Eloisa James Read Online Free Page A

Frogspawn. ”
    “A re you truly only fifteen years old?” Colin asked, a few minutes after being charmed by an utterly engaging young lady, who had her mother’s elegance and her father’s looks. “And are you sure that you are Lily ?”
    She threw him a sparkling glance. But as a dashing young lieutenant encounters many a sparkling young lady, Colin just grinned back at every minxlike look she gave him from under her lashes, until she burst into laughter.
    “Yes, do give up,” he said, answering her unspoken comment. “I know that you have ambitions to be the most hotly sought-after young lady on the marriage mart, but I’m not available.”
    Lily’s face lit with honest laughter was so much more seductive than her flirtatious glances that Colin actually felt a flash of attraction. “I shall be,” she confided. “Mother only allowed me to go to select events this year, but next spring I shall make a proper debut.”
    “In London?”
    “Of course. Grace will be coming as well as she hasn’t debuted yet. Mother is throwing the town house open and there will be a ball held in our honor . . .” She chattered on and on, but Colin didn’t listen. He just relaxed into the tinkling prettiness of English conversation. It felt so far from the powdery, acrid smell of cannon smoke. The way bright red blood falls to the deck and seeps between the boards.
    With a start, he pulled himself back together. This year, for some reason, he was having trouble leaving the fighting behind on board ship, where it belonged. He needed to buck up and be a man.
    “All right,” Lily said, tucking her hand through his arm. “I can tell that you’re not listening.”
    “Forgive me,” he said, wondering what he had missed. Her smile was so impish and yet delightful that he smiled back, despite himself.
    “You are finding me utterly tedious, and why shouldn’t you?”
    “I find you delightful.”
    “Pshaw!” she said, laughing. “You would have been my first beau in uniform, but I suppose I shall meet some others in the spring. A lieutenant! We’re all so impressed, Colin. Father said that he thinks you’ll be an admiral before you reach thirty, at this rate.”
    Colin made himself smile. “I don’t see Grace anywhere. Will she be joining us?”
    “Oh, she’ll be down by the lake,” Lily said. “Probably writing you a letter. Do go see her.”
    Grace was indeed down at the lake, sitting under a willow and working on a portrait of her brother, Brandon. She had heard a “halloo” and a lot of shouting behind her, up the hill toward the house, but she didn’t move. With so many children milling about, there was always some sort of excitement brewing.
    She had discovered that putting tiny flecks of red where someone didn’t expect to see them gave depth to a piece of clothing, no matter how tiny. She realized it after putting her face as close as possible to a portrait by Hans Holbein in the ducal gallery.
    Holbein’s portrait was of one of her ancestors, a stuffy, bejeweled duke. Hers was of a naughty boy, but the effect was the same.
    She was so intent on painting that she was unaware someone was approaching until a hand came down on her shoulder, and a big body came between her and the water glinting on the lake.
    It was Colin.
    She looked up at him without a word, cataloguing—the way she always did—the curl of his eyelashes, the deep blue of his eyes, his high cheekbones. The way his thigh muscles bulged as he squatted before her. The way his shoulders seemed much wider than they had been the last time she saw him. Just like that, her heart began beating so quickly that she felt a bit dizzy.
    “Hello there,” he said, smiling at her. “How’s the best correspondent in the world?”
    Grace felt her cheeks flood with color. “I’m fine. I’m so happy to see you home safe, Colin.” She looked him over. “Without an injury. It’s just marvelous!”
    “Yes, well,” he said, with an odd flatness in his