Elusive Passion by Kathryn Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

fool of herself,” he informed her, his voice hoarse.
    The expression on Varya’s face told him she disagreed, but there was a glimmer of admiration in her eyes. Miles did not want her admiration.
    “How did you know to find me in Covent Garden?”
    Her chin rose a notch. “When I began to suspect you I had men watch your house. When I received word that you were in residence—”
    “So you believe that I was truly out of town until last week?”
    Cold blue eyes met his. “I believe no such thing, Lord Wynter. I know nothing of your whereabouts when Bella was killed— yet . All I know is that for the past week, you’ve been keeping very strange hours, hanging about the seedier parts of town. The night I found you, my man had overheard you giving directions to your hired coachman. He reported back to me and I followed.”
    “And ruined a very important investigation I was working on, mind you!” Anger tingled along Miles’s skin, shivered in his rising voice.
    She shrugged. It mattered nothing to her that the thieves had been given an extra day to brutalize their victims. The only thing the chit cared about was her completely erroneous conclusion.
    “I wanted to catch you off guard, force you to confess.”
    “That’s all very well and good,” Miles drawled, unable to curb his caustic tone. “But why would I confess to something I didn’t do? And what did you plan to do? Shoot me if I did confess? Good Lord, woman! Do you know nothing of gathering evidence, of building a case? You have nothing but your own anger and need for vengeance against me. Give me one reason why I could have killed Bella.”
    “Because she was hounding you and you were afraid your precious family and friends would find out how horribly you treated her!”
    Miles was shocked. He’d never treated a woman badly in his life—except for Charlotte…But now wasn’t the time to think of his long-dead wife.
    “I’m sorry to tell you this, Miss Varya, but my precious family and friends knew about my relationship with Bella. I certainly never discussed her with them, but there are no secrets in London.”
    Her face fell and Miles was sorry for her. Her loyalty to Bella, her determination to avenge her friend were touching and downright admirable.
    “I didn’t kill her.”
    The softness of her countenance disappeared, hardening once again into a cold mask.
    “A man killed my dearest friend, Lord Wynter. And until you can prove your innocence, you are still a suspect.”
    Prove his innocence? Did this lunatic know whom she was speaking to? He was a marquess, a peer of the realm. He didn’t have to prove anything!
    “And I suppose that it never crossed your mind that a woman might have killed her?” he asked. Certainly a jealous wife could have done the deed, or hired someone else to do it. Since he hadn’t seen the marks on Bella’s neck himself, he refused to believe Varya’s conviction that the murderer had been one of Bella’s lovers.
    Varya shook her head. The movement loosened a lock of hair from her delicate coiffure and sent it tumbling down around her shoulder like an ebony ribbon. Miles wondered what her reaction might be if he were suddenly to reach out and touch it.
    Touching her would be as wise as stroking a lion.
    “No. It was a man.”
    “And what makes you so certain?” He tore his gaze away from that shining lock of hair and met her determined gaze.
    “Because she was dressed to receive a gentleman caller. She was wearing one of her negligées—a silver one with pearl buttons.”
    He waved away her deduction with a flick of his wrist. “She wore that often.” At least for him she had. He had given it to her. The idea that Bella might have worn it for someone else was oddly provoking. “It means nothing.”
    Varya smiled ruefully, with a hint of smugness. “Perhaps it means little to you , Lord Wynter, as you were her lover and no doubt saw her in many peignoirs—and less—but I was her friend and I know