Page 11 of Teach a Rogue New Tricks
“Help you reform.”
He fell backwards onto his backside, blinking up at her. “You will?”
She nodded. She almost laughed because he looked so silly sitting on the floor, long legs bent at the knee, his face the very picture of shock. He looked so young and boyish.
And endearing.
He clambered to his feet, blushing. “Hell, I’d not expected that. Damn. What a fool I look.” His brows popped up high, and he blushed brighter. “My apologies. I should not have saidhell.” He muttered something clipped and dark. “Shouldn’t have saiddamneither.” He ran a hand through his hair with a laugh. “Guess I do need your help. Or someone’s help.”
Oh, no. She wouldn’t let him go that way. Reforming him would be her perfect adventure. Beyond the pale but not beyond her comfort. It would not go to some other woman.
She stood so abruptly her chest almost slammed into his. He smelled tart and sweet at the same time. She bounced a step back, and her legs met the edge of the chair. Flustered, she took several steps to the side until she had put enough space between them to breathe, to think. “Myhelp. I’m the only one who will do. No other has my experience. No one else will know how to go about it.”
The flush on his cheeks and jaw dimmed a bit. “Yes. Good.” The smile he gave her twisted with a bit of hesitation, shy and grateful.
Her hands missed the warmth of his.
She swallowed, nodded, and left him, jolting down the stairs as if a true villain nipped at her heels. The trembling numbness that had threatened her earlier had entirely disappeared, replaced with giddy excitement. Some adventures might prove too overwhelming after an entire life spent in rural domesticity. But this one felt just right. Reform a misguided young man? She could do that. Had been doing it for years, essentially.
She jogged across the street to the square’s garden where her family, except for Nora, did not seem to have missed her.
Her sister greeted her with a frown, leaning against the garden’s iron gate. “What took you so long? Did you find it out? Who is he? The man in the window.”
Ada strolled through the gate, keeping her countenance calm. “I did indeed.”
“And? You must tell me!”
“Viscount Albee.”
Nora’s eyes widened. She seemed to have stopped breathing.
“Nora, dear, are you all right?”
She blinked back into life, grabbed Ada’s arm, and pulled her as far away from their family as the garden allowed. “But… but, Ada, he’s a rogue!” She hissed the last word. “The very worst cad in London!”
“He did call himself a villain. But I thought he must be indulging in melodramatics.”
Shadows from the leafy tree boughs overhead dappled Nora’s face, turning her serious expression stern. “Yes, a villain. That’s the very thing.”
“But what has he done?” It had to be monstrous since he would not tell her himself.
Nora’s shoulders sank low, and her neck lengthened. She looked as she did before beginning a monologue during one of their at-home theatrical productions. “Kidnapping.” She closed her eyes. She held the position for one dramatic moment, then her eyes popped back open. “I’ve also heard rumors about keeping multiple mistresses at a time. And about losing all his money at gaming hells. He likely has a duel or two or five in his past! And—oh!—Willow and her husband will have nothing to do with him. Because of the kidnapping.”
Kidnapping? She’d known the Lady Willow for a year or so now, and she’d heard nothing of a kidnapping. She was newly married to Viscount Cordell, whom Ada had never met. That news she knew about. But no kidnapping. And that seemed the sort of information to get about.
“What did they have to do with it?” Ada asked.
“Lord Albee is Willow’s brother-in-law, and the woman he kidnapped was Willow herself. And Lord Cordell saved her and exiled his brother to France. But now it seems he isnotin France.” She threw a wary glance at the second-story window, now empty. She frowned. “Aunt Lola had mentioned that he had returned to England, but Willow and I thought he’d stay hidden away at his country estate.”
“He did not.” Kidnapping your brother’s bride, a duke’s daughter… damning did not begin to describe it. “But he did—” Ada didn’t want to share Lord Albee’s proposition with her sister. She could not say why.
“What?! Don’t keep me in suspense, Ada. What did Lord Albee do?”
“Nothing. Wished me a good day. Said he enjoyed meeting me. If he’s so horrid, so dangerous, why is he staying with Aunt Lola and Uncle Nathan?”
“I’ve no idea. We’ll have to ask Aunt Lola.” Nora wrung her hands. “Oh! What if Willow finds out? I’m not sure how happy she’d be at the thought of her brother-in-law being so very close.” Nora stared up at the canopy of light and leaf. “How can Aunt Lola have that man under her roof?”
“You know her better than I.”
