A Loving Scoundrel Read Free Page A

now, as if it got slept in a lot. A discolored white shirt was under it with a few ruffles at the neck, black trousers of the long variety, and no shoes. Smart fellow, no wonder he hadn’t made a single sound yet.
    Very flamboyant looking for a thief, but probably because he was such a handsome young lad. And he was definitely recovered from his surprise. Jeremy knew to the second when he would bolt and was there at the door before him, leaning back against it, crossing his arms across his chest.
    He offered a lazy smile. “You don’t want to leave yet, dear boy. You haven’t heard our proposal.”
    The thief was gaping again. It could have been Jeremy’s smile, but was more likely his speed in getting to the door first. But Percy noticed it this time and complained, “Damn me, he’s staring at you the way the wenches do. It’s a man we’re in need of, not a child.”
    “Age is irrelevant, old man,” Jeremy replied. “It’s skill we’re in need of, so the package it comes in doesn’t matter all that much.”
    The lad, blushing now, was insulted, apparently, and with a glower toward Percy spoke for the first time. “Ain’t never seen a nabob so pretty is all.”
    The word pretty started Percy laughing. Jeremy was no longer amused. The last man who’d called him pretty had lost a few teeth because of it.
    “Look who’s talking, when you’ve got the face of a girl,” Jeremy said.
    “He does, don’t he?” Percy agreed. “You should grow some hair on those cheeks, at least until your voice drops an octave or two.”
    Yet another blush from the boy and a distinct grumble: “It won’t grow—yet. I’m only fifteen—I think. Just tall for m’age, I am.”
    Jeremy might have felt sorry for the lad because of that “I think,” which implied he wasn’t sure what year he’d been born, which was usually the case with orphans. But he’d noted two things simultaneously. The boy’s voice had started out high-pitched, then lowered before he’d finished his speech, as if he were going through that awkward time in a boy’s life when his voice started changing to the deeper tones of manhood. And yet, Jeremy didn’t think it was a natural slip, it had sounded much too contrived.
    But the second thing he noticed upon closer examination was the lad wasn’t just handsome, he was downright beautiful. Now, the same thing might have been said about Jeremy at that age, except Jeremy’s handsomeness was decidedly male, while this lad’s handsomeness was decidedly female. The soft cheeks, the lush lips, the pert little nose—yet there was much more. The chin was too weak, the neck too narrow, even the stance was a dead giveaway, at least to a man who knew women as well as Jeremy did.
    Still, Jeremy might not have drawn the conclusion he did, at least not quite so soon, if his own stepmother hadn’t used the same sort of disguise when she’d first met his father. She’d been desperate to get back to America, and signing on as James’s cabin boy had seemed to be her only option. Of course, James had known from the start that she wasn’t a lad, and to hear him tell it, he’d had a great deal of fun pretending to believe she was a boy.
    Jeremy could be wrong in this case. There was that slim possibility. And yet he was rarely wrong where women were concerned.
    But there was no need to expose her. Whatever reason she had for hiding her gender was her business. He might be curious, but he’d learned long ago that patience reaped the best rewards. And besides, they only needed one thing from her—her talent.
    “What do they call you, youngun?” Jeremy asked.
    “None o’ yer bleedin’ business.”
    “I don’t think he’s figured out yet that we’re going to do him a good turn,” Percy remarked.
    “Ye set a trap—”
    “No, no, think of it as an opportunity for employment,” Percy corrected.
    “A trap, ” their thief insisted. “And I don’t need wotever it is yer offering.”
    Jeremy raised a