Beyond a Wicked Kiss by Jo Goodman

Author:Jo Goodman [Goodman, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Historical Romance
ISBN: 9780821774175
Google: eZpZb77x9iEC
Amazon: 0821774174
Barnesnoble: 0821774174
Goodreads: 207557
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 2004-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Blackwood motioned to West to remove the pictures from his sight. West carefully rolled both and slipped the strings back on to secure them. He laid them on the sideboard and returned to his chair. The colonel, he noted, was visibly agitated by what he had seen. It was not a state that West observed very often, and he could not fathom what it was about the paintings that had prompted this reaction. The colonel was a man of the world. He had been to Africa and India, toured all of the Continent, studied at Harrow and Oxford, could speak intelligently on the campaigns of every great commander since Alexander, and held his own when the topic turned to literature, music, or art.

West could not conceive that the colonel had never seen paintings like Beckwith's before. That was not to say Blackwood could not be offended by them—West certainly was—yet it was something more than offended sensibilities that had the colonel wheeling sharply around his chair in search of the decanter of whiskey.

"What can you tell me about the artist?" asked West.

Blackwood poured his drink and knocked back a large swallow before he answered. "Besides that he is a bedlamite and a bloody talented painter? Nothing whatsoever." He added another finger of whiskey to his tumbler to replenish what he'd drunk and turned around slowly. "How did you come by those? I thought when you left London your destination was your ward's school and then the manor at Ambermede."

"It was, and I went to both places. The paintings came from neither." He explained where he had found them, as well as the why of it, then handed the colonel Beckwith's book.

Blackwood reluctantly parted with his whiskey to have a look at it. He riffled the pages first one way, then the other, before he tossed it back to West. "I haven't seen one of those since I was a schoolboy, and never one that would make de Sade himself blush. Mr. Beckwith's proclivities are certainly apparent—not that I judge a man harshly for such things—but that he is on the board of governors of a school for young ladies is perhaps worth noting."

West nodded. "The same had occurred to me. I thought I would show the book to East's father. Sir James might be able to tell me something about it—when it was published and by whom, who could have done the original engravings. It is not one of a kind, I think, but there cannot have been many printed."

"I agree. You must speak to him. If he does not know the answers, he will direct you to someone who does."

It occurred to West that Blackwood was more comfortable discussing the book than the paintings. Still, something had to be said about them. "You recognized the woman in the paintings."

The colonel was aware that West hadn't posed a question, but made a statement. He sipped his drink, then nodded. "Miss India Parr. She is not easily mistaken for anyone else.

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