Page 76 of A Deal with the Devil

Chapter Nineteen

Tadworth House was on the edge of St. James’s Square and did not stand out from the rest in any noticeable fashion.

Until you stepped inside.

Kitty had never seen so much green, from the glass chandelier to the lime velvet curtains to the embroidered cushions all sporting toads of one type or another. The paintings were also on theme: mostly ponds and fens. The footman’s livery was in the same eye-watering shade of lime. The butler’s shoes were green.

It was a lot to take in. And this was from a woman who had snuck through Sir Reginald’s House of a Hundred Cabbages.

Kitty smiled up at Devil, who watched her expectantly as they waited for Lord Tadworth to join them. “I love it.”

“I shall summon a doctor posthaste,” he said drily.

For a man who terrified all of London, he was surprisingly funny and considerate. Considerate even despite the unsated arousal still pulsing between her thighs. The Devil had many tricks.

One of those tricks had gotten them through the front door and into Lord Tadworth’s spectacular library. Two stories of books soared around them, the oak polished to a smooth, warm finish underfoot. There were soft grooves worked into the wood, betraying Lord Tadworth’s regular path strolling through his beloved collection. Reading chairs sat near the hearth, padded and welcoming. A line of tables dissected the center, set with oil lamps between large terrariums filled with sand and dirt and greenery.

“Welcome, welcome,” Lord Tadworth bellowed from the doorway.

Kitty liked him immediately. His whiskers were as wild as promised, the same white as his bushy eyebrows. He wore spectacles and a waistcoat of faded green damask. He blinked at Kitty. “A lady, eh? Can’t remember the last time I had a lady in my library.”

Kitty curtsied. “Lord Tadworth.”

“Miss Caldecott is my fiancée,” Devil said, with more than a hint of warning.

“Eh?” Lord Tadworth said.

“I said Miss Caldecott is my fiancée,” Devil repeated, a touch louder.

Lord Tadworth blinked at him and then turned slightly to wink at Kitty. Kitty instantly wanted to trade in her angry, blustering grandfather for this eccentric old man who loved toads and teased the devil. “Want some tea?” he barked. “Of course you do.” He pulled the bell, not waiting for a response.

“You have an impressive library,” Kitty said. The bulk of his collection had been bound in leather, all dyed his signature green and with gold lettering.

Very helpful of him, actually. It would be simple enough to see which books were newly purchased from another library.

He frowned at her. A peridot pin flashed from the folds of his green cravat. “Miss Caldecott, did you say?”

“Yes.”

“You own that bookstore.”

Devil’s stance turned threatening with barely a muscle twitch. “And?”

“I’m not selling any of my books,” Lord Tadworth said stubbornly. “I don’t care if the Devil himself demands it. Call in my debt early if you must.”

“No one is forcing you to sell your books,” Kitty said fiercely. “Who would do that?”

“Every single one of my children,” he muttered. “Think the estate is already theirs, don’t they? Bah.”

Kitty realized his debt must have been incurred by purchasing new books or marble statues of toads. She shook her head. “I’m not here to take your books,” she promised. “Only to look at them, if I may. It’s rare to find another collector as avid as I am.” Avid. Obsessive. Fanatical. Close enough.

“Well, if that’s the truth, then.”

“It is, I promise.”

“I like you.”

“I like you too, Lord Tadworth.”