Free Sins of a Wicked Princess by Anna Randol Page A

rescheduled.”
    “Sommet won’t be surprised when you show up early?”
    “His house party has already begun. But I delayed going because I want to spend as little time with the man as possible.”
    Ian had never been one to talk anyone out of anything. To each rat its own hole. But he found he couldn’t let Jules traipse into that house. “Sommet is dangerous. He just ordered my death. You may wish to rethink trying to steal from him. It won’t be easy.”
    “Do you truly think that will sway me?” She stalked toward him. “How did you get it in your head that my life has been easy?” She stopped inches from him.
    Despite the crease along one cheek from her pillow, he still had to fight the urge to retreat.
    “You of all people should know. I was twelve when your friends toppled my country. When the people they stirred up into a riot stormed the palace and shot my mother and father.”
    Ian had thought nothing of the death of another king and queen. But now— No. He wasn’t about to become all maudlin and regretful. He’d done what he’d been ordered to do.
    But he’d hurt Juliana .
    That knowledge was fresh and new. And it burned as if someone had taken a hot poker to his gut.
    “The only reason they didn’t murder me and my brother was that they’d already set the palace on fire, and they feared for their own necks.” She paused to suck in a deep breath.
    Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes practically blazing. Someone should hang him for even daring to be in her presence.
    “You may have been a spy, but I’ve spent the last twelve years ruling an entire country from half a continent away while everyone around me tries to wrest it away. So don’t you dare speak to me about difficult.”
    He wanted to pull her to him. He wanted to curse her for this stranglehold she’d somehow placed on him, lashing him to her.
    Instead, he applauded slowly.
    The fire drained out of her, but rather than leaving her fragile, it left her tempered steel. “Sommet may have threatened your friends, but he has threatened my family and my kingdom. I will stop him.”
    He should walk away now. He could find out what blasted things she needed from Sommet and retrieve them himself. He didn’t need her to get into Sommet’s house. He’d breached far more secure strongholds.
    Yet somehow, no matter his assurances of help, he doubted he’d be able to convince her to stay away. And if he couldn’t keep her from danger, he was damned well going to keep close.
    He bowed smartly like the servant he was about to become. “You have yourself a new footman.”

Chapter Thirteen
    I an couldn’t risk any of his normal haunts tonight. All of them were in places infested with blighters, letches, and muckworms.
    And tonight if one of them tried to off him, he feared he’d retaliate in a rather gruesome manner.
    And he was too tired for gruesome.
    He found himself back at his rooms at The Albany. Yet he hesitated at the door. Damned interfering butler. Keeping a man from his own bed.
    Feeling rather disgusted with himself, Ian opened the door and barely ducked in time to avoid a fireplace poker aimed at his head.
    He rolled away and jumped to his feet, ready to defend himself. But a second blow never came.
    “Ah, it is you, sir.”
    “How many of the hotel staff have you murdered, old man?”
    Canterbury was dressed in a lavender banyan with a matching cream and lavender nightcap that now hung slightly askew on his head. “None, sir. They do not linger in a nefarious manner, sir.”
    “You could have killed me.” Perhaps he should tell Canterbury about the reward. That way if he succeeded next time, someone would benefit.
    “Then perhaps, sir, you shouldn’t give me reason to worry over who might be looking for you.”
    This was what came of having a butler who’d known him since he wore nappies. “I’m going to bed.”
    “Impossible, sir. There is a girl in your bed. A child by the name of Apple. She claimed you sent