Recipe for Treason: A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery (Lady Arianna Hadley Mystery)

Recipe for Treason: A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery (Lady Arianna Hadley Mystery) Read Free Page A

Book: Recipe for Treason: A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery (Lady Arianna Hadley Mystery) Read Free
Author: Andrea Penrose
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the man’s escape.
    Sensing the danger, the assailant veered sharply and began climbing over a tumble of boulders. The earl was right on his heels.
    Pushing past Henning, Arianna started to run.
    Saybrook lunged, catching hold of the man’s coat.
    Kicking, cursing, the assailant struggled desperately to break free, but the earl held tight. Spinning, swirling, their shadows blurred in the wind-whipped snow. They both crested the stones at the same time and fell together in a pelter of whirling jabs and punches.
    “Damn.” Arianna skidded to a halt just as the assailant landed a vicious kick and broke free. His boots scraping over the rough rock, he lurched to his feet and made a wild, running leap across a narrow ravine.
    “Damn!” Saybrook’s oath echoed her own.
    The jump fell a few inches short. Arms flailing, the man fought to catch his balance on the lip of the ledge, but the slippery snow and gusting wind were against him. With a strangled scream, he fell backward and disappeared into the chasm.
    It took a moment or two for Arianna to climb to her husband’s side.
    “Damn, damn, damn,” he repeated in frustration. “Damn the fellow for breaking his bloody neck.”
    “They might have been naught but thieves, hoping to prey on prosperous travelers heading north for the holidays.” Even to her own ears, the suggestion sounded hollow.
    “We deliberately chose a route that avoided the main roads,” he replied tersely. Despite the cold, he stripped off his coat. Tiny tendrils of steam licked up as the flakes swirled, white against white, and melted on his sweat-dampened shirt.
    “Sandro,” she began, eyeing the treacherous fall of jagged rocks leading down to the body. Already a thin scrim of ice was glazing the surfaces. “It’s not worth the risk of a broken leg.” Or worse.
    “On the contrary, we can’t afford to overlook any clue.” Finding a handhold in the fissured stones, Saybrook started to descend. “Having a medical man as a traveling companion does have its benefits,” he quipped over the chuffing of the wind. Henning was a skilled surgeon whose ministrations had saved the earl’s leg from amputation during the war. “God knows, his ill-tempered mood has so far provided precious little comfort. But at least he can tend to any bodily injuries.”
    His friend, who had finally managed to scramble up the slippery stones, huffed a harried gasp as he bent over and braced his hands on his knees. “I have bloody good reason to be in a foul humor,” he retorted, once he had caught his breath. “Being friends with you has a habit of leading into some very nasty situations, laddie. We haven’t even crossed the border and already some unknown enemy is trying to kill us.”
    “Let us not jump to conclusions,” said Arianna. She winced on seeing a sliver of granite break off beneath Saybrook’s boot. “As I said, this may be a case of simple robbery.”
    Henning answered with a low snort. “Nothing concerning you two is ever simple.”
    True. Unfortunately, the surgeon’s words were not mere hyperbole.
    “Oh, Basil, I’m sorry you’ve been dragged into yet another viper’s coil,” she said softly. “I shouldn’t have taunted—”
    He cut off the apology with a brusque wave. “Auch, in truth, it’s me who’s to blame for this present predicament, and I damn well know it.” A puff of pale vapor swirled as he exhaled another short, sharp breath. Turning abruptly, he crouched down and peered over the ledge.
    “Find anything?” he called to the earl.
    “Nothing in his pockets, save for this,” answered Saybrook. A leather purse arced out of the gloom and landed at the surgeon’s feet with a muffled thud.
    Henning undid the drawstrings and peeked inside. “How gratifying to see that our hides were worth gold instead of silver.”
    “Any clues offered by the man’s clothing?” asked Arianna, shivering as the melting snow started to trickle beneath the upturned collar of her

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