Page 38 of The Rogue's Last Scandal
Chapter 11
Charley tipped backthe chair and rested a booted foot on the edge of the library table where one dim candle burned.
The four of them—Bink, Perry, Gracie, and Charley?had dined informally and rather quickly, retiring to the drawing room to plan the trip to the bank.
After, he’d lured Bink to the library to discuss the major. Bink thought he’d heard the name, and promised to make inquiries, without any nosy questions about why Charley wanted to know. Which was much the way Shaldon would have reacted, and wasn’t it amazing that the bastard who’d joined the family only two years before should be so much like the father the man had never met. Their brother Bakeley would have spent a full hour trying to winkle out the reason Charley was asking.
He rather liked his new brother.
Bink refilled Charley’s brandy glass. “I’m for bed then. Best get some rest yourself. Kingsley and Carvelle will catch up with us soon enough, and even if they don’t we’ll have Shaldon’s tricks to deal with. He’ll pop on the scene just as everything is falling apart.”
Charley laughed and wished him a good night.
As Bink left, Perry entered.
“She’s safely tucked into the blue guest room. Francisca and Juan have the chamber next to her, but they’re sleeping in the nursery, I fear.”
“Good.”
Perry came close and wagged a finger at him, smiling. “Should I lock Graciela’s door, Charley?”
No. Never.It’s what her captors at Kingsley House had done.
He made himself grin back, as she expected him to.
Perry boosted herself and perched on the edge of the table near where his feet rested. “Look at us. Mother would scold us, wouldn’t she?” She tapped the toe of his boot. “Mother would have liked her, I think. Miss Kingsley is a lovely young woman. Quite beautiful. Brave and intelligent. Likes children. And she’s wealthy.”
His heart had picked up an annoying race along Perry’s matrimonial track. He must divert her. “We shall see about her wealth tomorrow.”
She sighed. “I do wish I was going along. I’m always left out of the excitement.”
“Miss Kingsley will feel better if you are here with the child, marshaling the guards.”
He heard the swish of skirts as she swung her legs. “Yes, I suppose. I have bought Juan’s goodwill with a pair of the Mantons from Father’s cache. Francisca, however, was excoriating him about the danger you pose to her lady.” She went very silent for a moment. “But I assured her you will act honorably.”
The candle sputtered and outside a distant carriage rattled?one of their neighbors heading out for an evening’s amusement. Not Carvelle—his attack would be a silent one.
“Charley?”
He plopped his feet on the floor and stood. “The girl has survived one attempted assault. Do you thinkIwould do such a thing to her, Perry?”
Perry dropped down from the table and faced him. “You would not need to. She is half in love with you already. And you are attracted to her, as any man would be.Thatis what Francisca sees.”
His hand remembered the tightness of Graciela’s back, and the chill of her slender fingers, and the slimness of her waist as he’d lifted her into the coach the night before. His shoulder remembered the touch of her next to him in the narrow hackney. He thought about the fit of the coats over her bosom and the fine turn of her thighs in Roddy’s clothing.
He shook his head. “I’m not looking for a wife, Perry.” He walked out of the circle of candlelight to the window that looked out over the garden.
“Whatdoyou intend to do with her?”
What indeed? Miss Kingsley wanted to find Captain Llewellyn, to investigate her father’s disappearance, to take the child to her relatives in Spain, to return to Alta California. All of those seemed impulsive, improvident, one might say, impossible.
I will take what is left and go home, and buy some land and perhaps, someday, find a strong man who I can respect.
No, no, that was, in the long term, sensible, and reasonable, and he could not fathom letting her go into another man’s arms.
He shook off the unwelcome feeling.
“I intend to take her to the bank tomorrow to find out the state of her accounts. I intend to protect her, her servants, and the child from Carvelle and Kingsley. I intend to make inquiries about her father’s supposed disappearance.”
