The Clever Strumpet by Farmer Merry

Author:Farmer, Merry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Rufus expected to lay awake all night, trying to find a way out of proposing to Lady Malvis in the morning. That or racking his brain for ways that he and Caro could expose Wallace Newman as the diamond thief and bring him and Lord Hazelton to justice. But after returning Caro to her school, enduring a painfully long supper with his family, and dragging himself up to his room after midnight, the moment his spent body hit his bed, he fell asleep. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, considering how “active” he and Caro had been during their carriage rides.

His dreams were filled with astoundingly carnal images of Caro riding him like a thoroughbred, and he awoke with a smile and a cockstand. But that happy state of being faded fast when reality swooped down on him.

“You are expected at Cunningham House at precisely ten this morning,” his father reminded him at the breakfast table without looking up from his ham and eggs. “Dress appropriately for this weather and make your suit clear and concise.”

“Yes, Father,” Rufus grumbled. He’d helped himself to a large breakfast, but the food seemed to turn to ash in his mouth after a few bites. He pushed his plate back and stood, marching out of the room without another word for his parents or his brother. If he was doomed to engage himself to a woman he could never love and to throw over the one woman whom he ached to spend the rest of his days with, he might as well get it over with as soon as possible.

The one light of consolation in the whole mess was that he had just enough time to send Nigel Kent a missive detailing his and Caro’s interview with Miss Dobson the day before. There was no telling if Kent would believe him, though. As far as he knew, Kent still saw him and Felix Lichfield as the prime suspects in the theft. Attempting to help the investigation couldn’t hurt, though.

By the time he rolled to a stop in front of Cunningham House and dragged himself up to the front door to inquire after Lady Malvis, he was restless and irritable and considering throwing himself in the Thames to avoid what he knew he had to do.

“You’re late,” Lady Malvis snapped after introductions and pleasantries directed to her mother, once the two of them were strolling along Brook Street toward Hyde Park, arm in unfortunate arm.

“I don’t believe I am,” Rufus said with a frown.

“You arrived at three past ten,” Lady Malvis informed him.

Rufus clenched his jaw. “I would hardly call that late.”

“I would.” The two words were as sharp as a switch to the knuckles delivered by a particularly vicious governess. But Lady Malvis wasn’t done. “When we are wed, I will expect perfect punctuality in all things.”

Rufus remained silent and sullen. He supposed Malvis would set a strict schedule for the marriage bed as well. He would be required to come after ten strokes precisely, not nine, not eleven.

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