Oh. He hadn’t had time to ponder the conseq–
Strong arms enveloped him. “I’m so proud of you, nephew. At last! And two of them – how wonderfully rakish. I was starting to worry your mother did more than just smile at the second footman.”
“What? No!” He disentangled himself. “Our guest is a gentlewoman, a lady.” At least, he assumed so.
“Better still! Nothing like the ruination of gentlewomen to scandalise the old tabbies! We’ll be the talk of London once more! The return of the reprehensible Rothwells!”
Casper grabbed Uncle Virgil by his silk lapels. “We need a respectable chaperone in this house. And fast.”
Mrs Swift’s widow status would not halt the gossip – the Ton would fall upon it like ferrets upon a grouse. As the Duke of Diamonds, he was known for his ruthless dealings and unstirred emotions, not libidinous hankerings – that was Ernest’s area of renown.
Uncle’s shoulders drooped. “Damnation, I knew it was too good to be true.” He scratched beneath his wig in thought, lace cuffs dislodging the face patch. “I suppose we could invite Cousin Lydia to chaperone. She gets rather lonely rattling around in that place on Hanover Square.”
“She’s half-blind and somewhat deaf.”
“Perfect chaperone material then.” Uncle winked and wended his way to introduce himself.
Casper tapped fingers to thigh. Now that Mrs Swift resided beneath his roof, he could get to the bottom of both the paintingandMrs Swift, but just as he was contemplating such a pleasant task, the basket which the sister had arrived with rattled across the marble floor.
Then bobbed up and down.
The young Miss Smith – and he wouldn’t even demean himself by debating the validity of thatnom de guerre– fell to her knees, scrabbling at the string bow with a cry of…Cleopatra?
Oh, Lud. Please no.
A lean black cat peered from the basket, graciously deigned to accept a pat on the head from the sister, narrowed its green eyes at Casper and then hopped out.
Whiskers twitched and eyes widened in disdain at its palatial surroundings as it stalked towards him on white paws.
How dare it.
TheThingproceeded to weave between his top-boots, rubbing its shoulder and leaving clods of fur, before jumping onto the side table, springing into Casper’s hideously expensive upturned beaver hat, and settling in for a snooze.
“I say, Casp,” his uncle wittered, “Cleopatra’s taken a liking to you.”
Casper pinched his forehead.
This is what happened when one allowed spontaneity.
Chapter 16
Both eyes and hearts can lie.
Damn, damn, damn.
Casper paced from desk to mantelpiece…and then back again. He’d truly not thought this through.
No, you dimwit, his noggin agreed.You did not. Your nether regions merely beheld the desirable Evelyn Swift in trouble and hence took the possible forger into your home. Added to that, she has a fragile younger sister, so you cannot just toss them into the street when her lies are uncovered.
Dolt.
As the women had followed his housekeeper up the staircase, the sister had coughed. And not a gentle wheeze but a deep convulsing croup that had made all wince in pain. MissWhatever-her-name-really-washad a delicate air: thin arms, bloodless lips and hollows to her cheeks that shouldn’t be there. Yet she held a ready smile and a resolve to her pale-green eyes.
And as for Evelyn… Her shoulders had drooped at her sister’s rasp, arm slung around her waist, and such sibling affection and care made him feel most peculiar.
Shemade him feel peculiar.
Twisting, he studied his painting on the wall, and then shifted his eyes to the fraud, for want of a better word, propped upon a chair to one side.
