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"Then give your father my thanks But I will respectfully decline"

"Why?"

"I’ the coast Difficult to do that from a mile inland"

"But my lord, you do understand this militia business is all for show? My father’s not truly concerned about an invasion"

"Perhaps he should be" He glanced at his cousin, as currently snapping dead branches from an ivy-covered wall With a tilt of his head, Rycliff drew her aside "Miss Finch, it’s not wise for officers to quarter in the saentlewoman Have a care for your reputation, if your father does not"

"Have a care for h Then she lowered her voice "This, from the man who flattened me in the road and kissed me without leave?"

"Precisely" His eyes darkened

Hiswashed over her in a wave of hot, sensual awareness Surely he wasn’t i at all Those hard jade eyes were giving her a straightforward ht flex of his erous as you suppose If not more so

"Take your kind invitation and run home with it When soldiers and s happen And if you happened to find yourself under aze raked her body "You wouldn’t escape so easily"

She gasped "You are a beast"

"Just a man, Miss Finch Just aout for Miss Finch’s safety as he watched her picking her way down the rocky slope He told hiure in retreat, the way her curves gave a saucy little bounce with each doard step

He would dreaht How they’d felt trapped beneath hione as planned By this tihton Barracks, preparing to leave for Portugal and rejoin the war Instead, he wasan earl, suddenly Stuck at this ruined castle, having pledged to undertake thenursery school And to ued with lust for a woman he couldn’t have Couldn’t even touch, if he ever wanted his command back

As if he sensed Bra?"

"Only that you’ve been played for a greater fool than you realize Didn’t you hear them earlier? This is Spindle Cove, Bra that like I should know the naet around to the clubs Allow hten you Spindle Cove--or Spinster Cove, as we call it--is a seaside holiday village Good fahters here for the restorative sea air Or whenever they don’t knohat else to do with them My friend Carstairs sent his sister here last surew too fond of the stable boy"

"And so?"

"And so, your little militia plan? Doohters and wards here because it’s safe It’s safe because there are no men That’s why they call it Spinster Cove"

"There have to be e with no men"

"Well, there may be a few servants and trades and a couple of currants dangling between his legs But there aren’t any real men Carstairs told us all about it He couldn’t believe what he found when he came to fetch his sister The wo attention He focused his gaze to catch the last gliure receded into the distance She was like a sunset all to herself, her low as she sank beneath the bluff’s horizon Fiery Brilliant When she disappeared, he felt instantly cooler

And then, only then, did he turn to his yaet out of here, Bram Before they take our bollocks and use them for pincushions"

Braainst it, resting his knee Damn, that climb had been steep "Letthigh under the guise of brushing off loose dirt "You’re suggesting we leave because the village is full of spinsters? Since when do you complain about an excess of women?"

"These are not your normal spinsters They’rethey’re unbiddable And excessively educated"

"Oh Frightening, indeed I’ll stand e, but an educated spinster is so different entirely"

"You mock me now Just you wait You’ll see, these women are a breed unto themselves"

"The women aren’t my concern"

Save for one woe She lived at Suhter, and she was absolutely off limits--no matter how he suspected Miss Finch would beco res Bram knew clever women always made the best lovers He especially appreciated a wo of the world beyond fashion and the theater For hi to Miss Finch expound on the weakened state of Napoleon’s ar to a courtesan read aloud fro beyond h inevitable-- her naked All that luminous hair and milky skin, tumbled on crisp white sheets

To disrupt the erotic chain of thought, he pressed hard against the knottedhaze of desire

He pulled the flask fro shiskey "The women aren’t my concern," he repeated "I’m here to train the local men And there are men here, somewhere Fishermen, farmers, tradesmen, servants If what you say is correct, and they’re outnuer for a chance to flex their muscles, prove theateway and was relieved to see the wagons approaching He couldn’t rehts when there ork to be done Pitching tents, watering and feeding the horses, building a fire