What a Woman Desires Read Online Free Page A

forward. “Is there something I can help you with, Miss Jane?”
    She clutched his bicep and then immediately snatched her hand away as though realizing what she’d done. “It’s Monica. She’s in trouble, I just know it. She needs help and I can’t possibly leave Mother. You have to go to her, Thomas. Please.”
    His heart picked up speed and his blood heated at the severity of her implication, and the fact he felt something amiss too. How could he have not known his unease was about Monica? He forced his expression to remain somber. He could not allow Miss Jane to veer into a bout of hysteria. “I’m sure—”
    “I keep imagining a gun. No, a rifle and Monica . . .” She closed her eyes. “She’s pointing it at someone and her eyes are raging with murder. What if she kills someone? Or they kill her? It makes no sense that she should have a gun, but—”
    “Neither of us knows her anymore.” Thomas stared out toward the gates at the end of the enormous back garden that led to a dirt track into the village.
    “You sound as though Monica could’ve turned into an outlaw since being in Bath rather than a famed actress.”
    He snapped his gaze back to Miss Jane’s. “I won’t make any judgments about anything until I see Miss Monica for myself.”
    Her eyes darkened and she planted her hands on her hips. “What is that supposed to mean?”
    Cursing his stupidity at such a blatant and somewhat impolite revelation of his lingering passions, Thomas turned away. “Nothing. I’ll grab my gun and make my way into town. I’m sure your imaginings are nothing more than your mind playing tricks and Miss Monica is holed up in a fancy coach making her way along the track. I’ll find her and bring her back safely. I promise.”
    Her shoulders slumped and she smiled. “That’s all I ask. I need her here. I can’t do everything on my own anymore. I’m so tired.”
    He nodded, and she smiled at him and Mrs. Seton before lifting her skirts and fleeing back inside the house.
    “Humph. Everything on her own, indeed.” Mrs. Seton glared at the open kitchen door. “She speaks as though you and I sit on our asses all the day long.”
    Thomas smiled even as every nerve in his body screamed with impatience to get out of there and onto the road. As much as he dreaded seeing Monica, if she was in the slightest danger, his misgivings did not matter. He would not leave her alone to fight whatever—or whoever—might hurt her.
    He waved his hand. “Pay her no mind. She’s grieving and with no idea what happens next, that’s all. I’d better go and see if I can meet Miss Monica on the way.”
    “You don’t think there’s any truth in what Miss Jane said?”
    He shook his head. “None at all.”
    Her eyes narrowed as she swept her gaze over his face before staring intently into his eyes. “Hmm, sure you don’t. That’s why you got the look of the devil in your eye and your jaw is set like rock. Go get her. Lord knows, you’re the only man who kept Miss Monica under any sort of control when she was here.”
    Mrs. Seton marched toward the outside storehouse and Thomas watched her go. Control was the last thing he had over Monica when she’d lived at the house. She’d controlled him—with her eyes, her heart, her slender figure and beautiful smile. Then she left and never came back.
    Striding forward, Thomas snatched the reins from the tree and checked for his rifle and pistol before throwing himself into the saddle and galloping toward the open road.

Chapter 3
    Monica stood with her feet firmly astride in the dirt and her rifle lodged between her chin and shoulder. With one eye closed, she focused along the barrel of the gun at the smaller of the two men who’d accosted her and Stephanie as they’d approached the outskirts of the village. Even though Monica’s pulse thundered in her ears and her entire body trembled, she would not falter, would not take her eye from the animal in her sights.
    Stephanie’s