The Rake's Mistress Read Online Free

There was something lazy but watchful about his scrutiny. ‘I am not entirely sure that I wish to go, Miss Raleigh,’ he murmured.
    Rebecca slipped her free hand into her reticule. Her fingers closed around the cold, reassuring shape of her engraving scribe. She whipped it outand levelled it at his throat. ‘Allow me to encourage your departure, my lord.’
    ‘The devil!’ Lucas’s eyes lit with unholy amusement. He kept his gaze on the wickedly sharp diamond point. ‘What is that?’
    ‘A diamond-pin scribe for cutting glass. I use it for the very profession you derided a short while ago.’ Rebecca touched the point of the pin with one gloved finger. ‘Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man, my lord.’
    Lucas rubbed his chin ruefully. ‘Then it seems that you have something in common with them, Miss Raleigh.’
    ‘I do not think that you should be in any doubt of my profession now, nor of my sincerity in wishing you gone,’ Rebecca said.
    ‘No, indeed.’ Lucas’s gaze came up to her face and he smiled again, a real smile, wholly disarming, seriously dangerous. Rebecca felt her pulse skip. He inclined his head in a gesture of acknowledgement. ‘Very well, Miss Raleigh, I shall leave you, but I shall see that your property is returned to you, all the same.’
    ‘Please do not trouble yourself,’ Rebecca said.
    ‘It is no trouble. Cloaks are expensive commodities, particularly for a lady obliged to earn her own living. I shall return it in person.’
    Rebecca felt her temper flicker again. ‘Pray save yourself a tiresome task, my lord, and send a servantwith it. That would surely be more appropriate.’
    She saw Lucas’s amusement that he had got under her skin. ‘That would be too shabby. Will you furnish me with your direction, Miss Raleigh?’
    ‘Certainly not,’ Rebecca said.
    Lucas sighed. ‘I shall find it out anyway.’
    ‘But not from me.’
    Lucas sighed again. ‘Then I shall leave you, Miss Raleigh, with the promise to see you again soon.’
    He opened the door of the carriage and sprang down without bothering to lower the steps. Rebecca’s last view of him was a tall figure standing beneath the street lamp, a dusting of raindrops already on his hair.
    She sat back as the carriage moved off again and gave a huge sigh. She did not regret helping Stephen Kestrel for he seemed a pleasant enough young man. His elder brother was another matter. Forceful, confident, with a face like a fallen angel and a touch that threatened to overset all good sense… Rebecca shook her head. She had a rule about staying away from gentlemen like Lucas Kestrel, men who were rakish and dangerous and who could spell disaster for a woman who had her own way to make in the world.
    She hoped that he would not seek her out again. She knew he would.
    Lucas Kestrel stood on the wet pavement and looked about himself in some perplexity. He realised that he had no notion where he was. He had spent the entire journey with his attention focussed on Miss Rebecca Raleigh to the exclusion of all else. They could have been halfway down the London to Brighton road for all he knew. He could not remember the last time that had happened to him when he had been in conversation with a woman.
    He started walking. He knew that he would soon see a familiar landmark. Having navigated his regiment across half of Egypt, he had no concern that he would get lost in the outskirts of London. The only thing that he regretted was failing to put a coat on. That showed lack of foresight. He had not thought that Miss Raleigh would occupy him for long and certainly had not foreseen that she would throw him out of her coach and leave him to walk home.
    A rueful smile tugged at his mouth. He found Miss Rebecca Raleigh a fascinating combination of confidence and vulnerability, strength and innocence. When he had first set eyes on her he had felt her gaze like a physical blow to the heart. He had never known anything quite like it.
    He had had