Free Taken by the Earl (Regency Unlaced 3) by Carole Mortimer

common practice for the French, as a way of extracting information.”
    Fliss had no doubt they had been unable to make this stubborn Scot betray king or country, even if that country was his mother’s rather than his father’s.
    Sin pulled his shirt on over his head, hiding the scars from her view. “Stay here.”
    “Where are you going?” Fliss scrambled to her feet beside him, still deeply disturbed by those terrible scars on his back.
    “I may be able to get a glimpse of the two men before they reach the house—”
    “No!” She grasped his arm with both hands. “Sin, you cannot. You must not. He—they might try to kill you.”
    “I believe they were looking for you, not me.” Sin narrowed his gaze on her. “What else have you been doing today, besides sneaking down to the kitchen and bringing me food?”
    She released his arm, her gaze no longer meeting his. “I was only trying to help. I was not alone for any length of time with any of the gentlemen. Well, perhaps Lord Sterling during our picnic, and Mr. Archibald Greaves, but—”
    “Enough!” Sin’s voice was dangerously soft. He did not feel an ounce of remorse as he saw Fliss flinch. “We will talk about this again when I return.” He moved to the stable door. “For now, you will stay here, and I will see if I recognize either of the men who just left.”  
    Fliss began to tremble as she waited for Sin’s return in the gloom of the stable. Long, tense minutes when she had no idea what was going on outside in the darkness. Sin was a large man, and obviously more than capable of taking care of himself, but he was up against two men, not one.
    As for his threat to chastise her once he returned, she welcomed it, because at least it would mean he had returned.
    Her heart stuttered, her breath held a prisoner in her throat as she heard the catch opening on the outside of the stable door and it slowly opened.
    Her knees almost buckled in relief when she saw it was Sin who had quietly entered, his gaze narrowed to a pale glitter as he strode purposefully toward her.
    Fliss backed up against one of the stalls as she recalled his earlier threat. “Did you manage to see them?”
    “No.” He kept on walking until he stood directly in front of her. “You went for a picnic today with Lord Sterling?”
    “Yes. But—”
    “What other gentlemen did you spend time with?”
    “I believe I conversed with several. I do not remember all their names,” she said defensively as he glared down at her.
    “Try.”
    “I only wanted to see if I recognized the voice of the man in the Woodrows’ library.”
    “And did you?”
    She shuddered. “Not until a few minutes ago, no.”
    “You’re sure that was him?”
    “Oh yes.”
    His jaw tightened. “He was looking for you.”
    “I cannot imagine why.” She really couldn’t. There had been ribald games late this afternoon in the drawing room, but Fliss had managed to avoid being involved in them by spending an hour or so in the hothouse at the back of the manor with Mr. Archibald Greaves. He was an amateur botanist, so it had been easy to distract him from seduction in favor of telling her what the plants were and where they came from. Sadly, she had not detected any sense of similarity between him and the man who was here to kill Sin.
    “No?” A nerve pulsed in the earl’s jaw. His hands clenched at his sides.
    “No.”  
    “You were seen strolling in the garden with me this morning,” he reminded her.
    “And I was seen picnicking with Lord Sterling at luncheon. Spent an hour or so discussing the beauty of Kent with Sir Reginald Sutcliffe this afternoon. Conversed with Lord Mitchell at tea. Allowed Mr. Archibald Greaves to show me the hothouse after tea. Was seated next to Lord Waverly at dinner—”
    “You are an impetuous, disobedient— Did I nae tell ye I wanted ye to stay safe in yer room today?”
    Fliss’s eyes widened as Sin lost his smooth, unaccented baritone and instead lapsed into a