My Lady Melisende (Ladies Least Likely Book 6) by Misty Urban

Author:Misty Urban [Urban, Misty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oliver Heber Books
Published: 2025-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Smartest thing you’ve done yet, Devlin. Attaching yourself to that one.” His friend nodded in a direction beyond Philip’s shoulder, but Philip didn’t have to turn to know she was near.

With his excellent peripheral vision, it was easy to track her without appearing to, and besides that, her crimson costume made her stand out. But it was likely he would know Melisende’s location even if he stood blindfolded. He could sense her, a combination of heat and scent, a heightened awareness no doubt brought about by extreme sexual attraction.

His mother had always told her girls some folderol about how they would simply know when they had met a compatible partner. It was a knowledge acquired outside the customary senses, the way she spoke of it, but a calm certainty nonetheless. Of the men of acceptable rank, birth, and personal fortune—for those were the only men allowed near his sisters—one would identify himself through instinct alone as her mate.

Philip feared he was experiencing that with Melisende.

“It’s been an interesting few days,” Philip responded coolly.

Ralph Plimpton snorted. He’d been an easy target for information once, a knight’s son with an affection for the gambling tables and the latest fashions, and shockingly loose of lips when plied with small amounts of alcohol. His father had bought him a commission in some standing militia, a position that allowed his son the posture of military rank but kept him close to home and not in the fetid Americas where he might contract tropical fever in the Indies or, further north, become a target for a rebel patriot taking aim at a lobsterback. Now that hostilities were over, Plimpton could brag that he’d been a part of the action, little knowing he’d been an unwitting player in helping North’s cabinets track militia strength and speculate about how much manpower they might gather to ship overseas and bring the colonists to heel. Moreover, Plimpton still thought he and Philip were friends.

“How far will she go to gain British allies?” Plimpton waggled his brows in a suggestive way.

Philip straightened his back. “Do you mean, how much money will she pay to men of fortune who might supply her with an army to take back her country?”

“Yes, that.” Plimpton gave him a sly smile. “How much coin will she put out?”

“I wouldn’t advise you to try,” Philip said through gritted teeth.

“Oh ho, thus the wind blows! You’ve made a claim to exclusivity then?”

“I have put myself in the lady’s service, if that is what you want to know,” Philip answered.

He didn’t intend for his voice to emerge as a growl. He intended to be nonchalant. Unaffected. But Plimpton, eyes widening, took a step backward, stumbling a bit in the large leather boots he had donned as his Cavalier costume. “Good Lord, you’re head over spurs! My condolences, man!”

“I’m not any—” Philip began, then forgot his protest as a new set of guests entered the hall. “I’m needed. Excuse me.”

Melisende stood talking to what Philip guessed to be a

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