A Most Naked Solution Read Online Free Page A

anyone.”
    Her spine was perfectly straight, her face serene. If it weren’t for her teeth dragging over her lip, he would have thought her completely unmoved.
    But he knew better. And he had to fight the urge to sweep her into his arms and away from danger.
    Camden had always preferred vibrant women—dark brunettes, fiery redheads. Lady Harding was the antithesis of that. Pale skin, pale hair, a delicate rose tinting her cheeks. It should have been easy to overlook her. But instead he found himself drawn closer, like to a watercolor, desperate to take it all in and not miss one subtle detail.
    If she was her husband’s murderer, why had someone tried to kill her ? And why now?
    She was still hiding something. He’d caught that look she’d given her gardener.
    He tore his attention away from her to the concerned faces of her servants, who had gathered about the hall. “Can anyone think of someone who might wish your mistress harm?”
    All the servants except for Wicken shook their heads. Wicken rubbed the white stubble salting his chin. “His lordship had many a mistress. Some of them’s the jealous type.” He didn’t flinch as Lady Harding and the other servants glared. “It’s true and you all know it. I see no reason Lord Grey shouldn’t know it as well. I never understood how lying about the type of man Lord Harding was did anyone any favors.”
    Lady Harding’s face turned crimson, but she didn’t refute the claim.
    Camden wanted to shoot Lord Harding himself. Camden was a firm believer in fidelity. There was a symmetry there that appealed to him. If a man expected his wife to remain loyal then she had the right to expect the same. Harding had no right to have disgraced Sophia—Sophia? When had he begun to think of her that way?
    Undoubtedly when she was soft and lithe beneath him on the ground.
    “Anyone who might be violent?” Lord Grey asked.
    The gardener looked disappointed, as if Camden had asked the wrong question. “None that I can think of.”
    Which brought him full circle. He needed to go the village and see if anyone remembered those men Tubs had seen and if anyone had noticed anything today.
    He no longer wanted Sophia to come, yet he retained his initial confidence that people would only be willing to speak to him if Sophia ordered them to. And with her by his side, he could ensure she did.

 
    C HAPTER F IVE
    L ord Grey’s carriage rattled over the bumpy dirt road. Since it only had the two seats for the passengers, each lurch pressed Sophia’s leg against his thigh. Fortunately, he’d pulled out a page of numbers and letters from a folio under the seat and was studying them intently. He seemed unaware of the intimacy the carriage ride provoked.
    The wind dragged dark clouds through the sky and rustled the leaves in the oak trees. She welcomed the cool on her cheeks.
    Sophia watched the backs of the two grooms riding ahead of them as outriders. Was it wrong to hope someone was trying to kill her? If the same man had shot at her and Richard, then it wasn’t her father.
    She let the breeze dry her tears of relief. After all, she didn’t yet know what was the truth.
    Her father and brother Darton had visited her three months ago, anguished and enraged. They had received a letter from her brother Bennett, telling them of Richard’s abuse. They demanded to know if it was true. And for the first time in her life she hadn’t lied to them. Her stomach clenched as she remembered her father sinking, ashen-faced, to the floor, guilt contorting his face. He’d demanded that she leave. But she refused. She couldn’t go yet—not because she hadn’t wanted to, but because she had to confront Richard first. She’d planned to do it that night.
    Her brother Bennett had whisked her away from Richard once before, and she’d been too weak in the face of Richard’s anguished pleas. She’d gone back, unable to stop herself from trying to fix things one last time.
    So when she’d told her