The Seduction of Elliot McBride by Jennifer Ashley

Author:Jennifer Ashley [Ashley, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Usernet, C429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 0425251136
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Juliana stared at him, worry in her pretty eyes. She was trying to decide whether to believe him. Didn’t matter—Stacy was there, whether Juliana believed Elliot or not.

“Mr. Stacy is dead,” she said. “You told me so. Mrs. Dalrymple told me so.”

“I said that I assumed him dead because he’d vanished from his home, and Mahindar heard a story that he’d died in Lahore. Obviously the story was wrong.”

“What about Mrs. Dalrymple? She is adamant that you murdered him.”

“Mrs. Dalrymple knows damn all,” Elliot growled.

Elliot watched Juliana try to catch her spinning emotions and make her practical nature deal with this new development. This made her the opposite of Elliot, who’d given in to letting his emotions do whatever the hell they wanted. Trying to suppress them only made him crazier.

Juliana didn’t like her emotions slipping out at all, he’d seen. She wanted order, not chaos. Elliot would have to show her one day that a little chaos wasn’t so bad a thing.

“Well,” Juliana said. “If Mr. Stacy is alive and has come to Scotland, then we must show him to Mrs. Dalrymple so she will stop putting about the preposterous story that you killed him.”

“It might not be that simple.”

“Why not? Presumably Mr. Stacy is hungry, or you’d not have left him the food. We’ll invite him to the house for a meal.”

She didn’t believe him, or at least didn’t believe in the danger. “Stacy has come to kill me. To hunt me. He hasn’t shown his face to me yet, but I know it’s him.”

“But if you have not seen him, how can you be certain?”

Elliot turned away. He ended up at the billiards table where he rolled a white ball across with his hand, unerringly striking a red. “Difficult to explain, love. Stacy and I were trackers and sharpshooters in the army. Every tracker has a style, and I recognize his. I taught him most of what he knows.”

“Do you mean like a hunter can tell what animal is in the brush from its spoor?”

He smiled at the billiards table. “Yes, but I’d rather not have to check his spoor.”

“Elliot.” Juliana came up behind him, her skirt rustling like soft leaves. “Are you certain?”

“Very certain, my love.” Elliot turned and rested his hands on her corseted waist. “I wish I weren’t.”

“Well, if you are right that he is here, at least it means you didn’t kill him.”

“Yet. I might have to.”

“No, you must call the constable and the magistrate. If you believe Mr. Stacy has come to harm you, he must be rounded up and arrested at once.”

“No,” Elliot said sternly. “The constable is a lad no older than Hamish, and Stacy would make short work of him. If I start a manhunt, Stacy will either slip the net or hurt those who get in his way. I don’t want anyone here in danger because of him. Let me do this my way.”

“By leaving him food?”

Elliot knew he had to be patient with her. Juliana didn’t understand, and he couldn’t force her to understand.

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.