What an Earl Wants by Kasey Michaels Read Free Book Online Page A

least to make sure we females think they’ve
got it,” she whispered to the animal. “He only did what I would have expected
from him. Yes, that’s it. I don’t believe he actually would have done
anything...possibly. Perhaps. But thank you.”
    Thorndyke entered the room a few moments later, doing a fine
job of pretending he wasn’t looking at Jessica, and then retired with a bow
after being ordered to produce young master Collier, who had been last seen by
his lordship slopping up eggs in the breakfast room.
    Jessica considered this. Did a man, even a Redgrave, seduce a
woman while that woman’s brother was in the same house? No, he did not. He’d
merely, meanly, meant to frighten her, give her some of her own back (sans
pistol, thank goodness, not that the man wasn’t a weapon unto himself). And he’d
succeeded, admirably. Again, damn the man!
    “Then you did tell him I would be here this morning?” she asked
as Gideon picked up his wineglass once more and retook his seat.
    “I warned him to get his backside out of bed before two, which
is not his custom. I doubt he’ll be pleased to meet anyone less than a scantily
clad harem girl wishing to have him recline against her lap whilst she fed him
sugared figs.”
    “Don’t measure others by your own yardstick, Gideon,” Jessica
warned tightly. “He’s not a Redgrave.”
    Gideon chuckled softly. “Oh, yes, we Redgraves are mightily
high on sugared figs.”
    Jessica glared at him. “That wasn’t the part of your
description I was alluding to, my lord. It’s a well-known fact the Redgraves are
prone to excesses of a...of a...” She was at a loss as to how to finish that
statement. “You’re prone to excesses,” she finally ended, lamely. After all, if
she had ended with “of a carnal nature,” he would most probably have laughed so
hard he would have fallen off the sofa. She believed she was beginning to get a
sort of figurative handle on the man now, understand
him better. In short, he was a menace!
    “Really? We’re that bad? I had no idea. Although, clearly, you
seemed to have been lapping up tales of the infamous Redgravian debauchery. You
should have seen your eyes, Jessica. You believed every word I said.”
    He had her there. It wasn’t as if she’d any certain knowledge
of Redgravian debauchery. She’d certainly heard
about his lordship’s light’s-o-love. Four mistresses? That seemed excessive and spoke of an unhealthy appetite, in her
opinion. She knew he was a neck-or-nothing rider who often wagered on himself in
races and had yet to lose. She knew he had knocked down Gentleman Jackson not
once, but twice, until the renowned pugilist had declared he wouldn’t step in
the ring with him again. She knew he won all the top prizes driving with the
Four-in-Hand Club. She knew he gambled deep but never wildly. She knew he had no
enemies because even the most foolish of London gentlemen perceived the wisdom
of calling him friend.
    She had, in short, made a study of the man, indeed his entire
family, these past weeks. But, really, when she got right down to it, she didn’t
know anything about the current crop of Redgraves but what she’d heard.
    He had two younger brothers, Maximillien and Valentine, and a
single sister, Katherine. Maximillen had sailed as one of the Royal Navy’s
youngest coxswains, and Valentine had been classically educated in Paris and
Toulon, managing to remain there even as Bonaparte conducted his on-again,
off-again war on England, only returning home a few months ago.
    Katherine had come to Mayfair for her Season last spring but
hadn’t really taken, seeing as how she was
unfashionably tall and dark-haired, and favored her infamous Spanish mother in
her looks in a year where petite blondes were considered all the go. Her suitors
had hoped for the mother’s morals, as well, and their mamas had cringed at the
thought of “foreign-looking” grandchildren. But it had been Katherine herself
who had answered an