Mischief by Amanda Quick Read Free Book Online Page A

you by playing the role that you have assigned to me?”
    She eyed him uncertainly. “You refuse to keep your promise to my uncle?”
    “Miss Waterstone, the promise I made to Selwyn was rather vague in nature. It is open to interpretation, and since I made the promise, I shall interpret it.”
    “Hmm.” She put her hands on her hips and began to tap her toe. “You intend to default on your promise, do you not?”
    “No. I always keep my promises, Miss Waterstone, and this one will be no exception.” Matthias realized he was growing angry. “I have concluded that the best way I can repay my debt to your uncle, however, is to keep you out of dangerous mischief.”
    “I warn you, sir, you may refuse to aid me, but you cannot stop me from carrying out my plan. I will admit that your support would be invaluable, but I am certain that I can attract Vanneck’s attention without you.”
    “Is that so?” Matthias took a step into the chamber. “And just how will you do that, Miss Waterstone? Will you meet him in a private bedchamber again as you did three years ago? I must admit, such an offer will no doubt capture his interest.”
    Imogen looked dumbfounded for an instant. Then outrage lit her eyes. “How dare you, sir?”
    Chagrin lanced through Matthias. He suppressed it. The ends justified the means in this case, he assured himself. He clamped his teeth together. “I apologize for bringing up the incident, Miss Waterstone.”
    “As well you should.”
    “But,” he continued relentlessly, “I fail to see how either of us can ignore the past. Facts are facts. If Vanneck seduced you once, he will surely attempt to do so again. And unless you intend to use your very charming person to lure him into your plot—”
    “
Bloody hell
. Vanneck did not seduce me three years ago, sir. He compromised me. There is a vast difference.”
    “There is?”
    “One is reality, the other is merely a matter of appearances.” Imogen sniffed disdainfully. “I would have thought that a man of your intelligence would have been able to detect the essential distinction between the two.”
    Matthias’s temper flared without warning. “Very well, split hairs, if you will. It changes nothing. The problem remains. You are not going to find it easy to handle a man of Vanneck’s nature.”
    “I assure you, I can and will handle him. But I am beginning to think that you are correct in one regard, sir. Perhaps I do not require your services. When I initially formed my plan, I thought you would be extremely useful, but now I begin to wonder if you might prove more of a hindrance than a help.”
    For some reason that Matthias could not fathom, Imogen’s scathing retort served only to further fan the flames of his anger. “Indeed?”
    “Obviously you are not the man I had believed you to be, my lord.”
    “Hell and damnation. Just what sort of man did you believe me to be?”
    “I had assumed, incorrectly it seems, that you were a man of action, the sort of man who does not flinch from danger. A man capable of going forth into adventure without a second’s hesitation.”
    “Where did you gain that peculiar notion?”
    “From your articles on ancient Zamar. I concluded from the thrilling accounts of your travels and explorations that you had actually lived through those adventures.” She gave him a scornful smile. “Perhaps I was mistaken.”
    “Miss Waterstone, are you implying that I base my articles on secondhand researches, as that damnable I. A. Stone does?”
    “I. A. Stone is entirely honest about the sources of
his
information, sir. He does not claim to have observed firsthand all that he writes about. You do. You pass yourself off as a man of action, but now it seems that you are not that sort of man at all.”
    “I do not pass myself off as anything but what I am, you exasperating little—”
    “Apparently you write fiction rather than fact, sir. Bad enough that I thought you to be a clever, resourceful gentleman