TheCharmer by The Charmer Read Free Book Online

Feebles, now watched her expectantly. She stopped, nonplussed.
    "Were you gentlemen waiting for me?"
    Feebles grinned proudly at her. "You sound just like Lady Clara, you do."
    Stubbs nodded vigorously. "Every bit."
    Kurt only grunted when she took her own seat at the table. Instead of passing her vegetables to chop or dough to knead, Kurt slid a dish of her favorite chocolate biscuits before her. Stubbs jumped up to fetch her a cup of tea, and Feebles shyly passed her the cream pitcher and whispered, "Buck up, lass."
    Oh, blast. Tea and sympathy? She wasn't sure she could bear it. "Thank you," she said somewhat repressively. Perhaps if she didn't begin, they wouldn't carry on. Her appetite was entirely gone, but she nibbled at a biscuit to spare Kurt's baking pride. It was delicious, of course, but the sweetness that she usually adored sat sour in her stomach. The tea was lovely and fragrant, but she couldn't swallow much past the growing tightness in her throat.
    It would break her heart to leave the club. She'd never had a home like this, where she was so much more than an extra child or an invisible housemaid. Here, she was someone. Here, she belonged.
    Or at least, she would soon, if her row with Collis didn't cost her everything she wanted so badly. She blinked away that black possibility to see that her companions watched her with doleful and worried eyes. She forced her spine to stiffen. There was no point in loading the cart before it was hitched.
    Forcing a smile for her friends, she took a large bite of biscuit. Time for a change of subject. "Mr. Feebles, do tell us—what's the most revolting thing you ever found in someone's pocket?"
Chapter Four
    « ^ »
     
    Collis had spent only an hour in his rooms at Etheridge House, time enough to change and rid himself of the smell of smoke and the disquieting memory of brief attraction he'd shared with Briar Rose. Now he was clean, dressed, and entirely at loose ends.
    He'd no more than trotted down the front steps of Etheridge House before he wished he could turn about and go back inside. Two young ladies, accompanied by their maids, were strolling slowly by. Young ladies tended to pass
very
slowly these days. Collis vaguely remembered that these two were neighbors to Etheridge and was fairly sure he'd been properly introduced at some point in the past. He'd been introduced to every unmarried maiden from
Glasgow
to
Brighton
, after all. All well-born, all fashionable, all alike. These two were as peas in a pod, pretty enough to be pleasant, yet apparently forgettable or he'd remember them better.
    He tipped his hat and smiled dutifully. They slid their eyes sideways and slowed their pace to a bare crawl. Then, obviously having decided the moment was appropriate for a bit of friendly conversation, they stopped.
    After three sentences of greeting, Collis began to wish they hadn't. The fluttering lashes and longing gazes didn't seem to carry quite the usual reassuring balm to his ego, and the friendly conversation seemed lacking. They did not retort provokingly to his male banter, nor did their eyes flash with challenge and intelligence.
    Still, he smiled warmly at them. At least their company kept him from thinking about the conversation inside Etheridge House.
     
    Rose was walking slowly toward Lord Etheridge's residence. She was in no particular hurry to face down his lordship's sentence.
    "After the two of you make yourselves presentable," Sir Simon had said to her and Collis earlier, "we'll be expecting you at Etheridge House at noon."
    As she approached the large, fine house, she took a deep breath. She was lucky, truly. She ought to have been cast out entirely after such antics. It was evident, although the spy-headmaster had not said so precisely, that this trial mission with Collis was her only chance to save the place she had made for herself. Her lovely, purposeful new life—depending on her working with a man she couldn't get on with for three minutes