by Shana Galen
“If you’re going to meet your parents, you will have to wash and change.”
“I don’t have parents,” she declared.
No surprise there. She was obviously the spawn of Satan. Still, it was interesting. An enterprising thief, as she seemed to be, might see opportunity in pretending to be the daughter of a marquess.
“Then you are not Lady Elizabeth Grafton?” he asked.
“My name is Marlowe.”
Dane waited.
“Just Marlowe,” she added.
“And you are not the daughter of the Marquess of Lyndon?”
“I don’t know the bloody man. Now, if you’ll just let me go—” She attempted to push past him, but Dane—pushing aside his distaste for the dirt covering her—caught her about the waist. She jumped back, and he stepped to the side before she could hit him. Looked like she had a good right hook too.
“I’m afraid I cannot let you go.”
She glared at him. “Why not?”
“So glad you asked. Two reasons, actually. First of all, my brother is a prime investigator. I don’t know how he does it, but he knows information. Which leads to the second reason. If he thinks you are Lady Elizabeth Grafton, I must give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“That’s a fancy way of saying I’m a liar.”
Dane spread his hands. “It is nothing of the sort.”
She crossed her arms under her ample bosom. “Really? Don’t you think I know who I am? I told you my name is Marlowe. I don’t know this lady you’re talking about. Now, tell me again my name is Elizabeth, and you’re calling me a liar.”
Dane stared at her for a long moment. Shocking to admit, but the girl had a point. He was, in essence, calling her a liar. “I didn’t intend to offend you.”
“You can dress a pig up however you want, but it’s still a pig.”
Now they were speaking of animals? Or was this girl more intelligent than she looked? “Are you using a metaphor?” he asked.
“No more fancy words,” she demanded. “Let me go!”
He refused to sink to her level and holler back. “There is no point in allowing you to go. My brother will only find you again.” And Dane would have to listen to a lecture for allowing the girl to escape.
“No, he won’t. I can hide so I’m never found.”
She didn’t know Brook. He could find anyone, and he was patient. He could wait years for a man or woman to surface. But Dane wasn’t going to argue that point with her. He had others yet to be introduced. “Be that as it may,” Dane conceded, “I am not about to let you go. As I see it, you have a choice: either willingly take a bath, don clean clothing, and eat a hot meal...”
“Or?” She tapped her foot rapidly.
“Or do all of that—except perhaps the hot meal—under duress.”
“Duress?”
He smiled thinly. “I force you.”
“You think you can make me do something I don’t want?” She notched her chin up in a challenge.
“Yes.”
She looked at him for a long time. He didn’t know what she saw in his eyes, but finally she nodded. “All right, but you’re not watching the bath.”
“Madam, I assure you, I had no intention of doing so. I will stand in the kitchen with my back turned. I give you my word as a gentleman.”
She rolled her eyes. “Some gentleman, forcing me to take a bath against my will.”
“Yes, I know. The horror.”
“And another thing.”
He sighed. “What now?”
More from Shana Galen
Want to read more? Earls Just Want to Have Fun is the first in Shana’s new Covent Garden Cubs series.
Never miss a book! Join Shana’s mailing list, and be the first to receive information on sales and new releases. Shana never spams or sells readers’ information.
If you liked Ethan and Francesca, they make appearances in the other books in Shana’s Regency Spies series, which begins with When Dashing Met Danger.
Other series from Shana Galen:
The Lord and Lady Spy series begins with Lord and Lady Spy.
The Jewels of the Ton series begins with When You Give a Duke a Diamond.
The Sons of the Revolution series begins with The Making of a Duchess.
The Misadventures in Matrimony series begins with No Man’s Bride.