Page 116 of Dick Stone, Regency Stud
“I apologize for shattering your illusions, madam. I am nothing if not a coward and a scoundrel.”
“I don’t think you are,” she said, shifting in his lap and brushing hair back from his brow. “Maybe you simply didn’t love king and country enough to take a ball or bayonet to the gut for ‘em.”
“Can’t say that old King George makes a man want to charge into battle without thought for life and limb. But then, nothing would make me stick my neck out for my fellow man. I’m a scoundrel, Tabby, best to free yourself of me.”
She sent her eyes to the crown molding in that most well-appointed of guest rooms and seemed to hold back a wall ofwords. Edward hoped she might treat him to a pyrotechnics show consisting of her gutter tongue — ideally leading to some passionate kisses to subdue her anger.
“You say all of this as if you’re operating alone. You have an associate now,” she said.
Edward looked about. “Speaking of my associate, where is Tobias?”
She bounced on his lap harder until he winced.
“You think I can’t operate as your partner because I wear dresses now?” she asked huffily.
“I can think of many ways I’d like you to operate—”
“Focus your attention, Dick Stone!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “I’ve been hard at work while you’ve been wallowing.”
“Don’t work too hard. The Duke and Duchess of Chevaliermont are prowling about and likely to yank you inside of a secret panel or behind a tapestry if they see how pretty you look. I suspect they only attend house parties for the sake of ruining good girls.”
She gave a small growl and cupped his interested cock. “I’ll be a good girl.Yourgood girl. And if you’re a good boy and follow my plan, I’ll make it very worth your while.”
Promising.
And that is how Miss Tabitha Brewer steered Dick Stone into the most dangerous moment of his hazard-filled life.
Chapter 10
“You sent notes tothe colonel and the captain, asking them to visit Lord Leontius’s study?” asked Edward as they made their way downstairs. He hoped the note of doubt in his voice wouldn’t discourage her.
Tabby bounced down the steps, clearly pleased with her machinations. She was altogether too reckless and competent to be allowed to make her way in the world alone. Someone should tie her down, fill her with babies, fuck her against that bit of wall over there—
“Dick Stone, are you even listening?” she asked.
“Ahh, yes, just thinking about how we might decorate the rooms like that,” he said, gesturing to the spot of wall he’d been staring at with what must have been feral intensity.
Tabby looked at the rather plain stretch of wall in confusion, but didn’t question him. She scratched under her wig, and Edward fought the impulse to laugh, grabbing her hand instead and leading her on.
“Wait. How did you send notes?”
“Oh, I wrote them. Lord Leontius sent a lady’s maid to help me with my ribbons and geegaws, so we helped each other and then her footman beau delivered the notes.”
“All this while I wallowed in doubt and self-pity,” he said, nodding in amazement. “But why send the colonel and the captain to the study? They’re hardly going to walk in, see my face, and confess.”
“We don’t need them to confessimmediately,” she said. “We just need to know who did it. And then we’ll make another plan.”
He led her down a hall that a footman indicated would lead to the study.
“How the devil will simply meeting them tell us who did it?” he asked, taken aback.
Tabby cast him a concerned glance. “You don’t know when someone is about to deal a blow to the breadbasket?”
“Pardon?”
“You know, that look a cull gets before they’re going to punch you and you better make a leg or end up real sore?”
“I can’t say that I have,” he said. “People don’t tend to haul off and hit lords. At least not without cause.”
