In the Heart of the Highlander by Maggie Robinson Read Free Book Online Page A

with anyone else we can round up.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Saturday night. Cards. Drinks,” Oliver said, enunciating as if she were deaf.
    “You are having a p-party?”
    “What we’ll be having are witnesses. You invite Bauer to your room, then scream a little and young Oliver here will burst in through the connecting door to save you.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Mary said. “Surely Dr. Bauer wouldn’t attempt a liaison with a roomful of gentlemen next door.”
    “Nothing would fuel his lust more, to have you helpless and at his mercy. He’d never think you’ll raise your voice to object. The girls he victimizes are too cowed to cry rape,” Lord Raeburn said with bitterness.
    Mary faltered. “H-he’s a
rapist
?”
    Lord Raeburn flushed. “Nae. They’re willing enough. Needy poor wee things. He sweet-talks them until they can’t think straight, then turns around and asks for money so he won’t talk anymore. All he has to do is threaten to diagnose them as hysterical—as nymphomaniacs—and their families will lock them up with no hope of hotels or anything else in their futures. He’ll say
they
made advances to
him.
Either way, he makes money.”
    “Bastard,” Oliver spat.
    “Mind your language,” Aunt Mim said, “though I quite agree. Mary, had I known the risks of all this, I would have put my foot down. This is no place for a sheltered young woman such as yourself.”
    Lord Raeburn’s head turned, eyebrows raised. “I was under the impression Miss Arden had some experience.”
    “Nothing prepares one for these precise circumstances,” Mary said quickly. She was not going to allow Aunt Mim to forbid her to go forward. It was only two days’ work, after all, and a hefty, nonrefundable fee even if she wasn’t successful. “I think we should coordinate the evening. It’s very possible I won’t be in any position to scream, you know.” She pictured Bauer’s long-fingered hands over her mouth and shuddered. “And if I do, you may not hear me if your new friends are drinking and playing cards with any sort of animation. The men we sat near tonight would not have heard a bomb go off at the next table, they were so foxed. We shall have to set a time for my ravishment.”
    “An excellent idea, Miss Arden. Though you will
not
be ravished.” Lord Raeburn was scowling precisely as he had in all those newspaper photographs.
    “My attempted ravishment, then. We will fix the hour amongst ourselves closer to Saturday evening—Dr. Bauer may not be available.”
    “Oh, trust me, he will cancel all engagements to ensure that he is and can best me. To seduce two of my women will be too tempting.”
    “I am not your woman, Lord Raeburn,” Mary said, not as firmly as she should have.
    “He doesn’t need to know that. Tomorrow I shall make a fool of myself over you.” He pantomimed a lover-like pose, thumping his hand to his chest. He’d better do more than that tomorrow and the next day—he looked like an imbecile.
    She raised an eyebrow. “I hope that won’t be too much of a hardship.”
    “Fishing for compliments, Miss Arden? You won’t get any until they count. I’ll be moonstruck enough in front of the guests at the hotel. All will believe I’ve fallen hopelessly in love.”
    Aunt Mim coughed. “If I might make another suggestion, Lord Raeburn. No one in their right mind would believe you to be a man who falls in love easily. In lust, yes. You have had that reputation since you were in short pants—or no pants, as the case may be.”
    Mary slapped her hand over her mouth. Aunt Mim always got to the heart of the matter.
    “Dr. Bauer will be much easier to play if you involve him in a wager—which one of you can breach Miss Arden’s defenses first? That will give you an excuse to find yourself in her company without attracting his suspicion. There need be no talk of love—you are still in mourning, are you not?”
    Lord Raeburn was so still Mary wondered if he was breathing.