Ripe for Pleasure by Isobel Carr

Author:Isobel Carr [CARR, ISOBEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC027050
ISBN: 9781609418861
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2011-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

The previous evening’s rain had given way to a soft, foggy morning. Trees and eaves dripped; Leo’s lashes collected moisture that had to be blinked away. Meteor shook his head, and his bit jangled, the sound seemingly muffled by the enveloping cloud.

Leo posted lazily alongside his sister as they made their way down Rotten Row. He’d returned to his parents’ house in the predawn hours to find Beau already dressed in her habit and sipping coffee while she pored over the previous day’s Morning Post.

Beau, in typical fashion, hadn’t so much as batted an eyelash. She’d simply blown into her coffee cup and said, “If you change quickly and come riding with me, Mother need never know you’ve been out carousing like a tom.” Then she’d flipped up the paper in a perfect imitation of their father’s technique and soundly ignored him.

After a hurried cup of coffee, he’d allowed her to drag him back out for a morning ride. Leo looked around the deserted park. “No assignation, Beau?”

She threw him a saucy glance. “If there were, I certainly wouldn’t have invited you. I’d have brought Ezekiel, who knows very well how to keep a secret.”

“You would have, if you wanted to make a point with the poor man: Giant brother, beware ye who attempt to trespass.”

“I’ve been in town for less than a week. I’ve hardly had time to set up a flirt. I’m not you. Who is she, by the way?” Her voice took on a quick, eager quality. “Everyone seems to know, but no one will tell me.”

Leo shook his head. “Good Lord. You haven’t been asking people about me, have you?” Her answering laugh told him clearly that she damn well had been. “Are you determined to brand yourself as the fastest thing Scotland has ever produced?”

Beau made a face at him. “Bah. It’s not as though I’m the one keeping a mistress—or a mister—or whatever you’d call a male courtesan. Why don’t women keep them anyway? It seems dreadfully unfair. And the only person I asked was Sandison.” She sounded highly disgruntled. “All he did was threaten to put me over his knee. Besides, even I know Dally the Tall is the fastest thing Scotland’s ever produced, including poor Gunpowder here.” She gave her horse a conciliatory pat, as though he were aware he was being disparaged.

“Beau, so help me…”

“So help you what, Brother? You’ll tell Mother on me? I’m sure she knows by now. You have a mistress, and I’m a lost cause. Augusta was having vapors over something last night, and unless our brother has gambled away her considerable dowry or taken a mistress of his own—which I’ll admit is doubtful—it must be something to do with you.”

Augusta. Wonderful. His brother’s wife was devilishly high in the instep and prone to excessive displays of morality.

“You needn’t sound as if you wished he had.”

Beau made a rude sound by way of retort, and Leo couldn’t quite bring himself to disagree. What Arthur saw in

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