“It’s not an appropriate place for debutantes.”
“You’re very good at saying no to my requests.”
“I have your best interests at heart.” Except when he was picturing her as a naked wood nymph, red hair falling in luscious waves over small, round breasts...
“But Patrick said it wasn’t too disreputable, that you held charity events sometimes.”
“Don’t believe him.”
“Perhaps I could accompany you in disguise! No one need know it’s me. I’ll go disguised as your groom. I’ll tuck my hair up into a cap and wear trousers and I’ll speak with a Cockney accent. I will observe very quietly. I won’t cause any trouble. I should like to learn to sit a horse. I’ve never even observed a gentleman’s stallion and yet I’m to describe several such horses for my book.”
“I have an excellent manual on horse breeding at my house. You may study the drawings.”
“That’s no good. You know I prefer real experiences to secondhand observations. I’ll be your silent shadow.”
He snorted. “I very much doubt you’re capable of being a silent shadow.”
“I will in the name of research for my book.”
“You’re not visiting the Thunderbolt Club disguised as my groom.”
“Not as your groom. Then perhaps... as your pretend paramour? I’d wear a lace veil to hide my face. A scandalous red velvet gown. I shall hover by your side, catering to your every whim, perhaps even perching upon your knee? You can pretend to be fascinated by me.”
There would be no pretending. Now he was picturing her in lace and red velvet sitting on his lap. He shifted on the carriage seat, glad of the cover of his coat.
“While the other gentlemen are distracted by their own birds of paradise I shall take a look around, memorizing the description of the interior for my book.”
“Pardon me, but most of the gentlemen at my club are happily married.”
“Has that ever stopped a London lord from philandering?”
“Well... yes. It has in the case of my friends. It’s not a philanderer’s club, it’s a horse club.”
“Surely there are unmarried gentlemen?”
“Yes, some members are bachelors with reputations as rakes.”
“I want to meet such a gentleman and observe him at close range. I’m finding it very difficult to draw a portrait of a rake, having never met a proper one. A London rake, specifically, which is a thing I have no personal knowledge of.”
“You’re not to consort with rakes. I used to be one and I know what goes on in a rake’s mind.”
“You used to be a rake?”
Her astonishment rankled. “I was a rake. And a bounder.” Entitled. Arrogant. Unheeding of anything but his own pleasure and position in the world.
“Then I may consult you on the character of Sir Archer Falconer, the villainous rake who contrives to corner Miss Adora and steal a kiss. I must know the flattering ardent things he would say to lure her into abandoning caution... and her chaperone.”
“You won’t be observing any villains at close range.” Except for him. And from now on the range would be much farther out. He intended never to be alone with her again.
There were so many things she absolutely wasn’t going to learn from him... how to sit a horse, how to flirt with a rake. How to kiss.
Chapter Twelve
Fear and fascination pinned her to the spot. She was transfixed by the poison green triangle of his face, seen clearly for the first time in the light of day. It filled the space before her. The finely scaled snout with its delicately waving whiskers, the cavernous nostrils mounted by expressive ridges, the webbed ears arching back from its brow, and suddenly, as two sets of eyelids flicked open above and below, the golden eyes, whirling at the center in a molten starburst, hypnotizing her, stoking an answering conflagration deep within her.
—The Dragon and the Blue Starby Analise Crewe
“Are you quite certain that my nephew invited us to his club today? He didn’t say anything to me about it.” Lady Glynis was always suspicious when it came to any pronouncement from Ana.