Bargaining With a Rake (A Whisper of Scandal Novel) Read Free Page B

looking
as innocent as a child from behind the curtain certainly had spunk. And a grand
ability to verbally spar. Too bad she appeared to be a debutante. He drew the
line of wickedness at innocent virgins.
    He jumped into his carriage and
rapped on the ceiling. “Take me to the docks, Jenkins.”
    Jenkins’ ruddy face appeared upside
down in the window, his brown hair hanging in a comical pointed fashion. “Do ye
mean yer office or the Devil’s Tavern?”
    “The Devil’s Tavern, good man. Sutherland’s
just in from America.”
    “Delayed, was he, my lord?”
    “Three full nights. No doubt he’s
livid.”
    “Yer partner stayin’ awhile this
time?”
    “I suspect so. We’re buying another
ship.”
    Jenkins smiled; then his face
vanished, but his loud whistle drifted down to Alex’s ears. “A celebration,
then, is it?”
    “Certainly,” Alex said and stretched
his legs out in front of him.
    “Might I remind you, my lord, last
time ye two gents bought a ship, the celebration got a mite too rowdy.”
    Alex grinned up at the roof of his
carriage. “You’re entirely too familiar for a driver.”
    “Aye, my lord. That’s why you like
me.”
    That was true, but he’d not admit it
to Jenkins.
    “How many ships does this make, my
lord?”
    “Twelve.”
    “I’ll be getting a raise, then?”
    “I suppose,” Alex said with a
chuckle, and then settled back against the cushion and closed his eyes while
breathing deeply of the cool night air. He needed to clear his mind and
concentrate on business, but the scent of magnolias drifted around him from the
Devons’ enormous garden, and the fragrance had him smiling.
    The cheeky chit from the curtains had
smelled flowery. Why in the devil would a debutante be hiding behind a curtain
waiting to meet a man? Didn’t she know she was courting ruin? Maybe she wanted
to be ruined. Likely , given how a woman’s mind worked. The notion of the
tart-tongued woman as a schemer didn’t fit. Maybe she’d been convinced by some
scoundrel to meet him behind the curtain? Alex sat up with the insane impulse
to go back, find the woman and make sure she was fine. He paused with his hand
on the door.
    He was a scoundrel. What was he
thinking? She would doubtfully take any advice from him, however well intended.
He sat back with a growl. What had come over him? He knew better than to
involve himself with debutantes. They wanted husbands, not rakes to introduce them
to the pleasures of the body. “Jenkins, what the bloody hell, man? Go .”
    The door to the carriage flew open. His
younger brother Cameron bounded through the entrance and snatched the door
closed behind him, looking like a hunted bandit with his mussed hair and a
darting gaze. Cameron tapped the carriage ceiling with his cane. “Go, Jenkins. Before
the women run out to catch a rare glimpse of Lord Lionhurst. They’ll tear me to
pieces just to get at him.”
    “Amusing as always, I see,” Alex
growled as the carriage jerked to a start.
    Cameron grinned in
return. “I do try. Now tell me what induced you to break your vow.”
    “My what?”
    “I seem to recall
you swearing you would never attend another ball under your own devices again,”
Cameron said, clutching at the seat as Jenkins took them around an especially
sharp curve.
    “Mother,” Alex said
simply. Really he need say no more. Cameron was her son too, after all.
    “Ah.” Cameron nodded.
“That explains everything. So this is a one-time favor?”
    “Unfortunately, no,”
Alex replied, something black and sharp curling in his gut when he considered
the possibility that he would have to encounter Lady Staunton again. “Mother
has asked me to keep an eye on Lissie as she enters Society.”
    Cameron’s eyebrows
came together. “Why didn’t she ask me? She knows you hate Society, and I love
it.”
    “I suppose Mother
doesn’t trust that your attention will stay on Lissie and off whatever pretty
face happens by you.”
    “You offend me.”
    Alex