Read Online Vixen by Jane Feather - Free Book Online Page B

green eyes distant. Absently, he passed a hand over his unshaven chin. “What did you say?”
    “Nothing,” she said, sensing that the mystery of what lay between her guardian and her brother would not be solved this morning.
    He looked down at her and shook his head. “You really are a disreputable sight, lass. No credit to my guardianship at all.”
    “Well, you’re not particularly smart yourself,” Chloe retorted. “Did you sleep in your clothes?”
    “I didn’t sleep,” he replied.
    “Oh, was your leg hurting?”
    “Not excessively.” He wasn’t going to explain about the tormenting effects of unfulfilled arousal. “I sleep little at the best of times.”
    “Why?”
    He frowned, quoting almost to himself, “‘The innocent sleep.’”
    “ ‘Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care,’” Chloe continued promptly. “But Macbeth was guilty of mass murder … it’s not surprising he couldn’t sleep. What could you be guilty of?”
    I killed your father.
But it wasn’t just that. It was all the other things. How many of those women hadn’t been willing partners in their violation? It was the one question that haunted him. Stephen had been capable of blackmail. He had abused his wife, coerced her with brutality. He’d have given little consideration to the defenseless women of the streets…. There’d been a virgin….
No!
He wouldn’t think about it.
    Chloe touched his arm, alarmed by the bleakness of his expression. “What is it?”
    “Painted devils,” he said with an effort. That’s what he called them—those hideous images dancing on the walls of his mind. “I need my breakfast. I see you’ve already had yours.”
    Chloe wondered whether to press the matter, but decided she didn’t have the right. She barely knew him. “Only bread and ham,” she said cheerfully. “If Samuel’s going to cook eggs for you, I’d like some too.”
    There was something about the girl that banished the devils, Hugo realized, suddenly lighthearted. “Where do you put it all, lass?”
    “I don’t know, but I’m always hungry,” she confided, accompanying him to the kitchen, Dante at her heels. “I wonder if Jasper will come back?”
    “He’ll get short shrift if he does.” Hugo glanced down at the dog, then gave a mental shrug. He seemed to have been routed in that battle. “Hot water, Samuel, I’m going to shave.” He pulled his shirt out of his britches, unbuttoned it, and tossed it over a chair.
    Samuel placed a bowl of hot water on the table and propped a small mirror against an empty wine bottle. “Soap’s in the pantry.”
    Chloe perched on the edge of the table, watching as Hugo sharpened the long razor on a leather strop and lathered his face. His hands fascinated her. They were beautiful, elegant, and slender with long, sensitive fingers. For some reason, they produced a strange flutter in the pit of her stomach.
    “What’s that on your chest?” she asked suddenly. She’d seen the strange little design yesterday, when he’d been in bed. “Is it a snake?”
    Hugo’s movements stilled, and then he said carelessly, “Yes, it’s a snake.”
    “Why do you have it?”
    “Didn’t they teach you in that seminary about vulgar curiosity?” he demanded. “Or about the impropriety of making personal remarks?”
    “I’m sorry.” She looked crestfallen. “I was just interested because I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
    “But then, I don’t imagine you’ve seen a man without his shirt before,” he said with some asperity, drawing a long swath through the soap.
    “No,” she agreed. “Did you get it in the navy?”
    Hugo sighed and seized the easy way out. “Tattoos are common in the navy. Now, do you have a riding habit?”
    To his relief, she accepted the close of the uncomfortable topic without demur. “Of course, but it’s another bushel.” She licked her finger and picked up crumbs from the tabletop.
    “Well, I think it’s time to do something