Dangerous Diana (Brambridge Novel 3) Read Free

boots, he strode to down the small lane to the back of the house and decided he didn’t feel too bad for the odious villain. What he had reportedly done to his victims was far worse.
    Carter waited at the back door with Hades’ new boots, his eyes scrunched up as if in pain.
    “What is it, Carter?” Hades pulled the boots from his hands. Carter never said what he thought. He just showed it through his facial expressions.
    “I think, sir…”
    “Spit it out!”
    “Err, if I might be so delicate to say…”
    Hades shook his head and, tucking the boots under his arm, pushed past his gaping butler and padded with stockinged feet through to his study.
    The Viper sat stiff-backed in the angular library chair Hades used to get books from high shelves, his hood still over his face. With a sigh of satisfaction, Hades fell back into his comfortable leather chair and laboriously pulled on the clean leather boots. It was hard to feel in control when one was loafing around with toenails on show.
    Carter entered again at a trot, but for once he bore only a tray with a large whiskey bottle on it and no biscuits.
    Hades frowned. “What are you doing, Carter? Get me some coffee.”
    “What a good idea. I’ll have some too.” The hooded Viper cocked his head on one side, the voice which had sounded low in St. Giles, now a pleasing contralto with just the slightest of shakes to it. Hades stared at the cloaked figure. The Viper was a woman? Of course. It wouldn’t be the first time that a woman had played the underworld. Monsieur Herr , the French spy that Anglethorpe had wrestled with had been female too.
    He scratched his chin as Carter remained standing by the door, the butler’s face for once carefully blank.
    “What are you waiting for?”
    Carter gave no sign that he had heard. He nodded vigorously at the cloaked figure. Sighing, Hades walked softly behind the Viper and quickly pulled at his hood.
    “Thank goodness for that. I thought I was going to spend my entire time underneath that cloak,” the Viper said.
    Hades blinked and walked in a wide circle around the Viper. Staring downwards, he examined the woman in front of him. She did not present a formidable figure. Her jet black hair was piled on top of her head and she wore brass spectacles that were so smashed he could not see her eyes.
    He glanced at Carter, who waited expressionless by the door.
    “Why aren’t you going to get my coffee?” Licking his lips, Hades backed away to his chair and looked at the whisky, and back at the Viper. Apart from asking for coffee, she had said nothing else. With a thump he sat down. He needed to look her in the eyes.
    “Take off your glasses.” He was not going to do it for the Viper. Show no mercy. That was another trick of interrogation that he had read in his books.
    Wincing, the woman put her bound hands to her face and, twisting her head from side to side, unhooked the spectacle arms from behind her ears, pulling out a few strands of hair in the process. Once done she looked steadily, and what seemed to be, rather mistily at him.
    “Good God.” It was all he could force out, nearly drowning in the blue of her eyes. He dived at the whisky tray and poured himself a strong measure, throwing it down his throat fast. Slowly he poured himself another and sipped at it. Out of the corner of his eye, Carter gave a satisfied nod and closed the door as Hades sat back in his leather chair.
    “I might have known. Diana whatever-your-name-is.” Hades coughed as the burning liquid took hold. “To think that I thought you were just another scheming debutante. Using that to get close to me, and hiding your true serpentine nature by pretending to be mute.”
    “I beg your pardon?” The Viper narrowed her eyes and blinked. Hades really had to admire her form, she was an exceptionally beautiful woman. One that had been hard to forget.
    “At that ball a year ago you acted as if you were a simpleton. In reality you knew I was on to