Indiscretion by Jillian Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

taste of servitude and he stomped across the upper deck to the sofa where Anne sat to tell her so. "I should like a word with you."
    She frowned and put down the book she was pretending to read. "Do lower your voice. A servant does not bellow at his employer in public."
    Nellwyn tapped him on the shoulder. "He does not bellow at her in private, either. Nor does he stomp about in such handsomely tailored clothes. It's a good thing I thought to bring you proper attire."
    "Proper attire?" He frowned. "I hope I am misunderstanding you, madam."
    She patted his arm. "You'll look bonny in knee breeches with those nicely developed calves. Did you know that good legs were a desired trait in one's manservants?"
    Patrick caught a glimpse of the grin creeping across Anne's face. "I am not a damned pet monkey to be paraded about, and I'm not wearing any knee breeches."
    "Well, I hope you thought to bring your guns," Nellwyn said.
    "Guns?" Anne said, arching forward in alarm. "Whatever for?"
    " To protect us, of course," Nellwyn replied. "A butler often functions as a bodyguard. Our man sleeps downstairs with a pistol to keep out housebreakers. Honestly, Anne, it is time you came into the century."
    "The very thought of guns for personal protection makes me nervous," she said.
    "The thought of knee breeches does the same thing to me," Patrick said. "I've never made my butler wear them."
    "You are not the stickler for tradition that David was," Nellwyn retorted. "Nor are you hosting a shooting party in your fashionable Highland home. Besides, if you don't care to wear knee breeches, you may wear a kilt. Gaelic servants in costume are quite the thing."
    Anne chuckled, burying her nose in her book again.
    "Now take yourself elsewhere, Sutherland," Nellwyn said, sitting on the sofa with a tin of marzipan. "One does not hold intimate conversations on deck with a domestic. Oh, dear, the Duke of Glaswell is coming over to admire Anne again."
    Patrick frowned in annoyance at the stocky figure weaving across the deck. "The old lecher does a hell of a lot of admiring for a man who has a wife and six children waiting for him at home."
    Nellwyn's fingers stopped halfway to her mouth. "Do you know him?"
    "I've met him once at the races," he said, nodding politely at the captain walking on the bridge. "He was drunk at the time and I doubt he even remembers my face."
    The captain, who apparently did remember Patrick, but only as a servant, did not nod back.
    "Go away," Nellwyn said, swatting his knee with her gloves. "He mustn't recognize you, or my scheming will be for naught. Go."
    Patrick turned in reluctance, and was only a few steps from the sofa when he heard the duke greeting Anne. "My dear, is it wise to sit in the sea breeze with as frail a constitution as yours? Come to the saloon and have a wee nip of brandy to warm you."
    Cynically, Patrick noted that Nellwyn, who was every bit as frail-boned and fragile as Anne, was excluded from the invitation for a "wee nip." And when he turned to express his disapproval with a scowl, he saw that Anne had indeed strolled off in the duke's company and that Nellwyn sat alone, smiling benignly at the pair of them.
    "Do not glare at her like a dragon, Patrick," she said softly, glancing up at him. "She is, after all, an attractive woman."
    "Aye." His voice vibrated with irony. "I think I know that."
    She subjected him to a steady scrutiny. "I never did learn why you and she dislike each other so intensely."
    "I have never disliked Anne. On the contrary."
    "All right." She tightened her shawl around her wrinkled throat. "Let me rephrase that. Anne has not told me exactly what happened between the two of you to spark this antagonism."
    "And you won't wheedle a word out of me," he said, grinding his jaw as he saw the duke's hand brush Anne's shoulder. The randy old goat.
    "I shall ask Anne," Nellwyn said.
    "Ask her."
    A hint of understanding softened her face. "You must be quite attracted to her to agree to all