A Loving Scoundrel

by Johanna Lindsey

  “I’m guessing closer to four or five, might even ’ave been six.”

  “So you’re closer to twenty? Might even be twenty-one?”

  She nodded. It was curt though. She still wouldn’t relax and he wasn’t sure how to fix that when he was the one making her nervous. He’d been hoping she’d open up and forget that she’d rather be anywhere other than having a conversation with him.

  He tried a different route. “Was Dagger the one who taught you to steal?”

  “It were Lucy. She were the one who found me and took me in.”

  Two were s that close together reminded him that he’d meant to help her with her vocabulary. “Was instead of were. ”

  “Eh?”

  “You used the word were twice. The correct—”

  She cut him off indignantly, “I know I don’t talk good enough to be a maid in a fancy house like this. Mrs. Robertson is trying to help, but she gets distracted easy and goes off on some other subject.”

  “I’ll teach you.”

  For some reason that garnered a scowl. “Teach me wot?”

  He chuckled over her overly suspicious mind. “Anything you like, dear girl, but what I was referring to was your speech. It can be corrected, you know. Had to have m’own corrected as well. That doesn’t surprise you? Oh, I see, you don’t believe me.”

  “And wot did ye talk like?” she asked, her tone scoffing. “Me?”

  “Not quite.” He grinned. “But close.”

  She snorted. Apparently, she still wasn’t buying it. “Were ye stolen then as a babe? Raised amongst thieves?”

  “I was raised in a tavern on the docks, Danny, and if you snort again, I’ll come over there and squeeze your nose shut. It was where my mother worked for many years and where I stayed after she died. I’m a bastard, don’t you know,” he added cheerfully.

  “Ye aren’t joking, are ye?”

  “Not a’tall. And roll that u off your tongue, m’dear.”

  She blushed, but only slightly. “When did ye-ur father take you in then?”

  “I was sixteen when he found me, or rather, I found him. He didn’t know I existed.”

  “Then how’d you know who he was?”

  “Because my mother was so taken with him that she talked about him at least once every single day and described him so perfectly, I knew him the moment I saw him. Bowled him over, of course, when I told him I was his son.”

  “And he believed you?”

  Jeremy chuckled. “Well, there were a few moments of doubt, extreme doubt actually, not that I wasn’t related to him, but that I was his. He knew I was related, couldn’t miss that, when I look just like his brother Tony. But after I told him about my mother, he actually remembered her, and the time he’d spent with her.”

  “So wot you’re saying is, you didn’t become a nabob till you were sixteen?” she asked incredulously.

  “Indeed.”

  “But you act like one so bleedin’ perfectly.”

  He laughed. “Quite acquired, dear girl. All of which proves my point, don’t it?”

  “That I can learn to talk like you?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I used to,” she admitted.

  “Eh?”

  She laughed now. It was such a delightful sound Jeremy caught his breath. And she didn’t keep him in suspense, adding, “Talk like you.”

  “Really?”

  “A few times it’s come back naturally to me, but most times I have to think about it first, and when I’m nervous or angry, I forget about even trying. It was so long ago that I talked proper that it just doesn’t seem familiar to me now.”

  “Sure, you’re ancient, I know.”

  She grinned but said no more, which drove his curiosity through the roof. “So you weren’t born in the slums?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know where I was born. I lost my memory when I was young. Lucy found me, like I mentioned, and took me home with her. She weren’t more’n twelve or so herself. It’s hard to remember that long ago, but I recall she said I talked too fine, that I wouldn’t fit in unless I talked like her, so she fixed that—probably like you’ve been doing,” Danny ended with a grin.

  “Where were you when she found you?”

  “In an alley.”

  “You don’t remember how you got there?”

  “Sure I do. Miss Jane brought me there. She died though, the same day Lucy found me.”

  “Who was Miss Jane? Your mother?”

  “She said she weren’t, that she was a nurse. She w-was with me after the blood. I think she took me away from it.”

  Jeremy sat forward abruptly, exclaiming, “Good God, what blood?”

  Danny frowned. “That part o’ my memory ain’t clear, and I remember nothing from before then. I had a nasty gash on the back of my head. Lucy said it was bad enough to leave a scar. I’ve never seen it m’self.”

  “So you have no memory a’tall of your parents?”

  “None. I have dreams though. One is nice, of a pretty lady. She’s so pretty and dressed so fine, she’s like an angel. I told Lucy about it, and she figured she were an angel, that I were dreaming that I should have died and the angel were looking for me.”

  “Was,” he corrected almost automatically. “Did she look like you, the angel?”

  Danny blinked. “How’d you know? I never told Lucy that. But she did look like me some, at least, her face did. And her hair was white, but done up real fancy. She wasn’t old, though, not a’tall.”

  “She’s probably your mother, Danny.”

  She snorted. “Sure she is. She was dressed too fine for that. My thoughts on the matter are more likely. She’s what I want to be.”

  He gave that some thought, then had to concede, “Possibly.” He grinned. “And not an unreasonable goal either. I wonder what you’d look like in silk and with your hair in an elegant coiffure— God, never mind. I can imagine, and you’d have me groveling on the floor kissing your feet and promising you the world.”

  She laughed. Again, he caught his breath. Her violet eyes fairly sparkled when she did that. Her whole face changed, glowed, making her even more beautiful than she was, and he hadn’t thought that was possible, she was already so lovely it hurt.

  “I am appalled at the notion m’self, so why are you laughing?” he demanded with mock sternness.

  “Because when you’re silly, you’re really silly, mate. Kissing my feet, eh? Will I need to remove my boots first?”

  He blinked, looked down at her feet. “Well, damn me, you are still wearing boots. Did Mrs. Robertson forget about that part of your new wardrobe? You should have some comfortable house shoes, m’dear. After all, your job requires you to be on your feet for most of the day. Although, come to think of it, I’d much prefer you be flat on your back all day. Care to switch jobs?”

  “Not bleedin’ likely.” She was back to snorting.

  He raised a brow. “You’re not even curious what the other job entails?”

  “Being one o’ the ‘boys’ for fifteen years means I know how you gents think.” She stood up stiffly as she said it and added as she marched out of the room, “Keep that in mind, mate, ’fore you insult me again.”

  “Now wait—I didn’t—”

  Jeremy gave up. She was already gone. Blister it, how the devil had he erred so quickly? She’d been laughing only a moment before.

  He sighed, then a grin came slowly to his lips. Their talk might have ended on a distinctly sour note, but he’d made great progress nonetheless. He’d gotten her to relax with him a little, and he’d made her laugh. The next step would be joking, teasing, more laughter. Then he could progress to some legitimate stolen kisses—well, perhaps he should wait until his bruises healed. After all, she was a woman who threw punches instead of slaps.

  Chapter 25

  “LUCY!” Danny gasped when she got to the door after being told she had a visitor. She threw her arms around Lucy, gave her a big hug, but one look at her friend’s expression w
hen she stepped back had her adding, “What’s wrong?”

  “Let’s go for a walk, eh? I don’t feel right, being in a place like this.”

  Danny understood. Lucy wasn’t just a whore, she dressed like one and was so out of place in this neighborhood. She was surprised Lucy had made it this far without someone trying to run her off.

  “Let’s go over to the park,” Danny suggested, taking Lucy’s arm and leading her across the street. “How’d you manage to get here?”

  Lucy grinned at that point. “Found a hack. The driver were so pleased to do me, ’e were more’n willing to bring me up ’ere. In fact”—she turned to blow a kiss to the hack driver, who was waiting just down the block— “’e’s going to wait and take me ’ome, too.”

  “I didn’t expect a visit this soon. I haven’t even been gone a week yet.”

  Danny had used some of the coins Mrs. Robertson had given her to hire a chimney sweep, to take Lucy her new address. Mrs. Appleton had written it out for her, and the lad had been more’n pleased to run the errand, since he didn’t get as much work in the summer as he did in the winter.

  “It’s wonderful to see you though,” Danny said as they sat down on a bench, the street still in sight.

  “I were worried that ye wouldn’t find a job soon, with all the trouble ye ’ad before when ye went looking. But it appears ye landed a right nice one. Look at ye. I barely recognized ye in yer fancy clothes. And it bowled me over it did when the driver pointed me to that ’ouse. Ye like it ’ere? Cor, ’ow could ye not!”

  “It takes getting used to, but the people are very nice and helpful. They’re even teaching me to talk better.”

  “I noticed, and not better. Ye used to talk so fine, it ’urt me ears.”

  Danny chuckled. “No, it didn’t. You were forever pinching me when I’d slip up, when you were teaching me.”

  “I never pinched ’ard, just didn’t want ye getting kicked out ’cause ye didn’t fit in. Though truth to tell, I always figured ye wouldn’t be with us long, that yer family would find ye and take ye away from us.”

  “Did you really?”

  Danny had hoped for the same thing. For many years, she had cried herself to sleep for parents she couldn’t even remember. But when she was old enough to think about it logically, she had to conclude she had no family left, other than the one Lucy had brought her to. If there had been anyone, even a distant relative, wouldn’t Miss Jane have mentioned it and tried to get to them?

  Reminded that she’d gotten kicked out of the gang anyway,

  just years later, had sobered them both. “It were time ye go on yer own, Danny, and look ’ow well it turned out.”

  “I know, but I still miss all of you.”

  “Ye can visit from time to time. Be good to rub it in Dagger’s nose, ’ow well ye’ve done on yer own. Speaking o’ ’is nose, ’e got it broke.”

  Danny blinked. “Well, good for him. I’ve no sympathy a’tall for him at the moment. But you didn’t come all this way just to tell me that.”

  “Actually, I did,” Lucy said, uneasy now. “I weren’t there when it ’appened, so didn’t get a look at the man who broke it, but ’e slapped Dagger around good, to get ’im to tell where ye went.”

  “Me?”

  “Aye, course Dagger couldn’t tell ’im wot ’e didn’t know. That boy who brung me yer address found me on the street, so Dagger didn’t know I ’ad it.”

  “But the man was looking for me? ”

  Lucy nodded. “ ’E didn’t give a name, or why ’e was searching for ye. ’E scared Dagger, though, and ye know Dagger don’t get scared by much. And that scared me, ’cause if ’e could ’urt Dagger just to get to ye, then ’e likely means to ’arm ye, too. And Dagger knows now.”

  “What?”

  “That yer a woman. The man called ye ‘the white-’aired wench.’ ”

  Danny flinched. “Was he very angry?”

  “ ’E were too busy moving us to a new place, so that bloke don’t find us again, and nursing his nose and other bruises. Were ’ard to tell if ’e were angry over wot happened or over yer deception.”

  “You think it’s someone I’ve robbed?”

  “I can’t think o’ any other reason. But ye were always so careful not to be seen.”

  “I know, but—” Danny broke off as it occurred to her who it might be.

  “Wot?”

  “That lord I robbed that night, his servant got a good look at me. And although I talked my way out of there, he would’ve known the next day that I was the thief, when the lord’s jewelry came up missing. Turns out he were a thief himself, that lord, so he’d probably know how to go about hiring some street thug to track me down.”

  “That don’t sound good,” Lucy said nervously.

  “No, it don’t.”

  Chapter 26

  GIVING IT MORE THOUGHT after she left Lucy, Danny had to doubt the person looking for her had been hired by Lord Heddings. He’d asked for a female, but Heddings’s servant that night had given no indication at all that he’d seen through her male disguise. So they’d be looking for a white-haired man, not a woman.

  And besides, she remembered having the feeling that someone was following her home that morning. They must have lost her, asked around, and finally found where she lived. She’d passed through some nice areas getting home that day. So it could have been no more than some nabob who’d recently been robbed. Seeing her passing through his neighborhood, he could have decided she was the culprit and followed her for some payback. She’d lost her hat by then, and it was much easier to tell she was a woman when she wasn’t wearing her hat. Or he could have followed her all the way home, but seeing where she lived, decided not to confront her himself but to hire some tough to teach her a lesson instead.

  That made more sense and wasn’t really worth worrying over. The gent would never find her where she was living now. So she got back to cleaning the upstairs and didn’t give it another thought.

  Lucy’s unexpected, though welcome, visit had thrown Danny off schedule a bit. It was late in the afternoon when she finally got around to cleaning the downstairs rooms. Thinking it was empty, she entered the parlor, but did an about-face upon seeing Jeremy and his cousin Regina Eden sitting on the sofa. She didn’t get back out quickly enough, though.

  “Come in, Danny. You can clean around us,” Jeremy told her.

  “It can wait,” Danny assured him.

  “At this late hour? Don’t be silly. Go ahead and finish up, then you’ll be done for the day.”

  She would be, too. The parlor was her last room to see to. And it didn’t need much cleaning today, hadn’t been used since she’d sat on that same sofa yesterday.

  This was the first time she’d come across Jeremy since then. He’d gone out last night, went out again early this morning, and had only just returned. Oddly, the house didn’t seem the same when he wasn’t in it. She couldn’t exactly tell why, but it was definitely noticeable, by her anyway. Maybe because she couldn’t completely relax when she knew he was around. No, that should be why, but it was the opposite. She couldn’t seem to relax when he wasn’t there.

  She was still slightly annoyed with herself for letting her guard down with him yesterday. The trick he’d pulled on her the other night was clue enough that she could never do that again. And yet yesterday all they’d done was talk. She’d learned a few interesting things about him.

  He was a bastard. Imagine that. Who would have thought, with him living in a grand house like this, and in the nabob part of town—and with such a huge family, all of whom had obviously accepted him without question.

  Born and raised in a tavern. It still boggled her mind. It brought him down to her level, it did. His mother had been no different from what her parents had probably been. And why had he told her that? You’d think it would be something he’d want kept secret.

  “You still have her dusting?” Regina said to Jeremy as Danny crossed the room to clean the mantel above
the cold fireplace. “Or does she just love to dust?”

  “Don’t start—” Jeremy began, only to get cut off.

  “I swear, Jeremy, I would have thought you of all people would know how to treat a mistress properly.”

  Danny glanced over her shoulder in time to see Jeremy kick his cousin and glare at her. The lady merely tsked and changed the subject, which seemed to be back to what they’d been discussing before Danny’d arrived.

  “You can’t avoid this ball, Jeremy, really you can’t. And it’s a perfect opportunity for you to set matters straight. Emily started a new rumor last night, that she actually had a lovers’ rendezvous with you. You do know what that means, don’t you?”

  “Means she’s a bloody liar.”

  “No, we know that, but no one else does. It means she’s already moving on to the last resort, and the season’s barely begun!”

  “Hell’s bells, I’ve barely even looked at the chit!” Jeremy complained. “I don’t understand why she’s picked me, when I haven’t given her even two minutes of my time, let alone indicated I’d like to know her better.”

  “What dealings have you had with her?”

  “None worth mentioning. She had someone introduce us, as I recall, don’t even remember who, but I was already leaving that party, so I didn’t say more’n a few words to her. And she approached Drew and me the other night, but again, I barely even glanced at her. You’d bloody well think she’d want some clue that I was interested, before she started this campaign to get me leg-shackled.”

  “Famous! Denial doesn’t help us here, Jeremy. You know very well that there isn’t a young unmarried female in this whole town who wouldn’t jump at the chance to catch you. Emily Bascomb is just doing something about it, whereas the others just wait around hoping to gain your notice.”

  Danny glanced back again, in time to see Jeremy blushing. Fascinated by their conversation, she knew she should move on to a different piece of furniture, but she didn’t want to remind them that she was there.

  “If you know so much, puss, tell me why the rush?” he complained. “I only clapped eyes on the lady for the first time last week. D’you think she has to get married? Already enceinte?”