Page 17 of The Lady Needs a Rogue
“What I believe does not signify. Not at the moment, at least.” Jon downed the whisky in his glass to the last drop. “As I will not be here to keep a watchful eye on her, I’m quite sure I can count on my most trusted ally—that would be you, Phineas Caldwell.”
Bollocks.Any time anyone used his given name, trouble followed. Finn had learned that lesson as a boy. “What in blazes are ye saying?”
For a moment, Jon regarded him with an unreadable expression. A cryptic smile crept over his features. “Allow me to make a prediction—before this week is done, you will feel a touch of thejoythat comes part and parcel with watching over Macie.”
Finn cocked his head.Watching over Macie. Surely he’d misheard.
“Come again?”
“My friend, you will experience the challenge of keeping my dear sister’s name off the lips of every gossipmonger in town.”
Finn tapped a fingertip against Jon’s glass. “Precisely how much of this stuff did ye imbibe before we walked through the door?”
“Not so much as a drop.”
“Absinthe?”
Jon shook his head. “Never touch the stuff.”
“An opium den?”
“Never.”
Finn studied his friend. “Perhaps ye wandered too close and inhaled the smoke?”
“Not a chance.” For the second time that night, Jon smiled. “You came to London to secure a contract for your family’s distillery,” Jon finally said. “Did you not?”
“That was part of it,” Finn said. “What are ye getting at?”
“As you know, we are planning to offer a gentleman’s smoking room within our department stores,” Jon went on.
Finn nodded his agreement with the idea. “Offering men a respite while their wives peruse the merchandise is a stroke of brilliance.”
“True.” Jon offered a bland nod. “And if the blokes have a tumbler of whisky in their bellies, they will likely open theirwallets even wider. My father is a shrewd one, I’ll give him that. But—”
Finn studied his friend’s face. “Ye have doubts?”
“No,” Jon answered quickly. “But the business of managing the venture has grown more complicated. Keeping all the parts of the plan moving in the right direction is a blasted pain in my arse. And now, there’s another complication.”
“Such is the plight of the astute man of business,” Finn said with a chuckle, only to be met with an intent frown.
“I’ve been called away to Scotland. A complication has arisen at the Inverness property.Minor catastrophe,my assistant stated in his wire, whatever the bloody hell that means. I expect to be gone for a fortnight. And that, my old friend, is where you come in. If you agree to this arrangement, your family will supply the liquor served in our smoking rooms for years to come.”
“Arrangement?” The tension in Finn’s gut warned he would not like whatever the hell Jon had in mind. “Blackmailmight be more to the point.”
“Call it what you will. It’s actually a rather simple task.” The tightness in Jon’s tone contradicted his words. He cleared his throat. “I need you to watch over Macie.”
Finn felt his own brows hike.Ye’d have more luck taming the ocean.His own words had come back to haunt him. “Ye do realize I am aman—a man whose reputation precedes him? The bloody gossips’ suspicions will flame out of control.”
“I—of all people—am aware of your reputation. But desperate times call for desperate measures. With any luck, Miss Blake’s presence will hold the biddies at bay.”
“Surely there is someone else... someone better suited to playing chaperone to a headstrong lass.”A woman. Or a man so ancient, he would long for a comfortable chair far more than for a beauty like Macie.
“She does not require a chaperone. My sister needs a bodyguard.”
“A bodyguard? She will never agree to such a thing.”
“Macie’s agreement—or lack of it—is not pertinent to my decision.” Jon leaned back against his chair. “She dashes about this city with little more than her parasol for defense. Macie is not foolish. Not in the least. She understands that being the daughter of a wealthy man makes her a target. But that knowledge has not held her back from gallivanting about London with her blasted camera and Miss Blake in tow. I don’t need someone merely to guard her good name. I need someone who can defend her.”
