Mischief by Laura Parker

Author:Laura Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION/Romance/Regency
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2013-11-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Appalling! Inexcusable! Unthinkable!

“I meant to strike them.” Japonica looked down at the makeshift weapon in her hand. Her voice was as dull as her expression. “I should have.”

She could not imagine why the viscount had not knocked them all senseless himself. The Shrewsbury Posy had snatched the boxes from the startled footman’s arms before she could stop them. Then like the naughty girls they were, they dropped into curtsies and murmured thanks before fleeing with their booty. Their awe of the viscount, it seemed, came second to the prospect of receiving a new bauble.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Lord Sinclair advancing upon her. How handsomely he was dressed, in civilian smallclothes of buff superfine and a claret swallowtail coat. Had he dressed with such care just for a visit to Croesus Hall?

A giddy, ridiculous feeling sped through her. It died the moment she spied the telltale gleam of metal at the end of his right arm and her gaze jerked up to meet the furious scowl upon his face. A shiver passed through her but she told herself that whatever he might be about to do and say would be no more than she deserved.

“This is an example of your new authority?” he roared at her. “I should have better command of a pack of wild mongrels!”

She lowered her gaze. She could not bear to look into his expression of accusation and disdain. “You mustn’t beat them. I won’t allow it. Nor will you lock them away with only bread and water. It is not that they don’t deserve it, and more, but they are such foolish creatures. They do not understand the harm they cause. Motherless. And a father who could not be bothered ….” She let her plea trail off into a sigh.

“So you would defend them against me? With your ladle, perhaps? Madam, you run a household of most unusual style.” His voice sounded tight, as if he were making an effort to keep from choking on his venom.

“Unusual?” Because she had just threatened her stepdaughters with a soup ladle? Because her dinner table overflowed with chestnut soup? Because she could not imagine a more horrifying and ignoble tableau than the one he had stepped into? Nor one more likely to wreck her fledgling plan to see a Shrewsbury daughter launched up on the sacrosanct Season?

The disaster was complete, the humiliation of her situation so much more than she had ever thought possible. Knocked to nothing, all her effort almost before it could be begun. Agitation bubbled up from the depths of her despair and spilled from her lips. She looked straight into his face and laughed.

She saw surprise register in his face for only an instant before he shuttered all emotion. “You, madam, are in need of a drink!”

He took her briskly by the arm and steered her into her former chair.

“Sit down!” He reached for her wineglass. When he saw that the contents were contaminated by chestnut soup he tossed it from him.

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