Page 17 of A Lady's Wicked Revenge
“Pearls before swine, I’m afraid.”
She swung her glare up again to see Colin, his usual mirthsome expression plastered on his face. “I’ve wasted many an hour trying to help this brute with everything from arithmetic to geography. It’s no good; his mind’s already full to the brim with asinine banter.”
“Here now, Mullens—” Adam began to protest.
“Though, of course, your lesson is more immediately useful than anything Mister Radcliffe could find in a schoolbook. It may just save his life, as you say.”
Diana did not even have to pause to assemble a reply. “And just where and when didyoulearn that it might be worthwhile to pay close attention to what a young woman tells you? I can’t say I have seen an abundance of schoolbooks lying around your stepfather’s house.”
“Ah, I see the confusion, then.” Colin leaned forward across the table, a wicked glint in his eye. “You see, there are, in fact, in the worldotherbooks besides the primers you may be familiar with. I encourage you to pick one up now and again—they may have some rather long words in them, but you might find the experience most gratifying nonetheless.”
Leah tugged at Diana’s sleeve and laughed politely. “Dearest Diana, perhaps it’s time to leave such things behind for a time. Especially at such a lovely dinner party—isn’t this food absolutely divine? What did you say it was called, Mother?”
Diana felt a wave of irritation at being interrupted in the middle of her exchange with Colin.If you think I need rescuing from this skirmish, Leah, you don’t know me as well as you think you do,she thought bitterly.
“Ah, I see, then it is a literate sort of girl that your friend is seeking, rather than an angry dullard like me.” Diana found herself matching Colin’s posture, leaning in his direction across the table with her fingers clenched into fists, then released into a gesture of easy, patronising generosity. “Odd that you two would spend so much time in gin-soaked taverns in search of such a mate.”
If she hoped this would offend Colin, she was disappointed to hear him bark with laughter at this charge. “Well, I certainly cannot stay at home! Not when there’s an aposematic viper skulking around the corridors.”
“Typical for a man, Leah, just as I’ve said to you a thousand times. Men are such helpless creatures when it comes to any real threat—they count on we women to deal with bloody matters when they think no one is looking.”
“I do not wish to deflate your healthy opinion of yourself, but I’ve been bitten by far fiercer creatures if never swallowed.”
“I doubt any creature could stomach the sight of you long enough to keep you down.”
She glanced angrily toward Adam, aggravated yet morbidly curious why he had not chimed in with an insolent quip of his own, only to see his mouth hanging agape dumbly—the swain’s eyes flitted from Diana to Colin and back again, as if unable to understand what was going on before his very face. Out of the corner of her eye, Diana could see Leah had a very similar awestruck expression on her face. Distantly she detected other conversations were quieting, perhaps overawed by her verbal warfare with Colin.
Detecting an opening, Colin swooped in with another jab, a practised look of apathy on his sculpted features. “More’s the pity for any beast who makes the attempt—if I’m told true by my friends and lovers, I’m nearly as venomous as you yourself, Miss Hann.”
“That would explain why you have to leave your stepfather’s home so often, then, so as not to smother the other occupants with your toxicity.”
Vaguely Diana heard herself being shushed by Leah’s mother or someone else nearby, but by now, she was fully swept up in the thrill of this verbal altercation.
“This has been most illuminating, Miss Hann, but I think for your sake, we should discontinue listing my flaws,” grumbled Colin, seemingly roused to real anger for the first time since Diana had met him.
“Are you sure? I’m sure I could think of another fifty or sixty more if you give me a moment to think.”
“If you do, Miss Hann, I fear you may stumble upon some that even your foul mouth cannot bear the taste of.”
By now, the two of them were half-standing, their faces leaning close across the polished expanse of the table. “I’ve a foul mouth, have I? You should know, having encountered more than your share. Being an expert on such things, I would certainly trust your judgment on the filthiness of my mouth.”
An odd expression came across Colin’s face at this accusation, but he did not back down by a single iota. “Come to think of it, Miss Hann, you’re right. In all my travels and all my forays into the gutters of this blighted city, I cannot think of a single individual, man or woman, who has an ounce of your viciousness and—”
Before Colin could finish his sentence, the still air of the room was filled with a rumble that Diana quickly recognized as polite applause.
“Hear, hear!”
“Well said!”
These and similar pleasantries stopped the words in Colin’s throat—when she followed his gaze, she saw that the young man was looking towards his stepfather, who had a glass raised in the air as though giving a toast. Diana caught the eye of one or two other guests, who were looking to her as though she had been in the middle of something terribly rude, and from further in Uncle James’ direction, she saw James Arnold shaking his head sadly at her. It occurred to Diana with a sickening feeling just how loud her sparring with Colin had grown.
Curse that blasted uncle of mine, always doing something to pull everyone’s attention in his direction,Diana seethed.And of course, he would interrupt just as things are beginning to get interesting for once in…
She drew in a sharp breath, eyes growing wide even as she leaned against the back of her chair with a stiffening posture.This has been interesting, hasn’t it?Diana thought, feeling genuine surprise at how much she had been enjoying herself. In fact, she could scarcely remember the last time she had been so focused on any activity at all—usually her grief was waiting day and night to pounce and steal away her attention.
Colin might be a bounder and a shameless lackey of his wicked stepfather, but arguing with him is really most … well, stimulating. I cannot remember ever encountering a wit so keen. And even if it slashes in my direction from time to time, a wit needs a target as a sword needs a scabbard.
Diana looked to Colin and felt an odd sense of dismay to see a trickle of sweat roll down his temple. He was looking at Uncle James reverently, ignoring the jokes Adam Radcliffe muttered to him, and a crestfallen blush was on his cheeks. She looked to her uncle, then back to Colin in wonderment.Is he truly the dutiful stepson he wishes to be thought of? That unquestionably looks more like fear than love on his rugged features.
