Noble Destiny by Katie MacAlister Page A

move?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Charlotte grunted, trying without success to unattach the buckles holding the polished leather piece onto her costume. “But I suspect something claimed occupancy while I was hiding in the bushes outside the gate waiting for you to let me in. Thus it is quite clearly all your fault that my codpiece is now rife with wildlife.”
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous, what could climb into a codpiece? There’s no room in there for anything but an apple!”
    â€œCaroline,” Charlotte snapped, turning abruptly so the codpiece whapped her friend smartly on the hip. “A family of dormice could have set up shop in this dratted thing and I’d be none the wiser, so if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate a little help evicting them from the premises so I can fulfill my destiny and become Lady Carlisle, something I simply cannot do if I have rodents inhabiting my groin!”
    â€œOh, good heavens,” Caroline moaned softly. “We’re doomed!”
    â€œIt’s not that bad,” Charlotte answered, placing both hands on the protuberance of the codpiece and tugging. “I just need help getting it off. The buckles seem to be frozen or caught on something.”
    Caroline, her back to Charlotte as she attempted to block the sight of her friend’s codpiece-related actions, reached behind to tug at Charlotte’s arm. “Char, stop,” she whispered in an anguished, choked voice, trying as she did to summon up a smile. She raised her voice in a clear, “Good evening, Lord Carlisle.”
    Charlotte, for once alert to the nuances around her, froze and peered over Caroline’s shoulder as she bobbed the earl a curtsy. “Damnation.”
    Dark, midnight-blue eyes met hers.
    â€œQuite,” Dare replied.
    â€œI…er…if you’ll excuse…my husband is waiting for me,” Caroline murmured apologetically, and with a worried glance at her friend, hurried off to rejoin the ball.
    One of Dare’s eyebrows rose as he studied Charlotte’s costume. “Henry VIII?”
    â€œYes, how very clever of you.” She turned as if to gaze in contemplation at the darkened garden, rubbing the codpiece on the railing in an attempt to force it loose. It didn’t help. With a quick sidelong glance at the handsome man staring out into the garden next to her, she tugged at the obstinate bit of leather with what she hoped was unobtrusiveness.
    Dare’s second eyebrow rose as she realized she would need to practice her unobtrusive codpiece tugging skills in the future. Clearly this was one of those times when it was more prudent to admit her folly than to encourage the man whose children she would someday bear into thinking her the type of woman who would stand in darkness on a balcony and grope at her codpiece. “There’s…I think there’s something in there,” she whispered, nodding toward the leather protrusion.
    Dare pursed his lips.
    â€œSomething alive,” she added, trying not to squirm under both his look of disbelief and the surety that it was hundreds of tiny little feet that were brushing against her sensitive flesh. Overwhelmed by the need to explain further, lest the earl think she was ten cards shy of a deck, she added, “I think something crawled in while I was hiding in the shrubbery.”
    He blinked.
    â€œPerhaps you would be kind enough to extract it for me? Lady Beverly assures me there is a private room at the end of the hall we could use briefly.”
    â€œMadam.” Dare finally spoke, but in tones so frigid Charlotte expected ice to form upon his manly lips. “The contents of your codpiece do not interest me in the least.”
    â€œI understand,” Charlotte answered somewhat ruefully. “I’m out of apples. I’m afraid I only had room for the one, you see. I didn’t know you’d want one, too, and a two-apple codpiece just seemed