Wiles of a Stranger by Joan Smith

Author:Joan Smith [Smith, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1982-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Mrs. Beaudel did not request my presence or Lucien’s at her dinner table that evening. I brought the boy down to say good-night to her, and found the saloon empty. From behind the door of her private parlor issued soft, girlish giggles, and soon the deeper tone of Wiggins, flirting his head off. There were even scuffling sounds, indicating some playful chase. I assume he caught her, no difficult chore, as there ensued a longish silence.

“Mrs. Beaudel is busy. We shan’t interrupt her,” I said primly to my charge.

He gave me a sage look. “We better not. She don’t like to be disturbed when she is kissing Wiggins. She got very angry the last time I did it.”

“That was naughty of you,” I said, dispensing with any explanations to whitewash the trollop.

“It is naughty of her too, isn’t it, Miss Stacey? It is what comes of Uncle Charles marrying a young woman. It is a May-December match, Miss Little said.”

“A good lesson for you to remember,” I said playfully.

“I shall get married young, and kiss my wife my own self, instead of having the butler do it. But it is very nice for Wiggins, is it not?”

“Quite an unusual perquisite to his position.”

“What is a perquisite?” he asked, with an adult air.

“A little extra something besides money that goes along with a position.”

“Like your being able to have meetings with Major Morrison?” he asked slyly.

“I do not consider that a perquisite by any means.”

“He does, I think. He says you are very pretty, and wonders why you don’t have a husband.”

“Does he indeed!”

“He said I might just hint to discover whether you have a beau at home, if I like. Have you?”

“This is not a very subtle hint, Lucien,” I said, in lieu of answering.

“What’s subtle mean?” he asked.

“The lessons are over for today. It’s time for bed.”

“But do you have a beau? I told Major I would find out.”

“Then you shall have to tell him you failed in your mission.”

“He doesn’t have a girl.”

“How decent of him, since he has got a wife.”

“Has he? He did not say so.”

“Put on your nightshirt,” I ordered, turning down his bed, to allow him some privacy.

“Would you like to read me a story?” he asked, when we were done.

“I was hoping you would ask. Get a book.”

“If you like, you can read Blood Brothers, and learn how to become a blood sister. Algernon didn’t read me the whole thing. He had to stop before he was finished, to go back to college. It has hard words, or I would have finished it myself.”

This inclined me to think Algernon had used the book to pave the way for the major’s coming. I wondered why he had not come sooner. Blood Brothers was so far from being a child’s book that I had to paraphrase the whole thing, so wearing a pastime that I read him only three pages, before taking it to my room and starting at the beginning, after Lucien was tucked in.

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