Regency Delights by Patricia Rice

Author:Patricia Rice
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Deceiving Appearances

Admiring the image in the shop window of the well-dressed gentleman in gray top hat and velvet-collared cloak, Peter Denning straightened his broad shoulders, and when the image did the same, he smiled, cocked the hat to a rakish angle, and proceeded onward.

The absurd silk scarf dangling about his neck swung as he walked despite the expensive tiepin, and he felt a trifle foolish tucking a bit of stick beneath his arm as the other gentlemen on the street were wont to do, but his side-whiskers were neatly groomed and his Wellingtons gleamed and he was satisfied that he had perfected the image of the perfect gentleman that he had set out to portray. The knowledge that he was no such thing was keenly imprinted in his mind, but there was no need for the world to know that.

It was not that he meant to defraud the society in which he walked. He had as much wealth and more as the young gentlemen in the club to which he turned his feet now. Unfortunately, that wealth had not come about from the opportune demise of one of his relatives.

His mother had been a lady's maid who had never seen two coins to rub together in all her life. His father had had the courtesy to marry her before disappearing from their lives, but that had been the extent of his involvement in Peter's affairs.

No, the wealth that paid for a well-appointed apartment in Mayfair, a valet who had naught better to do than see to his master's newly acquired wardrobe, and a rig and four that ate their worth in expensive feed had come from hard toil.

Not to mention a certain shipping venture that had generated unexpected profits. Denning grinned to himself as he pushed open the elaborately carved door. A servant who had shirked his duties rushed forward filled with apology, bowing and scraping as Peter handed him his cane and hat.

After all those years on the sea in the company of men who ate, slept, and breathed in their own filth, he was finding it exceedingly pleasant to return to the cultured confines of an orderly society, one that he had only been able to admire from afar before he went to sea.

He was learning to conquer these outer appearances very well. He had grown up on the estate of a wealthy lord, listening to the speech of his betters, cultivating their accents even more than his mother had. His mother had encouraged him, hoping one day he would find a position in the household for himself and so secure his future.

But Peter had grown into a great strapping lad with ideas of his own, and bowing and scraping before effeminate lords and their vain ladies had not been among them.

But he'd had his stomach full of sea now, and it was time to turn his mind to new pursuits. He had every confidence that he could achieve whatever goal he set himself, but this particular pursuit seemed to be dragging out to tedious lengths and prospects weren't looking good.

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