Agent of the Crown Read Online Free

even, which made him a
safe companion whose romantic overtures she didn’t have to fend
off. “Of course,” she said, winking at him as she spun past, “that
and the moon and the garden and my new gown—you like it, don’t
you?” It was lovely, but that wasn’t the point. Her lock picks
brushed her thigh from inside one of the gown’s many hidden
pockets, and she smiled again. So many secrets.
    “Of course.” Michael smiled. “I wish I could
dance more than once with you.”
    “I think Jonathan might be jealous.”
    “He knows us both better than that.”
    They bantered until the dance was over, and
Telaine, laughing again, clung to Michael’s hand for a moment,
dizzy and over-warm. “Champagne?” he said. “Or are you about to be
torn from my side by one of your many swains?”
    She laughed again and swatted him lightly
with her green-gloved hand. “Swains?” she exclaimed. “I have no swains . I have admirers. ”
    “Your Highness?” Another man, much younger
and taller than Michael, with golden curls and an angelic face,
held a champagne flute almost in her face. “I took the liberty—that
is, I thought you might be thirsty—”
    Telaine gave a wry smile to Michael, who
returned it with a bow. “Speak with me again later,” she said in a
low voice. He nodded and raised her gloved hand to his lips before
backing away gracefully.
    She took the champagne from the young man’s
hand, which gripped the glass tightly enough that she almost had to
pull it away from him. “I thank you, Mister—I beg your pardon, I
don’t recall your name.”
    “We haven’t been introduced, your Highness.
I’m Roger Chadwick. The Count is my father.” He blushed. “I
apologize… perhaps I should not have been so bold…but I
thought…”
    “Not at all, Mister Chadwick—or should I say
Lord Harroden?” She laughed a brainless titter. “I’m so silly, I
don’t even know your title! Isn’t that foolish of me?”
    “You could never be foolish, your Highness,”
young Chadwick said, and blushed again. “I wish you would call me
Roger.”
    I bet you do, young one . He couldn’t
be more than seventeen. They were so sweet at that age. “Oh, I
couldn’t possibly be so informal when we’ve only just met! Perhaps
later…” She used the arch of her delicate eyebrow, expertly plucked
and shaded, to devastating effect. Chadwick went almost beet red.
She sipped her champagne and enjoyed the moment. If the poor boy
was going to reach for the high-hanging fruit, he had better be
prepared to fall.
    “I believe this is my dance, your Highness,”
said someone behind her, a man with an unpleasantly familiar deep
voice. Edgar Hussey. Who invited him ? She put on her most
arch smile and turned to greet him. He bowed oh-so-correctly over
her hand. Unlike young Chadwick, he would be hard to get away
from.
    “Mister Hussey! I had no idea you would be
here. Do you know Mister Chadwick? Or is it Lord Harroden? I’m so scattered tonight.”
    Chadwick bowed stiffly to Hussey. “Her
Highness and I were having a conversation,” he said.
    Hussey clapped him on the shoulder; Chadwick
winced. “I imagine you were,” he said. “Thank you for entertaining
milady until I could claim her for this dance.” He took the
champagne flute from Telaine’s hand and passed it off to the
sputtering youth. “Your Highness?” He linked his arm with hers and
led her onto the floor.
    As she bobbed and swayed down the line of the
country dance, she thought furiously. Hussey was one of her most
persistent suitors, always trying to get her into dark corners and
hinting broadly at his family’s prospects. She needed a
distraction. Hussey passed her going up the line as she was going
down, and she smiled her most dazzling smile at him and saw him
stumble a bit. Good. Having power over him meant having some
control.
    She swiftly glanced around the ballroom and
saw Count Harroden standing near one of the long windows, talking
to a few men.