Secrets of a Lady by Grant Tracy

Author:Grant, Tracy [Grant, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance Suspense
ISBN: 9780061763519
Google: Cc98UiT3evEC
Amazon: 0061284882
Barnesnoble: 0061284882
Goodreads: 595145
Publisher: HarperTorch
Published: 2002-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

The street door of Mannerling’s gaming hell was half open, spilling lamplight onto the rain-black steps, a sign that play was in progress within. Charles swung down from the hackney after Edgar and Mélanie, leaning on his walking stick.

“It looks as though we gave our watchers the slip,” Mélanie said at his shoulder.

“Yes.” They had taken three hackneys and traversed two back alleys to reach Mannerling’s.

They went through the half-open outer door into a dank, narrow passageway. The lamplight revealed a second door at the end of the passage, solid oak, with a lighter patch in the middle that looked as if it might cover an eyehole. Edgar rapped at the door. A few moments later, the lighter piece of wood slid back. Wary eyes stared out at Edgar. After the first glance, the wariness eased a trifle. “It’s Captain Fraser, isn’t it?” The voice had a rough cast, like the scrape of the wood. The dark eyes peered beyond Edgar at Mélanie and Charles.

“Good evening, Simpson.” Edgar spoke with easy familiarity, as though he had been to the club regularly rather than once or twice. “I’ve brought my brother with me this evening. And—ah—a lady of our acquaintance. They aren’t Bow Street Runners in disguise, I promise you.”

Simpson gave a grunt that might have been a chuckle and slid the eyehole shut. After a few more moments, a bolt rolled back and he pulled open the door.

They stepped into an entrance hall dominated by a large gilt mirror and a red and black carpet that was a good imitation of an Axminster. Voices and footsteps and the smell of tobacco and brandy came from the rooms opening off the hall and drifted down the stairs.

Simpson proved to be a barrel-chested man with graying hair. He wore an evening coat and a showy pin in his cravat, but judging by the breadth of his shoulders and the bend in his nose, Charles suspected he had once been quite at home in the boxing ring.

Simpson took Charles’s and Edgar’s greatcoats and hats with an impassive face, but when he lifted Mélanie’s black velvet cloak from her shoulders, his eyes widened, like a pawnbroker who has stumbled upon a black pearl in a box of glass beads.

Mélanie was wearing a low-cut claret-colored silk that clung to her body. It was one of Charles’s favorites of her gowns, but normally she wore it with pearls and a black lace mantilla. Tonight she had draped a spangled scarf over her elbows. The pendant he had given her for their first anniversary nestled in the hollow of her throat, the diamond at the center of the gold knotwork twinkling provocatively. Diamond earrings swung beside her cheeks, twining with loose tendrils of hair. More diamonds sparkled on her white-gloved wrists and the combs in her hair. She had applied her rouge and eye-blacking with a heavy hand and splashed on twice as much scent as usual.

Charles had an impulse to take off his coat and throw it round his wife’s shoulders.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.