Page 53 of His Spirited Lady
“But I’ll give someadvice,
She’ll discover theprice.
Of doing whatever shepleased.”
“Damn him,” Richard muttered. He pushed up from the sofa, but Amelia pulled him back to his seat.
“Leave it,” she whispered. “No one has any idea of yesterday, and he didn’t mention me by name. Let it pass and they will as well.”
Jasper shot him a glance and nodded. Richard responded in kind, making a silent agreement that this one trespass would be allowed. Raymond had reached the end of his lead.
“Mine seems appropriate here,” Fiona said, avoiding her cousin’s restraining hand.
“The was a young man on ahorse,
Who was handsome and dashing, ofcourse.
And though he didtry,
His plans wentawry,
Because love is not something youforce.”
Amelia sputtered into a cough, poorly concealing her laugh. The others took her cue, smirking behind their hands. Except for Fiona, who looked Raymond square in the eye. Richard had the wild urge to throw himself in front of her.
“There was a young woman named Allen.” Raymond’s eyes narrowed.
“Who had a particular talent.
She lifted her skirt.”
Jasper lunged for Raymond, pushing Fiona behind him.
“Her knees in the dirt,” Raymond continued.
Richard reached him, grasped his other arm, and joined Jasper in pushing him toward the door.
Raymond twisted against their hold, and shouted over his shoulder. “And all of the men with her time spent.”
They forced him into the hall and Richard shut the door, but not before a sea of gasps rushed after them. A lone sob echoed.
“She can serve it up, but she certainly can’t take it,” Raymond slurred. “But, come to think of it—”
Jasper jabbed his elbow backward, much like a piston in an engine, and Raymond became dead weight. Richard had never been so happy to drag a drunk to a chair, and the happiness mounted when he saw Raymond’s bloody face and swelling nose.
“He won’t remember how that happened,” he said. “I should have stopped Amelia when she suggested that game.”
“There is no easy way to tell your betrothed anything in public,” Jasper sighed. “Which is what makes that state so bothersome. At least it was better than being blindfolded.” He pulled the bell by the stairs. “And he will damn well remember it because I’ll be writing to his grandfather. If Fiona’s rooms in London aren’t filled with flowers within the week, there will be hell to pay.”
Simms practically skidded to a stop at the base of the stairs. “Do we need a doctor, Your Lordship?”
Jasper looked to him and then to Richard. “Simms, please take Mr. Ferrand to see his lordship. Then fetch Mr. Raymond’s valet and driver. He’s leaving.”
“You’d best alert everyone below stairs, Simms,” Richard said as he followed the butler up the stairs and around the balustrade. “I believe the party will be ending.”
“Thank God for small favors,” the butler muttered before he knocked on the door and announced Richard’s arrival.
Richard entered a dainty sitting room, dominated by a large chaise lounge under the window. Amelia’s mother stood beside the lounge, smoothing her skirts while Augustus wrestled with a pillow stuffed behind his back.
