The Earl's Irresistible Challenge. Lara Temple

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       Chapter One

      Blood was thudding in Olivia’s ears, loud in the echoing hollowness of St Margaret’s. She had purposely chosen an hour when there were likely to be few people in the church, but she hadn’t expected it to be empty. Or dark.

      She should have realised they wouldn’t waste many candles on a near-empty church on a rainy winter afternoon. The few tallow candles smoked sulkily in their sconces and occasionally shivered in the draught that seemed to come from all directions at once.

      Surely if she cried out someone would hear, wouldn’t they? Hans Town might not be a fashionable part of London, but it was respectable. Or perhaps it was best to just tuck tail and run...

      Too late.

      The strike of boots on the flagstones matched the rhythm in her ears and a man emerged from the darkness at the far end of the nave, his greatcoat rising about him like sweeping wings. She was not surprised they called him Sinful Sinclair. She presumed it was merely a play on his family name and less than pristine reputation, but, as he moved towards her in a swift, gliding motion and she noted his pitch-black hair and uncompromising features, she understood the name better.

      ‘Lord Sinclair, thank you for coming,’ she said as he stopped before her, pulling a piece of paper from his coat pocket.

      ‘Don’t thank me, this isn’t a social call. You sent this quaint little note?’

      ‘I did. Lord Sinclair—’

      ‘What do you want and why the devil did you have to choose such an inconvenient location?’

      ‘It is convenient for me. Lord Sinclair, I—’

      ‘I didn’t see another carriage in the lane outside. How did you arrive?’

      She blinked. She had not even begun and already she was losing control of the situation.

      ‘What on earth does it matter? Lord Sinclair, I—’

      ‘It matters because I prefer to know what I am up against when I come to meet a silly little miss in an empty church in the middle of nowhere. If this is some kind of plan to entrap me I should warn you, you have very much mistaken your prey...’

      Olivia’s confusion disappeared and she couldn’t hold back a laugh.

      ‘You believe I brought you here to entrap you? Goodness, you are vain.’

      His eyes narrowed and she felt a new flicker of alarm. Perhaps laughing at him was not advisable under the circumstances.

      ‘Lord Sinclair...’ СКАЧАТЬ