Once a Gentleman
Chapter One
April 1802
"I might have known I'd find you here."
Prudence Armitage looked up at the
sound of the familiar voice. The warm smile that
greeted her set off the tiniest fluttering in her
breast, involuntary and inevitable. She had
known Nicholas Parrish over four years, and he
could still make her weak in the knees with that
smile. Fortunately, she was seated at the moment
and in no danger of an embarrassing collapse.
She quickly removed her spectacles and tucked
them into the pocket of her skirt.
"You've been working late almost every night,"
he said. "You ought to go home, Pru, before you
wear yourself out. What are you working on?"
She cleared her throat. Shy at the best of times,
she was sometimes painfully so with Nicholas.
Especially when alone with him, and that had
happened all too frequently the last few months.
"I am editing Mary Hays's latest essay on illustrious
women of history," she said. The essay was intended
for the next issue of The Ladies' Fashionable
Cabinet, a popular monthly magazine of which
Pru was temporarily in charge.
"Now, that's a job I don't envy," Nicholas said,
"editing all that flowery prose. Chopping it up,
are you?"
Pru smiled. "Only ... read full excerpt from: Once a Gentleman ebook
