Page 82 of Dick Stone, Regency Stud
The Regency Stud Comes Undone
Elizabeth Roubaix
Chapter 1
London, 1820
When young Lord Edward Richard Stone first opened the Domesday Book one rainy day to search for his family name, he was surprised to find that his ancestors didn’t live in England at the time of the Conquest.
He learned the truth only after visiting his old nurse: an Anglo-Saxon Stonehadfought against the Conqueror, but the family had a different surname in those days.
Edric Stoneheart had acquitted himself bravely before defeat at Hastings and submitted to the new King of England. He accepted a Norman bride and surrendered a good deal of his personal wealth to retain his claim to nobility. But all was not placid in the Stoneheart keep.
After decades of complaints from Stoneheart wives and mistresses alike, Henry I looked up from a plate of lampreys at a royal banquet, made a witty remark about the men of the family not having hearts, and promptly expired. The court took the offhand joke most seriously, as it was the king’s last pronouncement, and officially shortened the surname to Stone.
Edward Stone — long known as the stud Dick Stone, and more recently named Viscount Netherwallop after the death of his elder brother — nearly sprinted through the streets towards Leicester Fields. He clutched his heart, suspecting that the old family surname had descended on him this very day like a curse; there must be a small boulder in his chest where his heart should be.
Why would a man well-regarded for his unflappability when confronted with the most unorthodox goings-on be sweating through his tailoring in the London fog?
When he reached the address, he feared he’d arrived too late. Or too soon. There were no lights to signal that the most debauched men in London gathered at this nondescript building to bid on young women and men for the express purpose of taking their virginity.
Edward had reason to believe that these were no charitable souls with an aim of gently inducting the next generation of courtesans and courtiers in the ways of the bedchamber. There had been talk of these auctions. And the lives forever altered when wolves sank their teeth into nubile flesh.
It was on his second trip around the building that he spotted a door with a faint glow about the jamb. He whipped it open and joined the crowd.
***
After an hour of watching the proceedings, Edward still had not seen her.
Her.It was a strange thing to contemplate, even now: his urchin friend, long known to him as Tobias, was a girl.A young woman, he thought, as he watched the auction from the back of the smoky room.
“And finally, for the true connoisseurs, we have a treat!” yelled the announcer from the front of the room. “She may not play the harp as you fuck her from behind or suck your cock between words of French, but she’s a rare jewel indeed: a virgin straight from Covent Garden!”
“A virgin in the Garden? That’d be a first!” yelled one man in the crowd.
“I’ll believe it when I see it, and by it, I mean an intact maidenhead,” muttered a man nearby.
“Stand on this bench, my dear, and show these men how pretty and accommodating you are,” said the auctioneer, his manner rougher with the girl than his words would have suggested.
And when the lass stood on the bench so all the men could see her despite her short stature, Edward finally found what he’d been waiting for: Tabitha, his longtime friend.
She looked different, as was to be expected. When she’d been picking pockets and then working for Edward as a source of information for his breeding business, Tabby wore breeches, shirtsleeves, and a sack jacket, much as any other lad. Her disguise had been effective enough that, in all those years of close friendship, he’d never suspected Tobias of being a girl.
But there she was, her limbs spindly and chin pointing at the floor, wearing a threadbare nightdress. On her head appeared to be the ugliest wig in existence.
Edward castigated himself for thoughtless words in the past, begging her only a few weeks ago to carry out whatever harebrained plan she had in mind. He’d expected her to conclude the project quickly and return to their adventures.
He hadn’t realized she meant to auction off her virginity and become a woman of the town!
Now, his redoubtable Tabby was looking like one puff of cheroot smoke would send her tipping from that bench.
The auctioneer lifted the ostensible strands of hair in Tabby’s wig. “Only the finest for our discerning coves tonight. Show them your legs, sweetheart.”
She wiggled her nightgown up to reveal her knees, pinned together, and then let the fabric drop again. The crowd jeered.
“Now, gentlemen, our physician has confirmed that this lass isvirgo intacta, a fine treat…for the man short of funds.”
The men in the audience laughed at the joke, pointing to the cheap lace on that cursed nightgown.Where had she got that thing?Edward raged inside. If only she’d shared her plans with him, he’d have at least seen her outfitted properly! And kept her far away from this den of wolves!
