Never Resist Temptation Read Online Free Page B

Never Resist Temptation
Book: Never Resist Temptation Read Online Free
Author: Miranda Neville
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man. He hadn’t forgotten the strange attraction he’d felt when he’d helped him up from the ground, and it embarrassed him. He’d recognized the face when Léon had spoken with Count Lieven, the Russian ambassador. At first he’d only seen an anonymous plump cook, thick around the middle with a protruding belly that testified to his enjoyment of his own confections. Only when he’d examined the young man more carefully had he connected the refined features and glowing dark eyes with the youth he’d rescued.
    Odd, really. When he’d held the boy to save him from falling he hadn’t felt at all fat.
    The door opened and Webster entered the room.
    â€œBack already, Jem?” Anthony asked. “I didn’t expect you for hours. Did you manage to speak to Léon? What did he say to one hundred guineas a year?”
    â€œI didn’t see him at all, m’lord. Things are all at sixes and sevens at the palace kitchens and the news is all over town. Thought I’d better get back and tell you.”
    Anthony looked at the groom with interest. Jem Webster was a stolid man, not given to high drama.
    â€œLord Candover’s been poisoned.”
    Anthony leaped to his feet. “Good God! Is he dead?”
    â€œNo, and they say he’ll live. There was something in a dish he had for dinner last night but he was tookill right away, after only a bite, and his valet called a doctor. They say he’ll pull through.”
    Anthony paced up and down, assessing the effect of these tidings on his plans.
    â€œYou said the palace was upset. I can see why His Highness would be concerned, but the household? Why would such news disturb the kitchens?”
    â€œBecause the pudding came from there. It was left over from the dinner the other night. Lord Candover’s cook bought it from the royal kitchen.”
    Â 
    Jacobin was close to panic. The staff was in an uproar at the rumor that Lord Candover had been poisoned by a dish purchased from the Pavilion kitchen. The regent was said to be outraged and demanding a full investigation. The local magistrate was already interviewing the senior cooks, and it wouldn’t be long before he received assistance from London. The prince had sent posthaste for Bow Street runners to come and turn the kitchen staff inside out and upside down.
    Her disguise would never survive concentrated scrutiny, and scrutiny she would receive as the cook who’d prepared the poisoned dessert, even if no one remembered that it was she who had actually filled Candover’s dish with the rose cream. Once they identified her as a female it would be only a matter of time before they knew she was Candover’s niece. His estranged niece. They’d rush her to the gallows and never bother to look further for the would-be murderer.
    She wished she’d accepted Storrington’s offer and leftBrighton already. Why did it have to be Storrington? How worse than ironic that her only offer of employment, her sole chance of escape, came from a man as wicked as the uncle whose house she’d fled. The prospect of placing herself in his power terrified her. But not as much as execution for attempted murder.
    Given the confusion in the kitchens, it was easy to escape to her own room, where she gathered her meager worldly possessions into a bundle. She sat on the bed, took a deep breath, and considered her options.
    Flight. It was the first, last and only choice available to her, and the farther the better. If she could get to France, Jean-Luc would take care of her, but she had barely enough money to pay for passage across the Channel. She didn’t even know whether he was in Paris. It might take her weeks to track him down, and she’d need something to live on in the meantime. She needed a place to hide, a way of earning more money. Her quarter’s salary from the royal household, due in a few weeks, would have to be abandoned.
    It wouldn’t be

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