When a Scot Loves a Lady (49 page)

Authors: Katharine Ashe

BOOK: When a Scot Loves a Lady

2.77Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Violet la Vile was Viola Carlyle, the girl he had set out from Devonshire twenty-two months earlier to find. The girl who, at the age of ten, had been abducted from a gentleman's home by an American smuggler. The girl all except her sister believed dead.

The brim of her hat rose slowly through the rain. A narrow chin came into view, then a scowling mouth, a slight, sun-touched nose, and finally a pair of squinting eyes, crinkled at the corners. They assessed Jin from toe to crown. A single brow lifted and her lips curved up at one side in a mocking salute.

“So this is the famed Jinan Seton I've heard so many stories of? The Pharaoh.” Her voice drawled like a sheet sliding through a well-oiled block. Thick lashes fanned down, then back up again, taking him in this time with a swift perusal. She wagged her head back and forth and her lower lip protruded. “Disappointing.”

Mattie made a choking sound.

Jin's eyes narrowed. “How do you know who I am?”

“Your crewmen. Boasting of you even as they were losing the fight.” A full-throated chortle came forth and she plunked her fists onto her hips and pivoted around to the sailors gathering about. “Lookee here, boys! The British navy sent its dirtiest pirate scum to haul me in.”

A cheer went up, huzzahs and whistles across deck. Seamen crowded closer with toothless grins and crackling guffaws, brandishing muskets and cutlasses high. She raised her hand and silence descended but for the whoosh of waves against the brig's hull and the patter of rain on canvas and wood. Her gaze slewed back to Jin, sharp as a tack.

“Guess I should be flattered, shouldn't I?” Her voice was like velvet. For a momentâa wholly unprecedented momentâJin's throat thickened. No woman should have a voice like that. Except in bed.

“Why did you sink my ship?” The steely edge he had learned as a lad came to his own voice without effort. “She was the fastest vessel on the Atlantic. What kind of privateer are you, putting a prize like that under water? She would have taken a fine price.”

She screwed up her brows.

“It's true, I could've kept her, Master Brit. Or sold her. But it was such fun seeing the mighty
Cavalier
go down, I couldn't resist.”

Red washed across Jin's vision. He tried to blink it away. His gut hurt. Damn and blast, he wanted a cutlass and pistol more than life at this moment. Or perhaps just a bottle of rum.

She smirked.

Two bottles
.

They said she was a fine sailor for a woman, but no one had ever said she was mad.

About the Author

KATHARINE ASHE
lives in the wonderfully warm Southeast with her husband, son, two dogs, and a garden she likes to call romantic rather than unkempt. A professor of European history, she has previously resided in California, Italy, France, and the northern U.S.

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Romances by
Katharine Ashe

W
HEN A
S
COT
L
OVES A
L
ADY
I
N THE
A
RMS OF A
M
ARQUESS
C
APTURED BY A
R
OGUE
L
ORD
S
WEPT
A
WAY BY A
K
ISS
A L
ADY'S
W
ISH

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Excerpt from
How to Be a Proper Lady
copyright Â© 2012 by Katharine Brophy Dubois

WHEN A SCOT LOVES A LADY.
Copyright Â© 2012 by Katharine Brophy Dubois. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780062030641

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062031662

FIRST EDITION

10Â Â Â 9Â Â Â 8Â Â Â 7Â Â Â 6Â Â Â 5Â Â Â 4Â Â Â 3Â Â Â 2Â Â Â 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pvt. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (P.O. Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Canada