Naked Nobility - 04 - The Naked Gentleman by Sally MacKenzie

Naked Nobility - 04 - The Naked Gentleman by Sally MacKenzie

Author:Sally MacKenzie
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Historical Fiction
Published: 2011-06-09T03:00:00+00:00


Chapter 12

“What was he doing?” Meg had been trying to puzzle out the answer to that question ever since she’d seen Lord Bennington emerge from under Lady Felicity’s skirts in Easthaven’s garden two days earlier. “He’s not a physician.” She frowned, replaying the scene in her mind for the hundredth time. “Though Lady Felicity did look very odd. Do you suppose she was in pain?”

“She was not in pain.”

Mr. Parker-Roth sounded distinctly testy. Meg glanced over at him. His ears looked distinctly red, as well. Was he embarrassed? Why?

He did not meet her gaze, but lengthened his stride so they were almost galloping across the lawn at the Duke of Hartford’s estate on the Thames.

“Will you slow down? We are not in a footrace, are we?”

“No, of course not.”

If anything, the man increased his pace. Meg put out her hand and caught his arm.

“What is the matter?”

“Nothing is the matter.”

She blew out a short, annoyed breath. “I am not a complete ninnyhammer. Something is the matter.”

Mr. Parker-Roth stopped and looked at her. “Why didn’t you ask your sister about the scene in the garden?”

Meg felt her cheeks flush. She avoided Parks’s eyes. “I don’t know. It was too hard to describe, I suppose. Too odd. I mean, who would believe a grown man would be under a woman’s skirts in the garden outside a ball? It is…absurd.”

“Exactly. Just put it out of your mind.”

She couldn’t do that, either. She’d tried. There was something about the tableau that would not let it be forgotten.

“Lord Bennington and Lady Felicity are engaged now.”

Parks snorted and resumed his breakneck pace down the hill toward the group of people playing bowls.

“I would hope so.”

“Why?”

He stopped again. “Miss Peterson, please. You may not understand exactly what Lord Bennington was up to, but you certainly understand he should not have been involved in any activity requiring a visit beneath a lady’s skirt.”

“Of course, but—”

“And he was discovered by Lady Dunlee.”

Meg snorted herself this time. “Lady Dunlee is not one to preach propriety after what she was doing in the garden.” She paused. What had Lady Dunlee been doing?

“Lord and Lady Dunlee are married. What they do between themselves cannot be construed as scandalous.”

“I was scandalized.” She didn’t need to know the specifics to know something shocking had occurred.

“You are a virgin. You don’t count.”

“What do you mean, I don’t count?” She grabbed his arm again. She might not be experienced, but still…“Weren’t you scandalized?”

Mr. Parker-Roth flushed. “I might have been surprised, yes. I hadn’t considered…one doesn’t usually consider…” He shrugged. “But scandalized? No. As I say, they are married. A certain degree of…intimacy…is to be expected in marriage as a matter of course.”

Meg shook his arm. “But in the bushes? Lady Dunlee?”

Parks shrugged and started walking again. She fell into step beside him. Lord and Lady Dunlee were old. Who would have thought old people could still engage in activities requiring screening by bushes?

She should have thought it. Lady Dunlee was quite possibly younger than Papa and Harriet, and they were certainly very…ardent.



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