Rogue Grooms Read Free

is even better, eh? Good sport, what?”
    Alex turned a glare onto him, and Hildebrand stifled his chortles behind a gloved hand.
    “As I said, she is an artist,” offered Freddie. “A deuced successful one, from what I hear, though I’m a complete bacon-brain about painting and music and such.”
    “She’s come from her home in Italy to stay for the Season with Lady Elizabeth,” said Hildebrand, now recovered from his giggling fit. “It’s quite the fashion to be in love with one or the other of them. Though Lady Elizabeth is married, more is the pity.”
    A thrice-married artist. Alex almost laughed at the thought of the looks on his family’s faces if he brought such a woman home to the Grange! Not, of course, that Mother and Em were such high sticklers as all that. They just maintained certain standards, despite their straitened circumstances.
    But then, Alex had always had a great weakness for red hair.
    He looked from one of his friends to the other speculatively. “I take it, then, that one of you has been introduced to the lady?”
    “I haven’t,” Freddie said, his wide brown eyes looking positively downcast at this fact. “Hildebrand has.”
    “At Lady Russell’s card party a fortnight ago,” Hildebrand preened. “Should you like me to do the honors, Wayland?”
    Alex gave him a long look, and Hildebrand coughed uncomfortably. “Er, yes,” he said. “Just so. Most happy to perform the introductions, I’m sure.”
    They had only just turned their horses in the direction of the ladies, when disaster struck.
    The small white dog, who had been regularly menacing any and all unwary pedestrians, now broke free from the lead the little girl held, and bounded away down the riverbank after an errant duck. In a swift white blur, it became airborne, and landed with a great splash in the murky river. Only its pale head was visible as it drifted off, carried inexorably away by the current.
    “Lady Kate!” Mrs. Beaumont cried. She lifted her skirts indecently high above her ankles, revealing green kid half boots and an inch of white stocking, and dashed off after her dog. Her hat fell from her head to dangle down her back by its ribbons.
    The little girl followed, shouting, “Be careful, Georgie! You’ll fall in the river!”
    The petite woman, Lady Elizabeth, ran after the girl, crying out, “Help! Help!” to no one in particular.
    Mrs. Beaumont nearly slid down in the mud at the edge of the river, tottering precariously on those half boots. “Lady Kate! Come back, darling!”
    Alex was already sliding from his saddle, and striding away across a busy thoroughfare and a wide greensward that separated him from the rather bizarre party of ladies.
    He had faced many a dire situation in Spain, when he had had to think and act quickly, decisively, and calmly. To be sure, he had never seen a situation quite like this one in Spain, but he knew at a glance what had to be done to save the dog.
    He stripped off his coat and boots, pushed them into the arms of the beauteous Mrs. Beaumont, and jumped in after the dog.
     
    Georgina watched in astonishment as the man—a man she had never seen before in her life!—dove into the murky waters after the escaping Lady Kate.
    It had all happened so very quickly that she felt all in a daze. One moment she had been strolling along with Elizabeth and little Isabella, laughing and enjoying the day. Lady Kate had been frisking about, as usual; she was quite the most curious and excitable dog Georgina had ever seen. Then, all at once, Lady Kate had twisted out of her lead, scampered down to the river, and splashed right in!
    And the man, whose coat and boots Georgina now held, had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and gone in after Lady Kate. Like some sun-bronzed guardian angel.
    Georgina bit her lip in anxiety as she watched the man seize Lady Kate about her torso and pull her along toward the bank. The dog struggled mightily in his grasp, howling and frightened that her