Page 30 of To Tempt a Troubled Earl
His little hissy fit was met with a look of mild amusement. “Jealous of Tommy? How delightful.” Lando laid the back of a hand on his cheek. “Goodness, I’m blushing.”
A desire to scream at the top of his lungs supplanted Kit’s desire to throw something. God dammit, the man tested his patience.
“Alas, as much as I’d like to spend the day providing entertainment for you,” Lando carried on, “I have a whole list of dreadful chores—a result of having neglected visiting London for far too long. So, your time is your own.”
He waved one of the invitations at Kit. “Tonight, however, we are being seen. At Lady Chalfont’s soiree, where I’ll wager the wholetonwill turn up to have a gander at me. Including Gartside, lending you an excellent opportunity to further your acquaintance. Along with my acceptance, I will send a note that I’m bringing an important houseguest.”
As Lando rose from the table, he threw Kit a final smile. “Do you dance?”
To your tune? Yes, Kit was tempted to bite back. “Not if I can help it,” he growled instead.
“Excellent. We’ll dine here beforehand and arrive late. We’ll do a couple of turns of the room then join in a card game or two, which is when you can chum up to Gartside and make him believe you are not only a customs official of the highest order but that you are also eminently corruptible.”
“You are mistaking me for one of your friend Tommy’s fellow thespian pals.”
“Some of your time today will be well spent considering the topography and magnitude of our country’s cotton industry,” Lando carried on, overlooking Kit’s gruff interjection as if he’d not spoken. “You will find my library has several excellent pamphlets and books on that exact subject. I expect my absence from your company will fly by.”
Chapter Fifteen
“MY HOUSEGUEST ANDI had…ah…a little falling out over breakfast.”
Whilst Pritchard laid out his evening attire, Lando stretched the length of the tub, luxuriating in the exotic scents of citrus and bergamot.
“Bound to happen sooner or later,” Pritchard commented. “Mr Angel’s a poor young hothead, and you’re a cold-hearted devil of an aristocrat. I’m not surprised.”
Lando swivelled to stare at him, trying to keep a straight face. No man was a hero to his valet, thank heavens. A spoiled, wealthy one such as himself needed at least one person in his pay keeping him honest. “Just so you know, I don’t care for that explanation, Pritchard.”
Quick to temper, Kit had been mulish over breakfast, and nothing Lando had said managed to placate him. The meal had ended coolly; the young man had taken what he needed from the library up to his bedchamber and had not been sighted by Lando since.
“He’s suspicious of my motives.”
“Of course he is,” answered Pritchard. “You’ve only given him half the plan.”
“That’s because I only have half the plan. I even admitted that to him.” Raising it beyond the water level, Lando soaped his long, pale calf. “Which, in retrospect, did not provide the reassurance I hoped it might.”
On the contrary, it served to make his young friend even angrier. He gave a frustrated hum.
“He’s very different to…to Charles. He’s fiery; he rails against the injustice of everything. And he’s a thief, of course, which makes his belief thatI’mthe untrustworthy one even more laughable.”
“But?” queried Pritchard.
“But…” Lando sighed. “I’m finding that I like him very much.”
Wisely, the valet stayed silent as Lando voiced the words again in his head, testing the veracity of them. That he’d even compared his frivolous desire for young, pretty Kit to his deep, overarching love for Charles was astonishing.
“Unfortunately, Mr Angel is becoming less fond of me by the hour,” he added, not allowing himself any more pause for thought. “He thinks I’m leading him to the slaughter to further my own gains, namely to obtain Gartside’s estate for myself.”
“How can you convince him otherwise?”
By getting him into my bed.Getting my need for him out of my system.
“By coming up with a suitable denouement to this wretched scheme. I have a couple of ideas, but I’m still not convinced they are the right ones. If I wasn’t developing such atendrefor the fellow, I could have Kit arrested for accepting bribes. Publicly—or in front of Gartside, Cobham, and Sir Richard at least. As long as no one ever found out that hewasn’ta true custom’s official, then Gartside’s humiliation would be complete.”
“Tommy Squire should have plenty of friends who could dress up and play the part of a lawman,” Pritchard observed.
“Mmm.”
Paying one of Tommy’s actor pals to take on the role of a Bow Street runner was the obvious solution. He could spring an arrest on Kit, arranged to occur in front of the others. Though the simplicity held appeal, it relied heavily on Kit’s hitherto untested dramatic flair. More importantly, it relied on the individual to never tell. Which they would, naturally, because actors and scuttlebutt went hand in hand.
