Sally MacKenzie Bundle: The Naked Earl, the Naked Gentleman, the Naked Marquis, the Naked Baron, the Naked Duke, the Naked Viscount, the Naked King by Sally MacKenzie

Author:Sally MacKenzie
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781420125689
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-07-01T00:55:36.305000+00:00

“Good afternoon, Lady Oxbury.” David executed a short bow and felt a twinge of compassion. The woman looked terrible. She’d obviously been crying—her nose was red and her eyes were swollen.

Perhaps she wasn’t the harpy he’d been imagining.

“Good afternoon, Lord D-Dawson.” She tried to sound cold, but the effect was spoiled when her voice cracked on his name.

“Aunt Kate! What is the matter?” Grace sat down on the bench next to her aunt and put an arm around her.

“Nothing.” Lady Oxbury wadded her handkerchief into one hand, raised her head, and lied. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“You are not perfectly fine. You’ve been crying.”

Grace had as much finesse with her aunt as Hermes had with squirrels. Lady Oxbury glared at her.

“I have not been crying.”

“You have. Your face is all red and blotchy.”

“I got a speck in my eye. It is out now. I am fine.”

This speech was accomplished with more glaring and some teeth gritting.

“But—”

It was definitely time to interrupt Grace before her aunt strangled her with Hermes’s leash. “Lady Oxbury, as it happens I was in search of you. I stopped at Oxbury House, and your butler directed me here.”

“Oh?” Lady Oxbury gave Grace one last glare, and then turned her attention to him. She smiled tightly. “And what did you wish to speak to me about, Lord Dawson?”

“He has an invitation to the country, Aunt Kate.”

He would have to muzzle Grace once they were married to keep her from putting her foot into her mouth constantly. She was rather like a bull in an emotional china shop. He smiled slightly while Lady Oxbury glared at Grace once more.

“You are interrupting Lord Dawson.”

Grace frowned and opened her mouth to argue, but she didn’t have much of an argument—she had interrupted him. She must have realized it as well; her frown deepened, but she remained silent.

“Lady Grace is correct, Lady Oxbury.” David grinned as Grace finally snapped her mouth shut. “Viscount Motton is getting up a house party. I have an invitation and I believe you will be receiving one soon…”

It was Lady Oxbury’s turn to frown and open her mouth.

“…as will my uncle.”

Lady Oxbury’s mouth hung open for a moment. She blinked. “Mr. Wilton will be in attendance?”

“Perhaps. He is being invited, but, as you know, he’s down at his estate, so I can’t say for certain whether he will be there or not.” Mentioning Alex had been risky. If Lady Oxbury held his uncle in extreme aversion, knowing he might be a guest would surely convince her to stay in London. But if she were not averse to Alex’s presence, if she actually wanted to see him…

He trusted his gut—it had never steered him wrong in all his investment decisions—and his gut told him Lady Oxbury wanted to—was desperate to—see Alex.

“Why is Viscount Motton having a house party now?”

Because he’d been carefully maneuvered into doing so. No, he couldn’t say that—and, on second thought, Motton was so canny, he probably just let David think he was maneuvering him. “Motton said he was ready for a respite from the noise and dirt of London.

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