England's Assassin Read Online Free Page A

reason, she was pleased.
    Surely, it was her accurate assessment of his honorable character that gave her pleasure, not the thought of spending several days alone on a ship with such an attractive emissary of the British government.
    A man so brave he endangered his life to deliver a warning to an English assassin operating deep within enemy territory, a man so captivatingly handsome he was undoubtedly a rake and a rogue who would try to seduce her at every opportunity.
    The thought was not unappealing. 
    Hell’s teeth!
    This was not the time to be distracted by a pretty man. Lord knows, he could have come to her apartment to kill her and all she could do was stand there gawking at how magnificently constructed he was like some addle brained schoolgirl attending her first ball.
    Nicole lengthened her strides as she traveled toward Andre’s apartment, her irritation punctuating every step. No, this was the time to weigh her options, to decide if she was going to board Les Helios and face her fate in England.
    Andre Tuchelles was the only person in France who knew her true identity, the only person who knew what she risked by going home. As she approached his apartment building, Nicole prayed that he had the opportunity to leave a communiqué advising her of the threat the French posed. Andre would know if this recalling of British agents was merely precautionary or if there was indeed a credible danger.
    A danger strong enough to risk going home.
    Glancing up, Nicole saw that Andre had left a candle burning in the loft of his fifth floor apartment. A smile pulled at her heart when she thought of her dear, sweet Andre.
    He was the son of an English vicar, who, unlike her, had enlisted in this war from his deep, moral conviction that it was his duty as a Christian to fight the tyranny which the French government inflicted upon the people of Europe. It was his conviction that standing by and watching the atrocities take place, yet doing nothing, was a mortal sin, an affront to God and to all of humanity.
    Andre Tuchelles was light and knew nothing of the darkness of man. He assumed that, given the choice, man would choose to do good, would choose light over darkness.
    She knew better.
    Nicole scanned the third floor corridor of Andre’s building and then slipped, unseen, into his apartment. She leaned her back against the door, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim light that fell from the bedchamber loft.
    She walked to the first step leading to the modest room and bent down, hoping that he had affixed a note beneath it, some small goodbye so that she did not feel so completely alone.
    However, when her fingers caressed the bottom of the step she felt nothing but a sinking disappointment. Her eyes swept over the empty room and she wondered if she would ever see her dear friend again. The candle light flickered in Andre’s loft, beckoning her up the wooden stairs.
    Nicole smiled, wondering if he had left a farewell note atop his desk. She envisioned what he would say, wondered if he would confess, in parting, his tendre she knew he felt for her but had never had the courage to express.
    She climbed the steps not expecting to find anything because Andre Tuchelles was the sort of man to take his heart’s desire to his grave. Never voicing them, never daring to presume that a lady would return his all too worthy affections.
    She looked down, lifting her skirts as she neared the top of the steep staircase. The heel of her black ankle boots sounding on the wooden floor and she raised her head then gasped at the sight of Andre Tuchelles asleep at his desk.
    He has missed his ship. She told herself.
    “Andre,” Nicole whispered, glancing at the trunk to the right of his tidy bed. “Andre.”
    But he did not move.
    Her breath became short and she was feeling lightheaded, causing the room to dim and then brighten beyond bearing.
    “Andre?”
    She crept over and placed her gloved hand on his right shoulder, shaking him. But