Shadow Dance by Anne Stuart Read Free Book Online Page A

weren’t for her presence here, you’d be far more amenable to leaving.”
    Valerian smiled ruefully. Phelan knew him far too well for him to deny it. “She’s not my bluestocking,” he said instead. “Her name’s Sophie, remember? And if I don’t have something to distract me from these damnable skirts, I’ll end up strangling someone, and they’ll hang me for that murder, and all this will have been for nothing.”
    “It depends on whom you’d strangle,” Phelan said with a ghost of a smile.
    “I wish your mother were within arm’s reach,” Val grumbled.
    “I’m not certain I blame you.”
    “I’m only looking for a little distraction, Phelan. You don’t have to worry that I’ll be indiscreet. And for all that Miss de Quincey has a lively, intelligent mind, she’s also quite naive. She probably wouldn’t realize I’m a man if I stripped to the buff to convince her.”
    “And I can count on you not putting it to the test, can’t I?” Phelan said mildly enough.
    Val gave him a bewitching smile. “As much as you trust yourself with your little waif, brother mine.” He scooped up a lace shawl and draped it artfully around his arms, disguising some of the muscled strength. “Don’t expect me back at any particular time. I’m hoping to be invited to the de Quinceys’ for dinner.”
    “Have a care, Val,” Phelan warned in a somber voice.
    “I always do,” Val replied, striding toward the door, at the last moment remembering to moderate his walk to a more discreet pace.
    Phelan’s only response was a disbelieving smile.
    Miss Sophie de Quincey, beloved and only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Percival de Quincey, was not in the best of moods. The latest novel by Mrs. Radcliffe was a dead bore; her bosom bow, Miss Prunella Styles, had decided to be totally tedious and fall in love with a very handsome young man of her parents’ choosing; and even the weather refused to cooperate. It was raining this morning, a cold, soaking rain, when she most particularly wanted to go for a solitary stroll on the beach and daydream about pirates. She sat in the window seat of the library in her family’s home on the outskirts of Hampton Regis and stared out at the rain disconsolately.
    Sophie was in general a sweet-tempered girl, a little toosmart and a little too pretty for her own good, but with a generous heart. Today, however, she felt like an absolute fishwife, and only the knowledge that the sophisticated and fascinating Mrs. Ramsey had presented her card enabled Sophie to rouse herself from an incipient fit of sulks.
    She’d never been one for crushes on older women, unlike Prunella or her other schoolmates, but there was something about Valerie Ramsey that absolutely enthralled Sophie. Perhaps it was the way she carried herself, as if she had no nagging self-doubts, her creamy white shoulders thrown back, her strong chin thrust forward, her silky blond hair tied back in a casual bundle of curls. Perhaps it was the deep drawl in her voice, or the unexpected strength one suspected lay beneath her overlarge hands. She was a woman who hadn’t been enslaved by the rigors of marriage, a woman with a mind and a will of her own, and Sophie wanted to be just like her.
    “Mrs. Ramsey,” she cried, rising from the window seat and rushing across the room to embrace the tall woman. She kissed the air beside Mrs. Ramsey’s cheek, and found herself caught in those strong hands as she smiled shyly up at her new friend. “I was about to die from boredom, and here you’ve come to save me!”
    “Surely not,” Mrs. Ramsey said in her husky voice. “A young girl with your intellect could never be bored. What’s wrong with all the young men in this town, that you have to sit alone on a rainy day?”
    “I’m not interested in young men,” Sophie said frankly. “I’d much rather spend my time with an intelligent woman like you.”
    A faint smile played around her companion’s well-molded lips. “Would you, now? I