Page 33 of The Trouble with Tigers
“Enter my betrothal.” Zeke downed the remaining brandy in his glass.
The earl straightened, staring over his steepled fingers at Zeke. “I can’t make you do it.”
Zeke’s eyes bugged. “Make me? By God I have no intention of marrying the chit. Until an hour ago I knew her only as an annoying boy—”
“She knew you didn’t like her,” the earl groused.
Zeke frowned at the earl. “If I have to hear I didn’t like him one more time…”
“Her,” his grandfather corrected.
“You don’t say?”
The abundant swell of breasts visible beneath the high-necked bodice of her black gown when she’d descended the stairs tonight had thrown Zeke. How she’d kept those curves hidden, heaven only knew.
The earl gave him a sly smile. “Rather pretty, isn’t she?”
Zeke rolled his eyes. “I didn’t notice.”Her face, he silently added. “I was rather more concerned with the evening’s events.”
He ticked items off his fingers. “Discovering we’ve been harboring a runaway. My recent betrothal to said runaway. Yourbrilliant suggestion all concerned parties adjourn to Chissington Hall for the foreseeable future. Which brings to mind a question. If you dislike the man so much, why on earth the exodus to Derbyshire in the morning like we’re one big, happy family, by the by?”
“Simple. It was all I could conjure on short notice to keep watch over Kitty. Her guardian can hardly hope to ravish the girl under the Earl of Claybourne’s roof. At any rate, I’m surprised you heard the stipulation.”
“Why? I’m not deaf.”
The earl raised his brows. “I thought perhaps you’d stopped listening, as you took no part in the discussion after confirming your engagement.”
“I do apologize for my apparent lapse in manners.”
He sniffed. “I planned to insist he allow Kitty to remain here ’til producing proof positive of his guardianship, when you piped up with that nonsense about providing a chaperone.”
Zeke made a silent bid for patience. “I thought he’d make good on his threat to summon the magistrate. By the by, what makes you believe the scamp will make good on his promise to deliver Lady Hastings in the morning?”
“I set up a sort of safeguard.”
“In other words, you sent a footman after them to spy.”
“Quite right.”
Zeke allowed himself a slight smile. He knew the old man well. “If you ask me, it seems like much ado about nothing. All of it: Kitty pretending to be a boy’ our so-called engagement; this idea of holing up together in the country. You don’t even have concrete proof she’s in danger. Perhaps she’s just prone to hysterics.”
His grandfather shot Zeke a disgusted look. “I suppose her grandfather was as well?”
Before Zeke could formulate a reply, the earl threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know why I bothered discussing this with you. You clearly have no interest in involving yourself in the matter. You may leave. Or stay in London. Or do whatever it is you do. It’s my honor in question, not yours, after all.”
Zeke felt the noose tightening. “Not so fast, if you please. Perhaps if we put our heads together, we can arrive at a mutually agreeable plan to help her.”
The earl picked up his empty snifter to scrutinize the contents or lack thereof. “Such as?”
Zeke refilled both their glasses. “We could secret her away again.”
“And have the authorities questioning us? And bring censure down on the Claybourne name? Not bloody likely.”
“We could buy him off.”
“I think not.”
“Why not?”
