In My Wildest Dreams by Christina Dodd

Author:Christina Dodd
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

17

“Mother, this is not going to work!”

Startled, Lady Philberta looked up from her writing to see her elder son storm into her sitting room.

“What won’t work?”

“I can’t continue this.” Garrick ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling the already ruffled strands into a telling whirlwind of madness. “She has got to go.”

“Who?”

“Celeste, I tell you!” His cravat dangled half-off, he’d torn the fastening on his collar and he sported a small, still-bleeding scratch above his eye. “She’s got to go back to Paris, Ellery or no Ellery, spies or no spies.”

“Damn, son, lower your voice.” Lady Philberta stood and hurriedly shut the door. “Now sit down and tell me what’s happened.”

He sank down in the chair she indicated. “She told Lady Hyacinth how to entice Ellery.” He stared at Lady Philberta as if expecting outrage.

He got confusion. “Why would she do that? She says she wants Ellery.”

Leaping to his feet, he paced across to the desk. “Because she’s a virgin, that’s why.”

She was asking questions. He was answering. But somehow the questions and the answers didn’t match. “Garrick, have you been drinking?”

“Not yet.” He shook his finger at her. “It’s a conspiracy of virgins.”

Puzzlement battled with exasperation. “I suppose it’s possible she’s a virgin, I’ll even admit it’s probable, but—”

“Oh, she’s a virgin, all right.” Picking up her inkwell, he held the bottle up to his eye and squinted at the liquid as if he were a jeweler and the ink a diamond. “No doubt about that. I just proved that to my satisfaction.”

Lady Philberta almost choked with horror. God help them, they were going to lose their head gardener.

Not only that—Garrick had lost his mind. “You just proved that . . . Garrick, did you take her?”

“No, I didn’t take her!” He slammed the ink down hard enough she feared for the bottle. “What kind of man do you think I am? Do you think I’m as careless and unthinking as Ellery?”

“No, but—”

“I would hope not. I’m the responsible brother and I wouldn’t despoil Milford’s daughter, virgin or no virgin, although what I did do was . . . but she provoked me.”

Lady Philberta lifted her painted-on eyebrows almost to her hairline. “What did you do to her?”

“I just . . . she just . . . she also told Lady Hyacinth what to expect on her wedding night.” He snatched up her best quill pen and waved it wildly about. “What do you think about that?”

“I think somebody needs to tell these girls what’s about to happen.”

“You would think that.” He glared at her fiercely. “Some mother you are. If she hadn’t been wearing that bodice. And she was nice to Lady Hyacinth. Nice. Genuinely . . . that girl . . . she’s a scheming harlot trying to break up the suitable alliance I worked so hard to bring about. You should have seen how easily it opened.”

“The alliance?” Lady Philberta questioned carefully.

“The bodice!”

She was starting to find logic in this lunacy, and she didn’t know what to think.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.