought he had killed you, and over that damned stupid—” Stopping, he turned and scanned the area. “What happened to the diary?”
“The…Oh, you mean the book. I think it went over the edge to the ground.”
Disgusted by the trouble Brindley had caused, Sebastian said, “He’ll get it. After I’ve put you in bed, I’ll have to go after him.”
She laughed weakly. “He can have it. I gave Lady Valéry the diary hours ago.”
If she hadn’t been injured, he would have shaken her. Instead, he turned sideways to get her through the door and demanded, “Explain.”
“As soon as you left me up there”—she pointed back up the stairs—“I went to Lady Valéry and told her what had transpired.”
“Of course.” Sebastian hadn’t thought it through. “That’s how she knew.”
“She kept the diary, and gave me a book she got from a lover who had been to India.”
“What kind of book?” He had his suspicions.
“Um.” Mary kept her face averted, but he thought he could see her cheeks flaming. “It had illustrations. Lady Valéry suggested I look through them, and should the time arrive when we might reconcile, we could use the book as a reference.”
They entered the main corridor. “The Kama Sutra.”
“I believe that was the title.”
“That woman is incorrigible,” Sebastian muttered.
“Yes, well, it doesn’t matter.” Mary began to shake with suppressed laughter. “Mr. Brindley has got it now.”
When Lady Valéry heard their voices, she snapped open her bedchamber door and stepped into the corridor. As she expected, Sebastian held Mary as if she were fragile and might melt like a confection in his mouth. Mary hugged his neck as if he were an angel who might at any moment spread his wings and fly away.
Two more unlikely events, Lady Valéry couldn’t imagine. But that was love. She’d seen it enough times to know. And that meant she’d succeeded once more. Briskly she tied on her bonnet. “Are you two reconciled at last? Because I need to leave.”
Mary turned a dazed expression toward her. Slowly she absorbed Lady Valéry’s impatience, then just as she had trained herself to do, she put Lady Valéry’s needs before her own. “What’s wrong, my lady? Can I assist you in any way?”
“Not likely.” Sebastian frowned thunderously at Lady Valéry. “Mary has been shot. She’s not going anywhere.”
“The devil you say!” Horrified, Lady Valéry went to Mary at once. “What happened, child?”
“Nothing to trouble you about, my lady.” Mary tried to soothe her.
Sebastian had no such concern. “One of the buyers for the diary tried to kill us.”
Lady Valéry touched Mary’s side. She had experience with gunshot wounds, and this one was minor. Then she looked up at Sebastian. New contusions, she noted, but he seemed strong enough. She sighed in relief. “A little blood, but you don’t appear to be suffering.”
“I’m better. If you must leave, we can go,” Mary said firmly.
“I’ll tell you when you’re better.” Sebastian gripped her tighter. “Then we can leave.” He glared at Lady Valéry. “Not a moment before.”
“Now, Sebastian—” Mary tried to object.
Sebastian started toward their bedchamber. “Now, Mary,” he mocked.
“You can’t have your own way about everything!”
Mary’s voice was fading as they walked down the corridor, and Lady Valéry snorted when she heard Sebastian chuckle.
Mary was beaten. She just didn’t know it yet. And the way Sebastian was looking at her, she probably wouldn’t realize it for at least fifty years.
“Georgette.” An excited, desperate, wholly aroused Burgess stood in the door of her bedchamber and beckoned. “Come back, Georgette. I have something for you.”
She assessed him. He was younger than the others. Easier to train. Held some potential. And as long as she was stuck here for who knew how long…“All right.” She untied her bonnet and removed it with a gesture of exasperation. “But try and keep up this time.”
Acknowledgments
My thanks:
To Heather MacAllister, Jolie Kramer, and Susan Macias for giving me their expert help in plotting this book. Who would have thought a story would come out of all that shrieking?
To Susan Wiggs, Joyce Bell, Barbara Dawson Smith, and Betty Gyenes, who took me to their collective bosoms and who fearlessly give me their opinions no matter how much I sulk.
Especially thank you to Connie Brockway, who reads chapters when asked and brain-storms titles with rare skill.
About the Author
New York Times-bestselling author Christina Dodd has written more than twenty-one historical romances. Her first such novel, Candle in the Window, won both the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart and RITA awards. In celebration of her new novel, Scandalous Again (2003), PerfectBound is publishing Ms. Dodd’s classic backlist, including: That Scandalous Evening; The Governess Brides Series: My Favorite Bride; Lost in Your Arms; In My Wildest Dreams; Rules of Surrender; Rules of Engagement; Rules of Attraction; The Princess Series: Someday My Prince and Runaway Princess; and The Well Pleasured Series: A Well Favored Gentleman and A Well Pleasured Lady. Please visit www.christinadodd.com.
By Christina Dodd
Candle in the Window
Castles in the Air
The Greatest Lover in All England
In My Wildest Dreams
A Knight to Remember
Lost in Your Arms
Move Heaven and Earth
My Favorite Bride
Once a Knight
Outrageous
Priceless
Rules of Attraction
Rules of Engagement
Rules of Surrender
Runaway Princess
Scandalous Again
Scottish Brides
Someday My Prince
Tall, Dark, and Dangerous
That Scandalous Evening
Treasure of the Sun
A Well Favored Gentleman
A Well Pleasured Lady
Credits
Cover art by Fredericka Ribes
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A WELL PLEASURED LADY. Copyright © 1997 by Christina Dodd. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.
PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Microsoft Reader November 2003 eISBN 0-06-072989-9
First Avon Books printing: August 1997
First Avon Books special printing: March 1997
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