When Dashing Met Danger by Shana Galen

Author:Shana Galen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

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An hour later, Lucia and Alex came down the grand staircase. Alex took no care to muffle his footsteps, and Lucia frowned at his broad back. She still had difficulty believing only Hodges, Alex's valet and butler, resided in the town house. She could only imagine the debauched picture she would present to poor old Hodges. Her rose dress was ruined, wrinkled and torn, her ball slippers were soggy and mud-stained, and she'd forgotten her gloves at home.

She'd tried to repair some of the damage the night's activities had wreaked on her appearance, and Alex had even offered to help. She shivered. Once again, he'd played hairdresser. His warm hands cupping her head, his skillful fingers running through her tangled curls, and the brush of his breath on the nape of her neck had aroused them both, causing yet another delay. Finally Lucia had settled for scrubbing her face and tying her heavy locks back with a pink ribbon she'd stashed in her reticule. The style was simple but functional.

At the foot of the staircase, Alex said, "I'm going to order the carriage and speak to Hodges. Wait here for me."

She nodded, descending the last of the stairs.

"No creeping out of windows," he lectured, a glint of amusement in his gray eyes. She huffed and tossed her hair, the effect ruined by the simple style. He grinned at her and disappeared down the hallway. She hadn't yet persuaded him to allow her to accompany him to this meeting with Wentworth, but she was working on a plan. After that, Alex would sail for France, and even Lucia realized that trip was beyond her reach. She shivered and remembered that she'd left her cloak on the bush outside the library window. She went to retrieve it, and it wasn't until she was back in the foyer that she began to wonder if she'd latched the window. But Alex would return in a moment, and he'd lecture her if she wasn't waiting right here.

She didn't have time for an argument, especially not now that Alex was finally acting with some urgency in the search for her missing brother.

She was contemplating another sense of urgency when she caught her reflection in the large gilded mirror hanging near the foyer's door. Unlike most bachelor residences, it seemed everything in Alex's house was either gilt or crystal. His preferences were tasteful and expensive. Her own family was well-to-do, but she knew the Dashing family fortune paled in comparison to those of the brothers Selbourne and Winterbourne.

They were two of the wealthiest men in England. Half brothers, Ethan had inherited his wealth from their mother's first husband, the Marquis of Winterbourne. When the marquis had died, Lady Winterbourne married the Earl of Selbourne and bore Alex. Selbourne had died about ten years before, leaving Alex to take possession of the beleaguered Selbourne fortune and estates.

He'd obviously been managing them well, she thought as she surveyed the tasteful foyer. Better than his father, whose

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