The Problem with Seduction - By Emma Locke Page 0,41
to the humid evening air. He’d fortified himself with brandy-laced coffee for his first occasion as protector. Yet as he started in the direction of Elizabeth’s townhouse, he couldn’t help but think that he should be more prepared for this mistress thing than he was.
It wasn’t that he’d never wanted a mistress. Nor was it that he didn’t enjoy women, as Elizabeth had teased. He’d participated in his fair share of romps. Before he’d grown older. Wiser. Realized the extent of his family’s situation, and got to thinking about how he might better their lot, rather than waste precious coin on women he’d never see again.
That was when he’d turned to investing. But his new lady, Lady Luck, was playing coy these days.
The warm wind blowing off the Thames changed direction. Fetid scents assailed him: horses and coal smoke, a pile of refuse in the gutter. His belly tightened. He held his breath as the wind seemed to bring the putrid odor of the floating prisons right to his nose. The stench was too close to that of King’s Bench, where he’d spent the most terrifying six days of his life. He never wanted to see that place again.
Lady Luck needed to stand by his side. Soon.
He tugged his hat more firmly onto his head lest a stray wind blow it into the drain overflowing with filth. He turned down Bond and reminded himself that he shouldn’t fear prison as much as he did. He’d paid his creditors. Darius’, too, for God’ sake. If Dare was in over his head again, well, that wasn’t his problem, was it? He need only worry about his own investments failing.
But that was one of the troubles with being a twin. He wasn’t sure he could turn his back on any of his brothers, but Dare… Dare was a piece of his own soul.
He didn’t want to consider too closely what it meant if he couldn’t just stand by and watch the selfish rotter be condemned to debtors’ prison. Merely thinking about the place made him want to retch. Their father had died there. Just outside of King’s Bench, in a tiny hovel Tony had purchased for him when he’d scraped together enough to buy Liberty of the Rules. Being confined to filthy apartments rather than the prison itself hadn’t been enough. The squalid streets around the fortress bred disease, and gaol fever didn’t concern itself with rank.
Blast it all, but he needed a solution. One with more permanence than the turn of a card. Other men were able to make a living prospecting? Why not he?
He strode blindly down an empty street shadowed by the gray pall of evening. There was just so much he didn’t know. His lacking was compounded by the fact that, in a family of rakes and attorneys, there was no one he could ask for help. No one he dared to ask for help, at any rate, and even if he did ask, what would any of them do besides shake his head and tsk? Not a one knew the first thing about finances. So what was the point in telling them how badly he’d mucked up his affairs? Or betraying Darius?
His stomach knotted. What could be done for his brother that they hadn’t already tried with their father?
He thrust Dare from his thoughts. He’d rather think about Elizabeth and her child. He felt pleased with his efforts in that direction, actually. He liked being the one she depended on. She listened to him.
It did bring him back around, however, to the matter of advertising his relationship with her. Dusk had settled over the city, but it was still early yet for him to call on her. He wound his way down the London streets as he waited for full darkness to fall. Were the right neighbors watching her door? Would anyone take note of his comings and goings? Or should he arrive much, much later than this, and stay on until morning, when his presence at her townhouse couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than a carnal affaire?
His body leapt at the thought of having her. He forced himself to train all of his energy on making the correct turns at each street corner and not being flattened by a barouche. He didn’t regret the terms of their association…but…
Much as he’d like to pretend he was immune to her… He wasn’t.
Finally, full darkness fell. He made his way to Elizabeth’s doorstep and paused before knocking. He needed