Read Online Playing with Fire by Sandra Heath - Free Book Online Page A

and take far more than consolation from his closeness. She pulled away self-consciously, afraid she might give in to the temptation. He immediately became self-conscious as well. “Please don’t misinterpret, for I meant nothing….”
    “I know you didn’t, and I haven’t misinterpreted,” she replied quickly. “It’s just that I felt a rather childish urge to cling to you for comfort, and that would indeed have been open to misinterpretation.” She managed to give him a quick smile, but she felt dreadful. Childish was the very last thing her stifled urge had been!
    The smile was reciprocated. “I’m sure I would have taken the impulse for what it was, because I am equally sure that you would never behave forwardly or improperly in any way.”
    No, but I would like to, she thought ruefully. When he walked into the hidden room at Tel el-Osorkon, her senses had awakened from a lifetime of slumber. One arresting glance of his dark eyes had sealed her fate, sending abandoned emotions leaping through her veins that still coursed through them now. Oh, such wonderful, spellbinding emotions. As if she had been waiting for him. Just for him….
    The canja glided on into the depths of the marsh, finding a way through rich foliage that sometimes brushed audibly along the deck. Tel el-Osorkon slipped further and further behind, and with it the sense of danger. Tusun went quietly about his tasks, tightening a rope here, loosing one there, making sure everything was secure. To the east the sun rose steadily, sending blinding flashes of light through the leaves and branches. A flight of waterfowl flew high against the early morning sky, and Tansy gazed around, thinking how romantic it was. But Martin’s next words were a douse of cold water on thoughts of romance.
    “Lord Sanderby is very fortunate to be marrying a bride as beautiful as your cousin. Has she known him long?”
    “She does not know him at all. It is an arranged match.”
    Martin watched her. “Am I to understand your cousin doesn’t want the match?”
    Tansy realized she had misled him. “Oh, no! Please don’t think she is being forced into something against her will. Amanda is very pleased indeed to have secured so advantageous a contract.”
    “Arranged marriages can be successful, I know, but I would not care for one myself. I hope I will one day make a love match.”
    Tansy found a smile. “A sentiment I share, Lieutenant, but then I will never aspire to an aristocratic husband. Who knows how I might feel if faced with the chance of becoming a countess?”
    “You say that as if it were so far into the realms of fantasy as to be utterly impossible.”
    “So it is,” she replied emphatically.
    “You do both yourself and the aristocracy a grave injustice.”
    “You, sir, know too well how to flatter,” But although he complimented her, his words showed how little chance she stood with him. Amanda was the one to have caught his interest.
    He laughed. “Flattery is part of naval training.”
    “So I perceive.”
    They smiled at each other, and she fell even further under his spell, if that were possible. But once again he brought her down to earth with a bump. “When is your cousin’s wedding to take place?”
    “This summer. Amanda’s father—my Uncle Franklyn—was, until recently, on diplomatic duty in Constantinople, and we were with him. He has now been posted on to Australia, but arranged Amanda’s match before he left. She and I are on our way back to England, under Hermione’s…. I mean Mrs. Entwhistle’s wing. We are to live with our remaining uncle, Sir Julian Richardson, at his estate of Chelworth in Dorset.”
    “Chelworth? I know it. Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say I have used it as a landmark. It stands on the slope above a bay, about halfway between Portland Bill and St. Aldhelm’s Head. The house looks more like something from this part of the world than rural Dorset, and there is a pyramid folly on the