This Rake of Mine Read Free

Emery's to have caused such a scandal, having been caught kissing one of the stable lads, and her removal was being conducted with as much discretion and secrecy as one could hope to find in a house full of young ladies prone to gossip.
    Tally hugged Brutus close and looked around their hiding spot like it was turning into a prison cell. "Duchess, I don't know how much longer—"
    Her words came to an abrupt halt as the bell over the front door jangled with a solid tug. Almost immediately the click of Miss Emery's sturdy boots echoed forth.
    The girls held their breath as they listened intently, peering through the cracked door, praying they would spy their quarry.
    "This way, my lord," Miss Emery said.
    Now if only Felicity's prediction would come true—and Miss Emery would escort Lord John in their direction.
    And sure enough, she did.
    "Make certain you get a good look at him," Felicity whispered in Tally's ear. "I want you to draw his likeness for the
Chronicles
." In the unlikely case that the Duchess wasn't able to find her duke, she kept a very detailed journal of all the eligible bachelors in England. And while Lord John was a rakish devil, hardly deserving mention, he was still unmarried and therefore qualified for a place in her
Chronicles
. She turned to her cousin. "Pippin, you as well. You have an excellent eye for detail and will ensure that Tally gets his likeness correct."
    And then the moment came, and all four pairs of eyes peered through the crack at the rare sight of a rake.
    In a flash he strode past their hiding spot, and then all they saw was his back as he climbed the stairs to his niece's chamber.
    "I never," Tally whispered.
    "Nor I," Pippin added.
    Felicity, for once, was silent. Dumbfounded at what they had seen.
    Lord John was nothing like they'd been led to believe.
    "I thought he'd be—"
    "No, I was convinced he'd be—"
    Felicity put it most concisely. "Why, he's dreadful!"
     
    Dreadful
was the word that Lord John Tremont would have found most fitting for the situation—though not quite in the same way as Felicity.
    At the moment, any place, even Newgate, would have been more welcome than having to endure another moment in Miss Emery's politely strained company. The narrow, pinch-faced woman's unforgiving arched glances and barely concealed glare were yet another reminder of the lowly regard Society held for him.
    He, who had once been the ton's favorite, the most invited Corinthian about town, was now reduced to being his brother's errand boy, fetching home his disgraced niece in quiet obscurity, rather than have Parkerton lower himself to such a task. Certainly, there was no love lost between the duke and his disgraced sibling, no familial sense of obligation that could have enticed Jack to come to Bath on his brother's behalf. There was, however, the matter of Jack's outstanding debts, and his brother's willingness to pay some of them in exchange for this favor. And since his brother hadn't allotted him a single penny from the family coffers since the Mabberly incident, having cut him off completely, it was an offer Jack could ill afford to pass up.
    So here he was, walking on eggshells through this all-too female domain, when he should be home minding his own affairs instead of carting his niece's various hatboxes and trunks and portmanteaus down the back stairs like a common footman.
    It didn't escape his notice that he had been led to the rear of the house, or that there wasn't anyone else about, the students having most likely been banished for fear the very sight of him would infect their sensibilities (as if young English ladies possessed any measure of sense), but he ignored the insult and turned his thoughts to matters far more pressing than his errant niece's behavior.
    Gads, perhaps if his brother had spent less on clothes and shoes for the girl and more on decorum lessons, she wouldn't be leaving school early and he wouldn't have been summoned up from Sussex to perform this