My Lady Notorious Read Free Page A

course not, but it’ll keep him out of harm’s way while we eat and prepare to leave.”
    “But La… But Charles,” said the nurse fretfully, “you’re not allowed to leave, you know that.”
    This woman was old, very old. She was stooped and tiny, with
half-moon spectacles and soft, silvery hair. She had been Cyn’s
downfall. When Charles had ordered him onto the bed to be bound, he’d
refused. The old woman had obeyed the order to get him there, however,
and he’d been so afraid of breaking her bird-like bones he’d ended up
helpless.
    He noted the slip. The old lady had almost called the chit Lady
something. Very highborn then, and yet one was dressed convincingly as
a male, and the other as a servant.
    “I don’t care a farthing whether I’m allowed to leave or not,” said
Lady Charles. “Up till now I’ve had no reason to go anywhere, and good
reason to skulk. Now everything’s changed. I suppose I’ll come back in
due course. Where else have I to go?”
    “You will stay with Nathaniel and me,” said Verity.
    “Perhaps,” said Charles with a softening of her features. “But he’s
going to have enough trouble looking after you and William, dearest.” A
squawking noise came from upstairs. “There he goes again. Hungry little
beast, ain’t he?”
    Verity hurried off up a set of narrow stairs, and Cyn absorbed the
fact that one of his highwaymen was a mother and, he suspected, a
recent one. It explained the rather excessive lushness of her figure.
Discomfort and annoyance gave way again to fascination. He looked
forward to telling this tale to his fellow officers. A good yarn was
always in demand in the winter billets.
    The older woman disappeared into the kitchen, the only other room on
the ground floor. Cyn supposed there was a room under the eaves above
where the sisters and the baby slept. This room, the old lady’s
bedroom, was being used as a makeshift parlor and also contained a
number of bundles, boxes, and portmanteaux.
    Why were the sisters here, and why was Charles not allowed to leave?
    The girl was digging in a chest, ignoring him. “Am I going to be fed?” Cyn asked.
    “Eventually.”
    “What do you intend to do with me?”
    She straightened and came over to the bed. She raised one foot on
the frame and rested her elbow on her knee. He had the distinct feeling
she was enjoying the position of power. “Perhaps we’ll just leave you
here like this.”
    He met her angry gray eyes. “Why?”
    “Why not?”
    “I haven’t done anything to hurt you. I did my best to be sure my people don’t start a hue and cry.”
    “Why did you do that?”
    He was startled by how much she distrusted and, perhaps, feared him.
That explained him being bound like this. Not out of cruelty, but out
of fear. With his deceptively delicate appearance Cyn was not
accustomed to women being so wary of him.
    He chose his words with care. “I sensed you were not evil, that you
intended me no serious harm. I don’t want to see you swing. In fact,
I’d like to help you.”
    She lowered her foot and took a betraying step backward. “Why?”
    “I suspect you have a good reason for your actions, and I am overdue for an adventure.”
    She looked nothing so much as exasperated. “You’re overdue for Bedlam.”
    “I don’t think so. I just have a low tolerance for tedium.”
    “Tedium has its attractions, believe me.”
    “I have never discovered them.”
    “Then consider yourself fortunate.”
    For the first time he wondered if she was in real trouble. He’d been
thinking more in terms of some girlish prank, but he doubted this
formidable young woman would look so sober over a trivial matter.
    “You’re in danger, aren’t you?” he said.
    Her eyes widened, but she said nothing.
    “All the more reason to trust me and let me help you.”
    Her chin came up sharply. “I don’t trust—” After a caught breath she said, “—people.”
    He knew she had almost said, I
don’t trust men
.
    “You