Third Son's a Charm by Shana Galen

Third Son's a Charm by Shana Galen

Author:Shana Galen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2017-09-13T04:00:00+00:00


Twelve

Lorrie hadn’t expected the Viking to walk away. She’d hoped to challenge him, raise his fighting spirit, but instead he’d pushed away from her and strode out the door.

She’d stood in the office and wanted to call him back—and not only because she hated to lose. She hated to lose him. Finally, Lorrie looked down at the papers on the edge of her father’s desk. The Viking had carried them into the room and left them, probably by accident. She opened the folder that contained them and scanned the contents—account books, bills of sale, mortgage papers. All of it seemed to pertain to the Earl of Pembroke. On another sheet was a long list of numbers, many of them scratched out. Was this the Viking’s writing? Were these his attempt to work out the financial matter he had mentioned? But surely he would need to be able to read these papers to understand the problem. Lorrie didn’t know how long she had stood in the library, looking through the papers, but finally, Welly whined and Lorrie had realized the Viking wouldn’t be back.

Back in her own room—after a quick stop in the garden so Welly could sniff every flower, insect, rock, and finally empty his bladder—Lorrie lay in bed unable to sleep. When had she begun to look forward to seeing the Viking every day? When had the mere fact of him leaving a room made the world dim? She had thought teaching him to read would give her the time with him she craved—and perhaps result in a few more of those forbidden but wonderful kisses. Now she’d driven him further away.

“Unfortunate,” she said to herself. In his little bed near hers, Welly’s head popped up at the sound of her voice. “Because perhaps I really might be of some help to him.”

It didn’t surprise her when the Viking was absent from breakfast the next day or when he chose to meet the family at the theater—the god-awful opera again—instead of riding in their coach. It didn’t surprise her when the Viking spent a week making every effort to avoid being alone with her. He was with her all the time, but always out of earshot or behind one of the half dozen or so of her fawning suitors. Lorrie was beginning to wonder if she’d ever have a chance to speak to him privately again. She’d inquired about him very indirectly on several occasions and managed to piece together half a dozen facts—the most salient of these was that he had served as the muscle inside a gaming hell called Langley’s in St. James’s.

Lorrie could only assume he must have had lodgings at the hell because he did not appear to own a flat, and he had to sleep somewhere when he was not sleeping in her father’s town house, and that was all too common an occurrence now. Her other option was the club the Viking and the other men of Draven’s troop frequented. But she thought she might have even less luck gaining entry into the club than into the hell.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.