Johanna Lindsey Read Free Page A

busy man. He has not spent every moment of these last years actively pursuing the matter. Now, however, he has become obsessed with finding her so he can divorce her and remarry.”
    “Ah, finally to the heart of the matter.”
    The fellow flushed, and his nod was so slight it was almost imperceptible. His nervousness was understandable now. He was saying things his employer wouldn’t like him to reveal.
    “When he heard you were in town, his hopes soared. Your reputation of success, no matter how difficult the job, has preceded you. He has every confidence that you will find his wife and bring her home.”
    “If I take the job.”
    “But you must!” the fellow began, then amended, “Or does it seem too difficult a task, even for you?”
    Sebastian didn’t take the bait. “I don’t particularly like jobs that deal with women. I also haven’t finished my last job, am on my way to France now to do that.”
    “But that is not a problem,” the fellow assured him with some relief. “This job will take you in that direction. A brief detour would be quite permissible.”
    “That’s where the duke’s wife was last seen, in France?”
    “The trail led there, and beyond. The duke’s arm is far-reaching. Putting a great distance between herself and Austria appears to have been her priority during her escape.”
    “Did she head to the Americas?”
    “No—at least we pray not. And a woman of her description took ship to Portsmouth at the time.
    The last report we had was that she took ship again, but only farther up the coast of England. Another ship was available, to North America, but since she didn’t take that one, we concluded she decided to settle in England under an assumed name. There were no further reports. Every other man who was sent there to find her has never returned.” And then the fellow whispered, “It’s my guess they were afraid to return to the duke with only failure to report.”
    Having heard enough, Sebastian stood up to leave. “I am afraid I will have to decline after all,” he said, a coldness having entered his tone. “England is one place I will never go. Good day.” He expected the man to try and stop him again. He didn’t, probably because he realized it wouldn
    ’t do any good. Just as well. Jobs that dealt with women had an extra level of difficulty. On every single one he’d taken, the female involved had tried to seduce him.
    John found it amusing, hilariously so, claiming that Sebastian was too handsome to be a mercenary. Sebastian disagreed. It was his reputation, the sinister persona of The Raven, and his indifference to the women that created the problem. He believed in putting the job before pleasure. But the women felt differently. Intrigued by him, they saw no reason to wait until the job was finished to become intimately acquainted with him. Which is where the added difficulty came in.
    He had an ingrained sense of duty, which was probably why he excelled at his chosen occupation.
    Anything that deviated from getting the job done was to be avoided. Anything that distracted him was to be avoided as well. And a woman trying to seduce him was a definite distraction. He might not call himself an Englishman anymore, but he was still a man. So it really was just as well that he couldn’t accept the duke’s job.

Chapter 2
    H IS HEAD HURT. That was the first thing Sebastian noticed as he woke. The second, and more disturbing, was his surroundings, not the cozy room at the inn where he’d gone to sleep last night, but a dark, musty dungeon. He was in a cell. Torchlight passed through the small barred window on the wooden door, revealing a hard-packed dirt floor, a clean chamber pot in the corner, and bugs crawling in and out of cracks in the stone walls.
    It was an airless, medieval room but it was in better condition than his own dungeon, which indicated it was frequently used. He’d been in prisons before, but modern ones, never an actual, authentic dungeon. He’d