Read Online A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare - Free Book Online Page B

strong grip on her elbow. His hot kiss brushing over her lips.
    “My goodness,” Kate whispered in her ear. “They are rather . . . manly, aren’t they?”
    Yes, Susanna thought. God help her, he was.
    “And that dark one is frightfully big.”
    “You should feel him up close.”
    Kate’s eyes went wide, and a startled laugh burst from her lips. “What did you just say?”
    “Er . . . I said, you should see him up close.”
    “No. You didn’t. You said I should feel him up close.” Her hazel eyes lit with a mischievous twinkle.
    Ears hot with embarrassment, Susanna fluttered a hand in weak defense. “I’m a healer. We assess with our hands.”
    “If you say so.” Kate turned back to the window.
    Violet sighed loudly. “I suppose this means we’ll have to cancel our afternoon salon.”
    “Of course not,” Susanna countered. “There’s no need to alter our plans. Most likely, the men won’t trouble with us at all. But if the new Lord Rycliff and his party do see fit to take tea . . . We must do our best to welcome them.”
    This statement was met with a flurry of enthusiasm and a cyclone of alarm. Objections rose up all around her.
    “Miss Finch, they won’t understand. They’ll mock us, just like the gentlemen in Town.”
    “To think, playing for an earl? I haven’t anything fine enough to wear.”
    “I shall die of mortification. Positively die .”
    “ Ladies .” Susanna lifted her voice. “There is no cause for concern. We will go on as we always do. In a month’s time, this militia business will be over and these men will have gone. Nothing in Spindle Cove will be the different for their visit.”
    For her friends’ sake, she must maintain a brave front in the face of this invasion. But she knew, staring through the small window in the door, that her words were false. It was too late. Things were already changing in Spindle Cove.
    Something had altered in her .
    A fter dismounting from his gelding, Bram straightened his coat and had a look about the place. “A fair enough village,” he mused. “Rather charming.”
    “I knew it,” Colin said, adding a petulant curse.
    The green was expansive, dotted with shade trees. Across the lane sat a neat row of buildings. He took the largest to be the inn. Narrow dirt lanes lined with cottages curved out from the village’s center, following the contours of the valley. Toward the cove side of the village, he spied a cluster of humble cottages. Fishermen’s abodes, no doubt. And in the center of the green loomed the church—a soaring cathedral, remarkably grand for a village of this size. He supposed it was a remnant of that medieval port city Sir Lewis had mentioned.
    “This place is clean,” Colin said carefully. “Too clean. And too quiet. It’s unnatural. It’s giving me the shudders.”
    Bram had to admit, the village was oddly immaculate and eerily empty of people. Each cobble sparkled in the street. The dirt lanes were swept clean of debris. Every shop front and cottage boasted neat window boxes overflowing with red geraniums.
    A pair of lads rushed toward them. “Can we help with the horses, Lord Rycliff?”
    Lord Rycliff? So, they knew him already. News traveled fast in a small village, he supposed.
    Bram handed his reins to one of two eager, towheaded youths. “What are your names, lads?”
    “Rufus Bright,” the one on the left said. “And this is Finn.”
    “We’re twins,” Finn offered.
    “You don’t say.” The Brights. A suitable name, what with those incandescent shocks of hair—so blond as to be nearly white. “See?” he said to Colin. “I told you the place couldn’t be devoid of men.”
    “They’re not men,” Colin replied. “They’re boys.”
    “They didn’t germinate from the soil. If there are children, there must be men. What’s more, men whose pegos aren’t withered to twigs.” He beckoned one of the youths. “Is your father about?”
    A shock of lightning hair swiveled in the