Page 45 of Nothing But a Rakehell
Damn. She was right. He gave a nasty laugh. “Betsy is a queen compared to the sort of women whose company I usually keep.”
She sucked in a breath and threw back her head. “Yes, yes. You like women without strings or attachments. I understand!” Pushing away from the tree, she took a step, then made a fist and thumped it against her thigh. “My leg is lame. My eyes and ears are fine. My head and my heart function just as they should. I see. I hear. I understand.” She paced a bit further and stopped. Bracing herself again against a thick elm, she speared him with a sharp look. “Do you abuse these low women and widows whose company you keep?”
“What? No.”
“Do you cheat them? Beat them? Verbally berate them? Break their hearts?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Sterne is your friend, as is Tensford. I know you all have others, too, a group you are close to.” She put a hand on her hip. “Your friends gamble with you, drink with you, spend time in the same places, do they not?”
He nodded.
“Would you stand by and allow Tensford to be called dark and twisted? Or Sterne?”
“Of course not.”
“Why?”
“It’s not true.”
“It’s not true of you, either.”
He looked away.
Silence held sway for a moment. Only the breeze rustling in the leaves and the distant sound of the river could be heard. One of the searchers called out, but it sounded so far away.
“I know about the stable boy, Keswick.”
His heart rate spiked, but he didn’t allow it to show. He let nothing show.
“I know you met the young man playing cards and that you learned he was courting a kitchen maid. He wished to marry her, but he didn’t have enough of a living to support a wife.”
“The path of love never did run smoothly,” he said flippantly.
“No. Not until you leased the old Roudley farm and sent the stable boy out there to begin raising fence and repairing the cottage.”
“Yes, well, the pastures there are perfect for raising good bloodstock. And the boy has the touch—the horses are putty in his hands. All I have to do is set him up. He’ll do the hard work and I’ll make a fortune selling carriage horses to all of my friends.”
“And he’ll have a fine position and the wherewithal to marry.”
“Don’t tell your sister,” he cautioned. “I don’t want her to blame me for the loss of her kitchen maid.”
“You don’t want anyone to know you’ve done something good and kind. Why?”
He shook his head. “Just please, don’t mention it.”
An expression of vexed determination settled over her. “You are a good man, Keswick, and I do not know why you don’t wish people to know it, but the fact that you can let talk like Lady Tresham’s stand, even if it is useful to you, convinces me that my plan is sound.”
He stood, suddenly unmoving. “Plan?”
“Yes.” Her chin lifted. “I’ve decided we should renegotiate our pact.”
Alarm crawled up his spin. “No. That is a very bad idea.”
“It is a necessary idea. Only the smallest kiss strained the old one, in your eyes. And now, I feel confident offering up something worthwhile, something you need, as my part of the bargain.”
“I don’t need anything,” he said flatly. “I’ve told you so, already.”
