Barbara Metzger by Lord Heartless

Author:Lord Heartless [Heartless, Lord]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-12-17T08:31:30+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

"You have a what?” If Viscount Hartleigh had yelled any louder, the Applegate sisters next door wouldn't have had to keep their ears pressed against their windows.

"A cat, my lord, a perfectly behaved, perfectly groomed cat.” Carissa kept looking in the corners of the kitchen for her pet. What she found in the corners was better left unmentioned, but she did not spot Cleo.

"Fine, your perfect cat can go live in the stables. I'm certain there are some perfect mice just waiting for it."

Mice? Carissa instantly vowed never to visit the stables. “My cat does not eat vermin, my lord, no more than she eats trash.” Hah! Let him say as much for the hound from hell! “She is an indoor cat."

"Glad will never accept a cat in the house."

"Good, then he can go live in the stables. That's where he belongs anyway."

"And your pet doesn't? What did you do, overfeed the pampered puss so it's too fat to hunt? A cat will eat anything it can catch, Mrs. Kane. Of course, your sadistic little tabby will torture its victim first. At least leftovers don't suffer like birds and baby rabbits and squirrels and—"

"Stop it! I know very well that some cats have to hunt for their livelihood. Cleo is not one of them. She has never been out of the house since the day I found her at the doorstep as a tiny kitten, and she isn't going out now."

"What, never? Not even to ... ?"

"I have a box of soil for her that I clean every day. That way she brings no mud or dirt inside."

"No, only clumps of cat hair."

"Not if I brush her. And dogs shed, too, my lord. Or were those hairs Byrd is always trying to brush off your clothes from an incipient bald spot?"

He immediately raised his hands to the back of his head to make sure the damnable thinning area was still covered. “Deuce take it, I am not going bald. And I am not having a sneaky, slinky feline in my house."

"Cleo is neither of those things, and how dare you condemn her without a fair trial? I'll have you know that because she does not go outside, she never gets fleas or worms. Can you say that for the disaster you call a dog? Cleo does not get into fights with other creatures, and she does not bring home unwanted kittens."

Lesley was enjoying himself hugely. He loved when the widow came alive with feeling, how her eyes flashed and her cheeks flushed and her bosom rose and fell with each angry retort. Her whole life was in tumult, yet the silly, loyal chit could think only of defending a fur-ball. He decided to enjoy himself a while longer: “Glad's never brought home a kitten in his life, wanted or not. I daresay he most likely swallows them whole before he gets here."

Her foot tapping angrily, Carissa told him, “You know what I mean. You ride a gelding."

This wasn't quite as humorous.

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