Read The Sinner for Free Online

one who had lived a wasted and barren life.
    She might have told him about that. About the loneliness and emptiness. About her plans to find some fulfillment through her Grand Project. She came near to doing so. The ease with which they spoke encouraged confidences. But their few hours of friendship were too short. Sounds on the lane in mid-afternoon heralded their end.
    Dante went to the window as commotion filled the clearing outside.
    “This should be interesting,” he said as he slid on his frock coat. “It was a dead heat. Both Charl and Farthingstone have arrived together.”
    Her peace disappeared in an instant. “I will come down. Please, help me up.”
    “If you insist on coming, I will carry you.” He lifted her into his arms.
    She began to object, but it felt very safe and secure to be nestled in his arms. She realized with a start that she had embraced no person since her mother’s death, and no man for over ten years.
    He bore her down the steps. Their visitors had just entered the sitting room, arguing.
    His younger sister, Charlotte, her dark hair a little disheveled and her pert face most distraught, fretted beside the darkly handsome Daniel St. John. Gregory’s aging, freckled face turned pink with consternation while he queried them on their sudden arrival.
    Dante’s boot on the bottom step caught Gregory in mid-bluster and everyone turned in surprise. More horses were arriving outside.
    “No need to put her down, Duclairc. You can just carry her out to my coach,” Farthingstone ordered.
    Dante set Fleur’s sore rump carefully down in a chair.
    “See here—” Farthingstone began.
    “No,
you
see here. Charl, I thank you for coming. Miss Monley is injured, and in need of both care and sanctuary. Whatever else happens, St. John, I ask you to promise that you will not allow Farthingstone to take her away.”
    St. John made a slight bow in Fleur’s direction. “We met many years ago, Miss Monley, here at Laclere Park.”
    “I remember. Thank you for interrupting your visit to Brighton.”
    Charlotte hurried over to her. “Fleur, what are you doing here? I thought that you were touring the Continent. You are injured? What has happened?”
    “She was grazed by a bullet,” Dante said.
    “Grazed . . . she was shot? Where?”
    “Actually, in the rear nether region.”
    Charlotte blinked. “In the rear nether . . . you mean that she was shot in the . . . oh, my.”
    Gregory’s face had gone red beneath his white hair. “How she was wounded needs investigation, but one thing is clear. Duclairc kept her here so that he could compromise her.”
    “Dante, you didn’t! Not Fleur
too
! Vergil will have apoplexy.”
    “His plot is obvious,” Farthingstone sneered. His bulbous nose made the expression more comical than disdainful. “However, it will not work, sir. There’re men outside wanting to see you, and my stepdaughter is not in her right mind and cannot be held responsible for your dishonorable use of her. I will take care of her now.”
    “My honor is my business and not Mr. Farthingstone’s,” Fleur said, ignoring Gregory and speaking to Charlotte and St. John, who were her only hopes. “Your brother has seen to my care and protected me. I beg you to hear him, and to refuse Mr. Farthingstone his demands. He has no legal rights to me. I will not go with him of my own will.”
    The door stood open. Two large, rough-looking men darkened its threshold.
    “Ah, our salon is complete,” Dante observed. “Would you be Mr. Thompson’s bailiffs?”
    “Aye,” one mumbled. “You be coming with us nice and easy now, Mr. Duclairc. Don’t want no trouble.”
    “No trouble at all, I promise. Can I ask how you found me?”
    “Word came up to London during the night. We rode hard and it will be a long ways back, so let’s be going.”
    “Dante, now what is
this
?” Charlotte cried.
    “Destiny, sweet sister.”
    He turned to St. John. “I leave Miss Monley in your protection. She should