Wicked Regency Nights--5 Book Box Set by Louise Allen

Author:Louise Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742902678
Publisher: Mills & Boon Special Release

Chapter 6

She’d thrown his boot at him! Hours later, Julian was still musing over Sophie DuPlessy’s eviction. He couldn’t remember a woman ever throwing him out of her house before. His morning interlude with Sophie certainly hadn’t gone in the direction he had been expecting. Usually an episode of strip piquet ended with some excellent lovemaking. Instead, this one had ended with him fleeing the house in haphazard fashion, stocking-footed and his boots in his hands like a sneaky lover in a Drury Lane farce.

Absently, Julian moved a pawn into position on the chessboard. Across from him, his partner—St. Just—tsked lightly. “Your mind is not on the game,” he noted, taking Julian’s pawn easily with a rook.

Julian leaned back in his chair, massaging his forehead. “I know. You’ll have me checkmated in three moves and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Valerian nodded his agreement. “Would you care to talk about it?”

“The game?”

“No, whatever is ailing you,” he said seriously.

Julian looked around the koffeehaus. The place was quieter than usual. A few groups of people were scattered throughout the establishment, busy reading newspapers or with conversations of their own. He’d been glad to find the place nearly empty. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts. It had been surprising to find St. Just there without the usual entourage of mutual acquaintances. Julian rather liked the serious young man sitting across from him. The viscount was the nephew of one of the British diplomats posted to Vienna, and very good at his work. Julian knew that even as young as he was, St. Just had been a trusted member of the British team that had gone into Turkey last year to negotiate water rights to the Dardanelle Straits.

“Does it have to do with your mission?” St. Just said politely, prompting him to speak. There were only a handful of people who understood Julian’s true reason for being in Vienna. To Julian’s mind, the fewer who knew, the better. There was little glory or respect in being a spy. There was absolutely none for a man who stole jewels, even at the behest of his monarch. Technically, he was lower than a spy. Socially, he was passing himself off as a diplomatic assistant to Valerian’s uncle—a completely respectable occupation for a second son.

“Somewhat,” Julian offered vaguely, reaching for his cup of rich Viennese coffee. He’d been pondering his situation with Sophie DuPlessy all afternoon, but now that there was a chance to talk it through he was reluctant to do so. He tried a new direction. “By the way, what are you doing here? It’s not your usual time of day. I didn’t expect to see you.”

Valerian shot him an arch look over the rim of his own coffee cup. “If you must know, I’m soaking in the last of Vienna for a while.”

“Are you going home to England at last?” Julian queried. He’d thought it more than passing strange that Valerian, with his title and estates, would elect to stay in Vienna as long as he had.

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