Band Sinister by KJ Charles

Author:KJ Charles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, historical, regency, virgin, rake, gay romance, virgin hero
Publisher: KJC Books
Published: 2018-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

THAT RESOLUTION LASTED until he was back in his room tidying himself up for dinner. Philip had helped him adjust his clothing, assuring him that he looked very well and it didn’t matter if he didn’t. Guy had accepted that blithely, gone back—thankfully without meeting anyone—looked at himself in the mirror, and almost had a conniption. His hair was a tangle, his face marked with the tracks of tears and saliva and the dust of the road, he was feverishly flushed, and his eyes bright. He looked different, he was sure. He looked as though he’d eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and everyone would be able to tell it on sight.

Oh dear heaven, they’d know. What if Lord Corvin jested in the coarse way some men did? What if Philip was wrong and his other lover took offence? Why had he even done those things with a man who had another lover staying in the same house?

Guy grabbed the mantel. Philip had told him he’d feel like this, and given him words to remember, and Philip knew what he was about. He’d said, Consider yourself shielded. He wouldn’t let Guy twist in the wind, having got what he wanted. Surely he wouldn’t. Would he?

He managed to restore himself to decency and be down in Amanda’s sickroom before the dinner gong was struck. She was sitting alone, absorbed in a book, but looked up with a smile that made him feel a swine for having all but forgotten her. “Guy! I thought you’d disappeared from the face of the earth.”

“I’m sorry. I went for a walk.”

“With Sir Philip, I know. David—Dr. Martelo told me. And I’m only teasing, it’s marvellous you’re making friends. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we stayed on terms whenever he came down? You may take some time to yourself, Jane,” she added at the maid’s audible snort.

“Such nonsense,” Jane said, rising. “This is a wicked house, and the sooner you’re home and away from these people the better.”

“It is not a wicked house and you’re being very rude about our host and his friends,” Amanda said.

“I’ve heard how they talk, miss. It’s not right and it’s not Christian.”

“You don’t sound very Christian yourself, talking that way about people who’ve been nothing but kind. Go and take some air.” Amanda regarded the departing woman with a darkling eye. “Ugh, Jane is trying my patience. I’ve had one or another of the Murder in here most of the day, just to keep me entertained—Mr. Raven was here for an hour or more and he says I could draw perfectly well if I tried and he’ll bring me some pencils—and she just sits in the corner and sniffs. I’m so tired of judgemental people. I don’t think I realised how much until we came here. One feels as if one could say almost anything to Sir Philip’s friends and they shouldn’t disapprove. They might argue or say one was an idiot, but they wouldn’t shake their heads gravely and sigh about one’s character.

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