Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle by Bronwyn Scott Read Free Book Online Page A

substandard materials and after a year or two have the building succumb to an 'accidental' fire. He and the other investors would be waiting to claim the insurance money. The scheme would never come to pass if Nora could prevent it.
    'I wish I could have seen his face the next morning, don't you, Hattie?'
    'No, I don't,' Hattie said briskly, gathering up the tea things.
    was furious then and he's still furious. You've made an enemy of a very dangerous man. The Cat might be succeeding, but the risk is going up. It's not just the investors who are angry now. Some of our own wealthier residents are disappointed too, like the Squire. The news is that they mean to redouble their efforts to catch The Cat. They're convinced as soon as The Cat is caught, the additional investors will come.
    'It might be for the best that no one knows you raided Stockport's. It would put them over the edge. I fear we're out of our depth here. We've never gone up against a man like Stockport before. He's not one to be trifled with,' Hattie fretted.

    Scott
    45
    Nora covered Hattie's hand with her own, hearing the unspoken plea in the woman's scolding. 'I won't get caught.
    You and Alfred taught me to be a good thief. Eleanor Habersham has to go into Manchester tomorrow to conduct business.
    take a look at the situation first hand, if it will make you feel better. Alice Bradley and her daughters are going into the city tomorrow too for shopping and they've offered Eleanor a ride. Alfred can take a note up to Wildflowers in the morning to say I'll join them.'
    Hattie looked at her with concerned eyes and Nora braced herself. 'These days I wonder if I should have taught you to be something else. Maybe then you'd be settled with a home, children and a husband. You're only six and twenty. It's not too late for you to have a real life, Nora.'
    'It is too late. This is my real life. I made that choice a long time ago, Hattie. Besides, if you recall, I tried marriage once and found it sorely
    I discovered men are highly exag-
    gerated commodities, both in and out of bed.' Even as she said it, her thoughts wondered back to Stockport, his ardent his
    firm body and the stack of papers on his desk. Perhaps there was an exception to be had. She had to be careful not to overrate him. One good act and a handsome face did not dismiss the reason he was here. She had made that mistake with her brief marriage to the handsome but incurably lazy Reggie when she was seventeen. Well, she wasn't that impressionable any more thanks to the two years of disappointments that had followed.
    Nora said goodnight to her long-time comrade and made her way to bed, her mind plagued with the new information she'd discovered that evening. She wished she knew more about Stockport's motivations for siding with the Reform Act.
    It seemed an odd position for a man of his rank to take. If successful, the Reform Act would redistribute the seats in the House of Commons and lower electoral qualifications, making

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    Pickpocket Countess
    it possible for much of the middle class to vote. The House of Lords would be weakened considerably. She had yet to meet a peer who would willingly give away legal power. Yet tonight, it seemed she had.
    She couldn't help concluding The Cat wasn't the only one who wore a mask. Stockport was becoming a conundrum and riddles intrigued her. The reputed Cock of the North was more than a well-dressed womaniser. This evening, he'd shown himself to be a politician, who had unusual convictions for a man of his rank and experience.
    The Cat had pierced his outer shield with her Stripping
    away the rest of his urbane
    and revealing the man
    beneath was a scintillating concept to fall asleep on, leaving Nora with jumbled dreams of a hard-chested man rousing to her touch wearing little else but tight-fitted trousers and a mask that kept eluding her when she reached to untie it.

    Four
    Eleanor Habersham stepped down from Squire Bradley's covered
    in front of the Blue Boar