Page 14 of Plucked By the Orc

Her cheeks burned red. Thank all that was holy they weren’t in broad daylight. With any luck, he wouldn’t notice. She drew her dressing gown tighter around her chest, conscious that sheshould appear before him in such a state. But there was nothing to be done about it now.

Iris gestured to the cat. “Lovely kitten, kitten.”

“Kitten,” he said slowly. “Odd moniker, that.”

Getting a smile out of this one would be more challenging than she had supposed. Still, she pressed on. “Because I think you own a sweet temperament. Underneath all the scientific terms and ‘igh vocabulary and such.”

“You’re having fun at my expense.”

“La! Not at all! Why, this little darlin’ would say it’s a compliment, it is. So what’s her name?”

“I named her Boudica.”

“How peculiar!”

“Is it? Don’t you find the name pretty?”

“Well, I didn’t say it weren’t pretty. Only that it’s peculiar.”

“The name is quite common among women in the Hidden Realm. It honors an ancient English queen revered in my world as she is here. You should learn more about her. Find some books in my library that would be instructive on the topic.”

Iris folded her arms in front of her chest. Duncan Higgins still didn’t seem to think she knew anything about anything. “I’ve read ‘er story, thank you. Fought the Romans she did.”

“If you know something of it, that period of history would provide fine conversation in society. In the view of the gentlemen of theton, some education is pleasing in a lady.”

“Only a bit, though. Not enough learnin’ to make them feel worse about themselves, I’d wager.”

“And unfortunately you would win that wager, Miss Gabbert.”

She hesitated. “Is your grace of the same mind as those gents?”

Duncan arched an eyebrow in a manner she might have found saucy had the rest of his expression not remained so solemn. “I don’t harbor the same mindset as thosegentlemen. It is different in my world.”

Iris took care to keep her gown closed as she gazed up at him. He was wonderfully tall, a fact about which she wasn’t complaining. However, she might get a crick in her neck after a time.

“Different in your world? How so?”

“Orcan women are not subject to the same limitations as human women,” he said while Boudica batted at one of his big thumbs. Iris caught sight of a sharp claw poking out between the green index finger and thumb, shorter and thicker than the claws on the kitten. “Orcan women control their own destinies.”

“That don’t sound ‘alf bad.” There you had it. All them boys on the streets sulking and going on about orcs probably just didn’t want foreign ideas filtering into their world.

Were she being honest now, she would say she found this whole scene charming. Even if this bloke still spoke to her with some measure of condescension. Even if it was somewhatuntowardto chatter on with him like this in barely more than her unmentionables, Iris had no desire to take her leave of him either. The tiny kitten obviously besotted the big fellow. She knew there was a heart under there somewhere! That made her willing to forgive his mistaken assumptions about her … as long as he kept learning from them as well.

And Iris pretended not to notice that his eyes occasionally flicked over her figure before quickly averting. Well, a man was a man, after all. Even if he was an orc. A fantasy of him tangled up with some lady between the sheets tried to root in her mind again, but she silently shooed it away.

“I have news for you as well, Miss Gabbert,” he said in that resonant voice of his. Good God in heaven, he spoke English as fluently and grandly as any gent born in London. “I took luncheon with my brother at the club, as is our custom, and he had the most intriguing idea. He thought we should present you to Lady Bellingham at her annual rout.”

“Lady Belling-who?”

“The Marchioness of Bellingham and self-anointed arbiter of good taste.”

“I’ve never ‘eard of the bird.”

“Every year she hosts a reception before the social season resumes in earnest. If you can pass as a lady at her rout you can pass for one anywhere.”

Iris licked her lip, thinking it over. “And the timin’?”

He bobbed his head vigorously. This movement startled Boudica, who jumped out of his arms and scuttled back to the bedroom.

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