Simply Carnal by Kate Pearce

Author:Kate Pearce [Kate Pearce]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-12-20T13:00:00+00:00

Christian left Elizabeth with Marie-Claude and went down to the kitchen. Paul arrived through the back door, his blond hair damp and curling from the drizzle. His boots left muddy tracks on the flagstone floor, which Madame Durand was sure to notice and complain about.

Paul held up a bundle of papers. “I have some post for you. Shall I put it in your office?”

Christian patted the tabletop. “You might as well give it to me here.”

“And how is Mrs. Smith this morning?”

“She seems quite well,” Christian said, his attention caught by a letter that bore his mother’s unmistakable handwriting. It was too soon for a reply to his message, so he assumed she had some news of her own to share. “Mrs. Smith is upstairs talking to Marie-Claude if you want to see for yourself.”

“I’ll do that, thank you.”

Paul disappeared while still being scolded by Madame for the state of his boots. Christian slit the seal on the letter. It was closely written in dark ink and seemed to contain a great deal of exclamation marks, which was fairly typical of his mother’s style.

He frowned as he read. His mother had consulted with her many acquaintances in the shipping world and obtained a list of passengers who had crossed from France to England in the past year. She had narrowed down the list of possibilities to three women who might be Elizabeth. All three had crossed from Calais to Dover and had traveled alone.

She went on to say that she had information coming as to where each of the three women had traveled from in France to reach the port of Calais. Christian paused briefly to admire both his mother’s methods and her thoroughness. It hadn’t occurred to him to try and trace Elizabeth back to France from her port of entry. He read the letter again and then took it into his study and locked it away in his desk.

It seemed that Elizabeth’s attempts to hide her past would come to naught. Once he knew exactly who she was running from, he could form a plan to help her. He thought back over the tiny snippets of information she’d let fall. Hadn’t she mentioned that the current heir was enamored of her and that there was a mistress involved somewhere? He’d have to see if he could prise anything else out of her.

There was one more thing to arrange before he got down to the serious business of balancing the books. Even though Elizabeth would be unaware of it, he intended to place an advertisement in the newspaper that would draw her assailants into a trap of his own devising. He flexed his fingers. The thought of meeting up with the mysterious RR and the French valet and showing them how he felt about men who preyed on defenseless women gave him immense pleasure.

He stilled. Why was he so damned interested in helping a woman he hardly knew? Getting involved with a woman like her went against everything he

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