Ruthless Charmer by Julia London Read Free Book Online

Valerie cowering behind her. But didn't you think the child would be frightened when Eugenie pretended to be a ghost? Claudia's pert little nose had wrinkled at that and she had stolen a glance at her partner in crime.
I
didn't think she was very scary a'tall. I thought she should have made some noises.
    "It was frightening enough for an eight-year-old. Sophie slept in my bed for three nights before I finally convinced her it was Eugenie underneath that linen."
    With a sheepish smile, Claudia dropped her gaze; thick, chocolate lashes dusted her cheeks. "I suppose we might have been a bit careless," she admitted, "but that doesn't mean you weren't terribly rigid."
    "What, rigid again?"
    "I rather imagine old Tinley had to screw your boots on every morning."
    Julian smiled broadly. "Is that so? Then what have you to say about the ponies?"
    "Oh! That was hardly my fault!" Claudia insisted with an indignant gasp. "What of Genie? Why is it that you don't recall her wretched behavior?"
    "My dear Eugenie was a veritable saint. And I suppose the disaster with the rabbits was hardly your doing, either?"
    She threw up her hand, palm outward. "On my honor, that was most assuredly Genie."
    Julian laughed for the first time in weeks, a laugh that started somewhere deep in his belly and twirled about his heart before escaping him. "You were a willful child, and it is a wonder to me that Redbourne didn't lock you up in some convent."
    Her smile brightened considerably. Lord, but her eyes were arresting. Julian lowered his goblet and looked about the room as he gathered his composure. "What brings you to France?" he asked. "I had heard you were nettling poor Lord Dillbey to draft a parliamentary bill that would allow labor organizations for women and children."
    Color crept into Claudia's fair cheeks and she sobered somewhat. "Is that such a horrible thing? Men have them. There is talk in France of allowing them for women."
    "And exactly how would you know that? As you can scarcely speak French, I rather doubt you can read it."
    That earned him a saucy grin. "Why, Lord Kettering! There are other ways of communicating—one does not necessarily have to speak French."
    Oh, yes, he could only imagine that was true. "I suppose your considerable charms were enough to convince Dillbey?"
    With a rather unladylike snort, Claudia shook her head. "The king could not convince Dillbey! That man is impossible! Rather pleased with himself, if you ask me, and fancies the rest of us should be just as pleased. . . ."
    Lord Dillbey was, apparently, often on Claudia's mind, as she spent the better part of the next quarter of an hour detailing his many idiosyncrasies, not the least of which was his apparent disregard for womankind in general. That was not entirely true—Dillbey was a regular customer at Madame Farantino's, a rather expensive and clandestine gentlemen's club—but he was rather odious. Although not as odious as Claudia found him, and Julian was terribly amused by her description of his long, thin neck and peculiar walk as resembling an ostrich all dressed up for Christmas.
    The more she talked of Dillbey and her causes, the more she seemed to relax. He would have thought it impossible, but Julian grew increasingly enchanted. The aloofness he had suffered from her at Chateau la Claire seemed to dissipate altogether, and it was easy to see why Claudia was so popular among the ton's eligible bachelors. She had a dozen ways of smiling that made a man feel as if he was on top of the world. When her eyes glittered with amusement, that same man could not help but wonder how they might glitter in the tumult of love-making.
    God Almighty, was there nothing he could do to steel his heart against this impertinent, charming, stubborn, and beautiful woman?
    Phillip never had her.
    He was ashamed to think it, but the knowledge kept creeping into his thoughts, unwanted, unfounded. Yet Julian was glad for it. He wanted the privilege of holding her, of making