Lady in disguise by Amanda McCabe

Author:Amanda McCabe
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780451209641
Publisher: New York : Signet, c2003.
Published: 2003-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

“You still have not sold your commission, yet you cavort about London like some young pup, I hear. Drinking with young Bertie Stonewich, gambling, not wearing your uniform. Curious.” The count’s eyes narrowed. “You also deliver papers to my office here dressed in very plain attire. Papers from a certain—Mr. Thompson.”

Jack remained silent. What could he really answer to that? He had no glib lies, and Count Suvarov deserved better than that. He was a brave man, a man devoted to duty and his own work. But Jack could not tell him the full truth, either.

“Well, this is not the place to discuss these things in any great depth,” Count Suvarov said. “I must think on them and speak to my niece. Yet, we are to leave in only a few days, so of course there is not much time to tarry. Perhaps you would be so good as to call on us at the Pulteney Hotel tomorrow, Lord St. Albans?”

Jack nodded warily. Was this, then, a positive outcome to his proposed engagement? Usually he was quite good at reading people, but Count Suvarov’s years in imperial service had stood him in good stead. His face was a blank. “It would be my honor,” Jack answered.

“Excellent. Until tomorrow, then.”

Effectively dismissed, Jack left the library, daring to relax a bit only when he was alone in the corridor. Blessedly, no one waited for him. Faint strains of music could be heard from the distant ballroom, so at least people were going on with their merriment and perhaps forgetting the scene on the terrace.

At least until tomorrow, when they would be looking for the announcement of his betrothal in the papers.

Jack started to walk away from the door, only to realize that he was not alone in the dim corridor. A figure moved out of the shadows and stepped into a narrow beam of lamplight.

Sir Jeremy Ashbey. Jack remembered how the man had been seen escorting Emma about, how he would watch her with an almost proprietary solicitude. He had forgotten until this moment that Emma had had an admirer besides himself.

But he remembered now.

Sir Jeremy’s expression was cool and unreadable, one could almost say impassive. But his pale eyes burned as he stared unwaveringly at Jack. He made no move once he came to a halt a few feet away, yet somehow Jack yearned for his sword.

Sir Jeremy reminded him of a French officer he had encountered once, a cold, expressionless man who would have tortured and killed Jack with no compunction at all. If Jack had not killed him first.

“I understand congratulations are in order,” Ashbey said, his voice as flat as his face.

“Indeed,” Jack answered shortly. He would have moved on, but Sir Jeremy slid into his path.

“My family has been friends with the Westons for a very long time. I have known Lady Emma since she was a child,” Sir Jeremy said. “I hope you realize what a truly fortunate man you are and do not take that good fortune for granted.

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