A Pair of Rogues Read Free

“No need to worry,” he told him. “If I make any villainous plans with respect to your sister, I promise to keep you informed. I pride myself on my transparent nature.”
    Robert grimaced. “How you comfort me. But I daresay Christina can take care of herself.” He gave a startled sideways glance, as if he’d let slip something he shouldn’t. “Not that she is anything but innocent, mind you. She is just out of school. Quite young, you know. Not your usual type.”
    “Sounds terribly boring,” Ned reassured him.
    “Indeed. After the christening, we plan to bring her out. Louisa has offered, and my mother has agreed. Mama is too old, she says, for the rigors of London.”
    Ned nodded, and his voice went glum. “Almack’s. Court presentations. I shudder at the thought.”
    “I knew you wouldn’t be interested.”
    At the sound of Robert’s relief, Ned couldn’t resist another barb. “But, my dear fellow . . . if the chit’s your sister, how could I not be intrigued? You must add me to her list of swains. I shall grovel at her feet.”
    But he had missed his mark. Robert merely laughed. “I’d love to see you grovel. I’d love to see you die for a woman’s sighs.”
    “Not bloody like— Oh, pardon me, Louisa! Yourself excluded, of course. I was all prepared to grovel, but Robert threatened me bodily with a sword.”
    “That is very sweet of you, Ned.” Louisa gave him a motherly smile before cocking her head at the sound issuing from the hall. “That is the dinner gong. Robert, would you take the baby while I ring for Nurse?”
    Ned watched his friend cross the room to take his son from his wife, and a unfamiliar weight settled on his chest. They made such a pretty picture—mother, father and child. And an unusual one at that.
    Dukes did not generally cradle their own offspring. Neither did duchesses for that matter. But Louisa refused to be bound by the rules that constrained them all.
    And Robert was happy because of her. God knew—as did Ned—that Robert’s upbringing had not been an affectionate one. No more than his own, Ned reflected with a bitter mental shrug. Eton at six. The cold indifference of schoolmasters.  No protection from sadistic senior boys for whom one had to fag. The early separation from parents, who had no particular interest in one anyway.
    And, yet, here was Robert, with two devoted spaniels at his feet, billing and cooing over his little marquess like any nursery maid, and—if he only could see himself—eyeing Louisa as if he could hardly restrain himself until time to go to bed.
    The emptiness in his own life in comparison suddenly pressed on Ned’s heart like a blacksmith’s anvil on a pedestal of stone. Gads, but he was envious!
    But a rake had no business even thinking of marriage. It was quite all right for Robert, who had always been strait-laced, and it undoubtedly would be for Robert’s sister, too. Her middle name was certain to be Virtue.
    But no decent girl would consider marrying a man with Ned’s reputation. And he had had enough of the other kind to last him a lifetime.
    With the baby asleep in his arms, Robert preceded them from the room, meeting the nurse in the hall. Louisa accepted Ned’s arm.
    “Robert is right, you know,” Ned said to her in a confidential voice as they strolled towards the dining parlor. “I would make the very devil of a husband.”
    “I think you are sadly mistaken. We would so very much like to see you happy. And I cannot help feeling that the perfect match is awaiting you just around the corner.”
    Ned chuckled in response, but his laughter was forced. “I wasn’t made for such things, my dear. My life has been a dismal trail of debauchery and seduction.” He tried to lighten his tone. “Besides, I know you are wrong, because the hair on the back of my neck is lying completely flat.”
    Louisa paused, holding him back. “I beg your pardon?”
    “Didn’t Robert tell you?” Louisa shook her head, so he