Read All About Love for Free Online Page A

kept her expression blank, her tone direct.
    He opened his eyes wide; innocence wasn’t what she saw in them. “Shouldn’t you check my wound?”
    “Your wound needs nothing more than time to heal.” No power on earth would get her closer to the bed—closer to him. Phyllida frowned, and held tight to her role. She was in charge, not he. “Papa would like you to join us for afternoon tea, if you’re able.”
    His smile made her nerves tingle. “I’m able.”
    “Good.” She turned to the door. “I’ll have your bags brought up—as a precaution, we left them downstairs.”
    “Precaution?”
    “Why, yes.” Reaching the door, she looked back. “We kept your clothes from you in case you turned difficult over remaining abed.”
    His lips curved; his eyes glinted. The combination looked positively wicked. “Lying abed is one of my favorite pastimes. However, if I’d wanted to get up, the mere absence of clothes wouldn’t have deterred me.” His gaze slid over her; his voice deepened. “Not in the least.”
    Gripping the doorknob, Phyllida met his gaze blankly and prayed she wasn’t blushing. “I’ll let Papa know you’ll be joining us later. Your name?”
    His untrustworthy smile deepened. “Lucifer.”
    Phyllida stared at him; even with the width of the room separating them, all her instincts were screaming, warning her not to call his bluff. Any of his bluffs.
    Some part of her knew he wasn’t the sort who bluffed.
    It went seriously against her grain to let him trifle with her and escape retribution, but arguing would simply be playing into his hands. She forced herself to incline her head and evenly state, “Sweetie—Miss Sweet—will return shortly. She’ll take away your tray.”
    On that note, she opened the door; with a regal nod, she left.
    Later, after he’d bathed and dressed, Lucifer sat on the window seat in his bedchamber and looked north, over a dense wood. Through the shifting canopies he could occasionally glimpse the gray slate roof of the Manor.
    Gaze fixed, he thought of Horatio, and of Martha, and of what he should do next, how best to move forward. Horatio’s death was an accepted fact in his mind, but the tale had only just begun.
    It was quiet beyond the open window. The snoozy quality of a summer’s afternoon blanketed the village, yet somewhere in that peace a murderer waited, and watched and worried. Horatio’s death had not been neat. Not only had he, Lucifer, stumbled on the scene far too soon, but so, too, had Phyllida Tallent.
    Lucifer pondered that last, and all that it might mean.
    A knock interrupted his reverie. He faced the door, keen to see if intuition proved correct. “Come in.”
    Phyllida entered; he smiled in private triumph. Retreating earlier and leaving the field to him must have been difficult; despite her wariness, he’d predicted she wouldn’t stay away. She glanced around the room, then discovered him. She hesitated, then, leaving the door wide, crossed toward him. Frowning, she studied his face, his eyes. He let her draw near before smoothly rising—no sudden movements.
    Her lovely eyes widened. She immediately halted. “Ah . . .” From four feet away, she stared up at him, her expression a telltale blank. Her gaze drifted, passing over him, then she wrenched it back to his face. And caught him returning the favor. Her eyes snapped even as her expression smoothed to impassivity. “Are you sure you’ve recovered enough to join us downstairs?”
    He continued to smile, relishing her resistance. “I’m quite recovered enough to brave a drawing room.” The frown in her eyes deepened; he added, “My head only aches—it no longer throbs.”
    “Well . . .” She searched his eyes once more. “I’m afraid my aunt and cousins have arrived for the summer, and, of course, they’re agog to meet you. You must promise you won’t overtax yourself.”
    Fussing was not something he readily endured, yet the idea that she’d elected herself his