Read Online The Crimson Lady by Mary Reed McCall - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mary Reed McCall
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cannot converse about it after I’m fully clothed?”
“If you value your continued safety and the eventual deliverance of your foster sister, aye.”
He debated arguing further, then thought better of it. If she deemed this so important, so be it; he’d just have to overlook his less than dignified state of dress. Without saying anything he nodded his agreement.
She’d stopped playing with her sleeve, he noticed, and now she met his gaze squarely, her expression serious; he tried not to allow himself to dwell on the way the tawny hue of her eyes seemed lit with beautiful, dancing flecks of light. Clearing his throat, he murmured, “Go on, then.”
“The first matter we must needs discuss concerns my name. Those who know me through my past activities think of me only as Giselle de Coeur.”
“Even the outlaws?”
“Aye. Except for my childhood and the years that I lived in Hampshire, it has been my identity.”
“But why did you not return to your true name as soon as you left Draven?”
“It is complicated,” she answered, glancing away.Her expression was tight and her eyes troubled. “Perhaps I still dressed in crimson and answered to that name even after leaving Draven because it had been so long since I had known anything else—it was a part of me I could not separate at first. The woman known as Giselle de Coeur also helped the outlaw group in their robberies. I only worked with them for a year, but they were able to use my notoriety to entice male travelers into stopping at the roadside. By the time word spread about the traps being laid on thoroughfares near Alton, baited with the Crimson Lady, I had already left for Hampshire.”
“I see.”
“I hope so. Because you must remember that calling me Fiona in front of anyone else could be dangerous and expose us to suspicion the likes of which you saw in the common room when we first arrived.”
He nodded. “In future I will make the correction—though it will be a bit peculiar, knowing myself to be the only person aware of your true name.”
She paused. “Actually you’re not the only one. There is one other.”
“Who?”
“Will Singleton,” she admitted, “though he, too, calls me Giselle for the same reasons that you must.” She flushed a bit then, and Braedan got the distinct feeling that there was a good deal more to her connection to this leader of her former band of thieves than she was letting on.
“And my uncle?” he asked, refusing to betray the stab of animosity that had shot through him at the thought of Will’s apparent intimacy with her. “You spent a good deal of time with him. Does he not know as well?”
“He didn’t care to learn it. He chose the name Giselle de Coeur for me on my first day with him. It is why I decided to resume my old identity as Fiona Byrne when I set up shop as an embroidress, to keep him from finding me so easily.”
“And yet I found you simply enough.”
“You were willing to go to some trouble, a long journey, and much coin. For sake of his pride, I knew that Draven would never venture that far or spend so much to find me. It would be beneath him. It was the same when I lived as an outlaw; I knew he wouldn’t come looking for me, though I was working the thoroughfares but a few hours from London. However, that might change if we actually go back into the stewes —”
She broke off, glancing down and biting at her bottom lip; Braedan caught a glimpse of her face and was taken aback by what he saw there, a look telling him that this woman who had lived her life on the fringes of some of the most violent segments of society was for some reason feeling hesitant…or perhaps even fearful. She seemed stricken, and lost, and—
Christ she looked like she needed nothing more than to curl against his chest and be told that he would keep her safe from all the wickedness in the world .
The realization pounded through him; when she met his gaze after a long moment, her eyes were filled
“If you value your continued safety and the eventual deliverance of your foster sister, aye.”
He debated arguing further, then thought better of it. If she deemed this so important, so be it; he’d just have to overlook his less than dignified state of dress. Without saying anything he nodded his agreement.
She’d stopped playing with her sleeve, he noticed, and now she met his gaze squarely, her expression serious; he tried not to allow himself to dwell on the way the tawny hue of her eyes seemed lit with beautiful, dancing flecks of light. Clearing his throat, he murmured, “Go on, then.”
“The first matter we must needs discuss concerns my name. Those who know me through my past activities think of me only as Giselle de Coeur.”
“Even the outlaws?”
“Aye. Except for my childhood and the years that I lived in Hampshire, it has been my identity.”
“But why did you not return to your true name as soon as you left Draven?”
“It is complicated,” she answered, glancing away.Her expression was tight and her eyes troubled. “Perhaps I still dressed in crimson and answered to that name even after leaving Draven because it had been so long since I had known anything else—it was a part of me I could not separate at first. The woman known as Giselle de Coeur also helped the outlaw group in their robberies. I only worked with them for a year, but they were able to use my notoriety to entice male travelers into stopping at the roadside. By the time word spread about the traps being laid on thoroughfares near Alton, baited with the Crimson Lady, I had already left for Hampshire.”
“I see.”
“I hope so. Because you must remember that calling me Fiona in front of anyone else could be dangerous and expose us to suspicion the likes of which you saw in the common room when we first arrived.”
He nodded. “In future I will make the correction—though it will be a bit peculiar, knowing myself to be the only person aware of your true name.”
She paused. “Actually you’re not the only one. There is one other.”
“Who?”
“Will Singleton,” she admitted, “though he, too, calls me Giselle for the same reasons that you must.” She flushed a bit then, and Braedan got the distinct feeling that there was a good deal more to her connection to this leader of her former band of thieves than she was letting on.
“And my uncle?” he asked, refusing to betray the stab of animosity that had shot through him at the thought of Will’s apparent intimacy with her. “You spent a good deal of time with him. Does he not know as well?”
“He didn’t care to learn it. He chose the name Giselle de Coeur for me on my first day with him. It is why I decided to resume my old identity as Fiona Byrne when I set up shop as an embroidress, to keep him from finding me so easily.”
“And yet I found you simply enough.”
“You were willing to go to some trouble, a long journey, and much coin. For sake of his pride, I knew that Draven would never venture that far or spend so much to find me. It would be beneath him. It was the same when I lived as an outlaw; I knew he wouldn’t come looking for me, though I was working the thoroughfares but a few hours from London. However, that might change if we actually go back into the stewes —”
She broke off, glancing down and biting at her bottom lip; Braedan caught a glimpse of her face and was taken aback by what he saw there, a look telling him that this woman who had lived her life on the fringes of some of the most violent segments of society was for some reason feeling hesitant…or perhaps even fearful. She seemed stricken, and lost, and—
Christ she looked like she needed nothing more than to curl against his chest and be told that he would keep her safe from all the wickedness in the world .
The realization pounded through him; when she met his gaze after a long moment, her eyes were filled
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