Read Online A Knight in Shining Armour by Jude Deveraux - Free Book Online Page A

almost hear her sister Elizabeth’s derisive laughter if Dougless called and asked for money. Elizabeth would certainly never consider taking a job from a man wearing armor. No doubt Elizabeth would know exactly what to do, and how to do it, in this situation, because Elizabeth was perfect. As were her other two sisters, Catherine and Anne. In fact, all the Montgomerys seemed to be perfect—except for Dougless. She’d often wondered if she’d been put in the wrong crib in the hospital.
    “All right,” Dougless said abruptly. “I might as well lose the rest of the day. I’ll help you get some clothes and find a place to stay, but that’s it. And I’ll do it for, say . . . fifty dollars.” That should be enough to get her a bed-and-breakfast for the night, she thought, and tomorrow she’d screw up her courage and call Elizabeth again.
    Swallowing his rising anger, Nicholas gave the woman a curt nod. He understood her meaning if not her words, but at least he had made her agree to stay with him for a few more hours. Later, he would have to find something else to keep her by his side until he discovered how to get back to his own time. And when he found what he needed to know, he would rejoice to leave this woman.
    “Clothes,” she was saying. “We’ll get you clothes, then it’ll be tea time.”
    “Tea? What is tea?”
    Dougless stopped walking. An Englishman who pretended he didn’t know about tea? This man was more than she could bear. She’d help him until she got him checked into a hotel, then she’d be glad to get rid of him.

FOUR

    T hey walked together down the wide sidewalk in silence, the man looking in shop windows, at the people, and at the cars on the street. His handsome face wore such an expression of astonishment that Dougless could almost believe he had never seen the modern world before. He asked her no questions, but often halted for a moment to stare at a car or at a group of young girls in short skirts.
    It was only a block to a small clothing store for men. “Here’s where we can buy you something less conspicuous to wear,” she said.
    “Yes, I would see a tailor,” he said, looking up over the door and frowning as though something were missing.
    “It’s not a tailor, just ready-made clothes.”
    When they were inside the little shop, Nicholas stood still, gaping at the shirts and trousers hanging from the racks. “These clothes have been made,” he said, his eyes wide.
    Dougless started to reply, but instead turned to the clerk who’d come forward to greet them. The man was small, thin, and had to be at least ninety years old. “We need clothing for him from the skin out. And he’ll have to be measured for size.” Even if the man did remember his sizes, he’d no doubt pretend he didn’t, she thought.
    “Certainly,” the clerk said, then looked at Nicholas. “If you’ll step over here, sir, we can begin measuring.”
    When she saw that the man was leading the way to a semi-private area at the back of the store, Dougless stood where she was. But Nicholas insisted that she go with him into the curtained-off area.
    Dougless sat on a chair off to one side, picked up a magazine, and pretended to read while the clerk began to undress Nicholas. The way he raised his arms for the clerk to unlatch his armor made it look as though he was used to other people undressing him. Carefully, almost reverently, the little man set Nicholas’s armor on a cushioned bench. Dougless saw the man run a caressing hand down one side of the armor before turning back.
    Under the armor, Nicholas wore a big-armed linen shirt that was plastered to his body with sweat.
    And what a body he had! Dougless thought as she almost dropped her magazine. She’d seen armor in museums and had laughed at the way the metal had been molded into the shape of a muscular torso. She’d always thought that it had been done to hide a man’s paunch. But this man, this Nicholas Stafford, was indeed as broad-shouldered