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“Much better. Now tell me who this handsome devil is.”
“Will, this is Lady Whitely. She owns the house. Lady Whitely, this is my friend Will Atherton.”
“Good evening, Lady Whitely.” Will stood and kissed the back of her hand. He had to admit this was a first—treating a common whore like a true lady.
“Good evening to you, Your Grace.” Lady Whitely smiled up at him. “Do you think I wouldn’t have heard of you?”
“I would not know.”
“Everyone knows you are in town, Your Grace.” She turned back to Somerton. “I would like to speak with you soon.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Very well,” she said with a quick nod, and then departed.
Will drank another glass of whisky and then leaned back in his chair and laughed. “I guess this is one of the reasons Elizabeth warned me about you.”
“She did? I barely know the chit. Why would she not like me?”
“Something about your reputation,” Will commented. The whisky was finally helping him relax. So he sipped down some more.
Somerton shrugged. “So I have been known to frequent a brothel. I’m no different than most men.”
“True enough. But she mentioned something about killing a few men.”
“All lies to make me look nefarious in the eyes of the ton.” Somerton leaned in a little closer and asked, “So how is the fair Lady Elizabeth?”
“Angry.”
Somerton grimaced. “At you?”
“Of course at me. She gets along fine with the children, and she and Ellie seem to have forged a friendship.”
“What exactly were you two arguing about tonight?”
Will sipped his drink to gather his thoughts. “Family.”
“Yours or hers?”
“Ours. It’s very important to her that I learn all about the exalted history of the Duke of Kendal. Not that I give a damn about it.” Will gulped the rest of his whisky and poured another glass.
“Ahh,” Somerton replied. “But by not giving a damn, as you so eloquently said, you have insulted her.”
“I never insulted her.”
“The woman is a spinster. All she has is her family, and by dismissing her relatives, you are rejecting her.”
Damn the man for being so intuitive. “I think I asked her to leave tonight,” Will muttered before drinking another glass of w
hisky.
“You did what?” Somerton slammed his glass on the table, and everyone in the room stared at them both. “Go on about your business,” he barked to the room.
Will related the high points of the argument. “I told her that it might be time for her to leave my house.”
“You ass.” Somerton stood and pulled out Will’s chair, too. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
