Shameless by Karen Robards

Author:Karen Robards [Robards, Karen]
Language: spa
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Historical, Fiction, General, Literary, American Historical Fiction, Fiction - Romance, American Light Romantic Fiction, Romance - Regency, Regency fiction, Romantic suspense fiction, Romance - Historical, Romance: Historical, Sisters, Regency
ISBN: 9780743410618
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-04-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

DESPITE THE DAMNABLE STIFFNESS in his shoulder, an increasing degree of hunger, a slight but noticeable bodily weakness, and the irritation of having been put in the position of bear-leading a gaggle of bothersome females toward a destination he had no wish to revisit, Neil found that he was almost enjoying himself as he waited at the foot of a nearly perpendicular granite wall that rose some thirty feet to the trail’s next level. Like amusement, enjoyment had been a rare commodity in his life for more years than he cared to think about, and he discovered to his own surprise that he had missed it. He did not have to look far to find the cause: Beth. Since they had arisen, eaten their execrable meal of water and hard tack from a tin in the trunks, and begun their trek some six hours before, she had been short to the point of curtness the few times she had been forced to reply to something he’d said. The looks that had accompanied those replies had been frigid, leaving him in no doubt that she was mortified by what had passed between them the previous night and, in the way of women everywhere, angry at him as a result. Still obviously intent on giving him the cold shoulder, she showed him her profile now as she stood beside him watching one of the wenches—the lachrymose one; Jane, he thought her name was—make her careful ascent. Madame Roux made quite a pretty picture with her delicate nose firmly in the air, her eminently kissable lips primmed into a forbidding line, and her big blue eyes taking care to look at everything but him. The flickering light of the torch he held brought the fire of her hair, which she had bundled into a loose knot at her nape, to vibrant life. Dressed once again in her yellow gown, which had to be sadly damp around the hem although she had answered with a brief “’Tis fine” when he had inquired as to its state, she looked like a flame herself.

A most beautiful, feminine flame.

Who was sadly out of charity with him and taking care to let him know it.

It had been a long time since a woman had been in a snit with him. People in general tended to be frightened of him, and as soon as they had a chance to take his measure usually gave him a wide berth. Women typically fell into one of two categories: attractive, round-heeled, eager wenches who fawned over his looks and fell into his bed at the snap of his fingers, and the rest of them, whom he barely noticed.

Madame Roux was something new.

“I—I can go no higher,” Jane gasped. Glancing up, he saw that she had stopped dead some three-quarters of the way to the top. Flattened against the wall, her toes wedged in a barely visible crack and her arms stretched above her as she hung on to a craggy outcropping,

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