The Girl is Not For Christmas - Emma V Leech Page 0,28

was that an attractive quality? She wondered. There must be something very wrong with the feminine brain to find a man with the morals of an alley cat more appealing than a well-behaved one. Yet often being well-behaved was so dashed dull, so perhaps there was a kind of sense in it. Either way, a man like that could teach her a thing or two and have no qualms about doing it. All in a good cause, and only because she needed the experience to… to help her achieve her goal, obviously.

“Do I have jam on my chin?”

“Beg pardon?”

“You are staring at me, Miss Penrose, and whilst I am quite happy for you to admire the view, singular as it is, you are making me nervous.”

“Forgive me, I was just considering what you’d said and wondering if I ought to take you up on it. It really might serve me well,” Livvy replied, frowning into her teacup and trying to decide if it was a stroke of brilliance or if she’d run quite mad.

It was remarkably hard to tell in this house.

The earl frowned at her, obviously baffled.

“I asked if I had jam on my chin,” he said, before taking a bite of bread and jam.

“What? No, no. How on earth does that serve me in any way? Do keep up. No, the bit before that. You said you were at my disposal, if I decided I would like to… to tryst with you.”

Kingston choked. His eyes watered and he went quite red in the face, so Livvy sprang to her feet and pounded him on the back.

“Oh dear, that blackberry is quite tart. I ought to have warned you. We were rather low on sugar, so I scrimped a little. Likely why it didn’t set as firm as it ought to have, either. I assure you it’s not my best effort.”

“Damn the bloody jam!” Kingston exclaimed once he could speak again. “And stop hitting me. I didn’t even provoke you this time.”

“Yes, you did,” Livvy retorted, straightening, and returning to her seat. “You walked into the room. I don’t know why, but that seems all the provocation required to want to throw things at you or do you bodily harm. Strange, isn’t it?”

“Not in the least. My valet remarks on it often enough, but stop changing the subject. Did you say you were deciding whether to… to…?”

“Tryst with you,” Livvy finished for him, realising she was babbling but quite unable to stop herself. “Yes. I was, though why you are getting so flustered about it I don’t know. Isn’t this the sort of thing you get up to all the time? I would think you’d be more sanguine by now.”

Kingston opened and closed his mouth, opened it again and took a breath—looking for all the world as if he were about to tear her off a strip—and then closed it again.

“Do stop doing that, you look like a carp and they always make me shudder. All those little mouths opening and closing. Ugh.” Livvy shook her head and wondered why the earl looked quite so outraged, but then she supposed his light skirts rarely compared him to a carp. It wasn’t likely to make a man foolish with passion, was it? “There, you see, I’m certain your high-flyers don’t speak about fish. This is why I need your help.”

“My help?” he repeated, still staring at her like she’d grown a second head.

“Yes,” Livvy said, pouring him out a cup of tea with hands that trembled suspiciously. She peered into the cup. “I’m afraid it’s a little strong. Do you like it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Your tea, do you like it strong?” She frowned at him, wondering if he looked feverish. There was a definite flush to his cheeks. “Are you feeling quite well? You seem awfully out of sorts this morning.”

“I have a headache,” he said tersely.

“Ah, yes, I suspected you did. Bound to make you waspish.”

“I am not waspish!”

Livvy gave him a doubtful look. He certainly sounded as if he’d taken a pet.

“As you like. Do drink your tea, though. I’m sure it will help. Also, I believe your vast experience will be invaluable to me, so I shall take you up on your kind offer. Now, when should we begin, do you think? I could probably spare half an hour before lunch if that suits?”

There followed a taut silence during which her heart thudded in her ears.

Livvy went to speak, but he raised a finger and pointed at