to sign it!”
“Brilliantly devious, sir,” said Ruark, flashing white teeth.
Charles said seriously, “One learns to be devious when dealing with women.” The two men were walking across St. James Park toward Whitehall when the King got another brilliant idea.
“Auntie Lil!” he said, stopping in his tracks.
“I beg your pardon?” said Ruark.
“We’ll call on Auntie Lil … she’s right here in Cockspur Street. I’ve a mind to be introduced to some pretty young thing, and what better place than Auntie Lil’s?”
Ruark demurred. “I was introduced to a young woman at Auntie Lil’s once … before I was done, she cost me a fortune and wasn’t even virgin.”
Charles laughed. “Virginity isn’t all its cracked up to be—just thinking of all the necessary breaking in fatigues me.”
Ruark knew he was thinking of Queen Catherine.
“You know, Ru, in my experience, which is rumored to be extensive, women are all the same.”
Ruark silently disagreed with him. If he could meet an attractive lady who hadn’t slept with the King and half his court, he’d probably consider marrying her.
The King continued, “On the surface Catherine and Barbara seem worlds apart, yet underneath both use sexual favors to get their own way. Then if they don’t get their own way, they withhold those favors.”
“Well,” said Ruark, “there’s not much point in my going to Lil’swith you, Sire. I’m for Cornwall in a week’s time and the last thing I need is a female entanglement. I’ve only just managed to extract myself from one.”
“Helford, you swore an oath to support your monarch in any undertaking. As your superior, I command you attend me.”
Ruark lifted one brow, dark as a raven’s wing. “I have no superior, Sire.”
Charles looked at him with admiration. “’Sdeath, I do believe you speak the truth.” Charles’s face was transformed by a lazy, charming smile. “As my friend, come and give me moral support.”
The white Persian cat had chosen to sleep in Summer’s chamber, but by the door scratching it was now doing, it obviously needed to go outside. She threw back the covers, hesitated a moment over going downstairs in the snowy nightgown so exquisitely trimmed in ribbon and lace, then she scooped up the small ball of white fluff and ran downstairs. She reasoned that before six in the morning none would be about.
She was startled by a knock on the front door just as she was about to open it and fell back in wonder as two tall, dark gentlemen stepped confidently into the foyer. The cat, alarmed, scratched her and jumped from her arms. “Oh, you little hellcat,” she murmured as her eyes went wide over the magnificently garbed pair of gentlemen callers. One was dressed in purple velvet with gold braid, the other in black velvet with a powder blue ostrich feather sweeping from his wide-brimmed hat. Powder blue, begod! She’d never seen anything like it in her life.
Her eyes began at their thigh-high cavalier boots and traveled upward to their black, shoulder-length hair and frankly assessing eyes. One of the men held her gaze for what seemed a lifetime as panic rose within her at her state of undress. Relief swept through her as one of her aunt’s footmen stepped into the foyer and she fled upstairs, her black cloud of hair in wild disarray and her cheeks stained crimson.
Ruark Helford stared up the stairs long after she had gone. The girl’s looks had almost bowled him over. Her darkly dramatic features were exotic, unusual, almost mysterious, and she was physically exciting in the extreme.
The pristine nightgown she wore with the little bows all up the front sent his imagination soaring. Today’s fashions were so voluminous a man couldn’t gauge a female’s figure accurately until heactually stripped her of her whalebone and padding, but the prim white garment had fallen about her in soft folds which hinted at the delicious swell of high-pointed breasts and round
“Brilliantly devious, sir,” said Ruark, flashing white teeth.
Charles said seriously, “One learns to be devious when dealing with women.” The two men were walking across St. James Park toward Whitehall when the King got another brilliant idea.
“Auntie Lil!” he said, stopping in his tracks.
“I beg your pardon?” said Ruark.
“We’ll call on Auntie Lil … she’s right here in Cockspur Street. I’ve a mind to be introduced to some pretty young thing, and what better place than Auntie Lil’s?”
Ruark demurred. “I was introduced to a young woman at Auntie Lil’s once … before I was done, she cost me a fortune and wasn’t even virgin.”
Charles laughed. “Virginity isn’t all its cracked up to be—just thinking of all the necessary breaking in fatigues me.”
Ruark knew he was thinking of Queen Catherine.
“You know, Ru, in my experience, which is rumored to be extensive, women are all the same.”
Ruark silently disagreed with him. If he could meet an attractive lady who hadn’t slept with the King and half his court, he’d probably consider marrying her.
The King continued, “On the surface Catherine and Barbara seem worlds apart, yet underneath both use sexual favors to get their own way. Then if they don’t get their own way, they withhold those favors.”
“Well,” said Ruark, “there’s not much point in my going to Lil’swith you, Sire. I’m for Cornwall in a week’s time and the last thing I need is a female entanglement. I’ve only just managed to extract myself from one.”
“Helford, you swore an oath to support your monarch in any undertaking. As your superior, I command you attend me.”
Ruark lifted one brow, dark as a raven’s wing. “I have no superior, Sire.”
Charles looked at him with admiration. “’Sdeath, I do believe you speak the truth.” Charles’s face was transformed by a lazy, charming smile. “As my friend, come and give me moral support.”
The white Persian cat had chosen to sleep in Summer’s chamber, but by the door scratching it was now doing, it obviously needed to go outside. She threw back the covers, hesitated a moment over going downstairs in the snowy nightgown so exquisitely trimmed in ribbon and lace, then she scooped up the small ball of white fluff and ran downstairs. She reasoned that before six in the morning none would be about.
She was startled by a knock on the front door just as she was about to open it and fell back in wonder as two tall, dark gentlemen stepped confidently into the foyer. The cat, alarmed, scratched her and jumped from her arms. “Oh, you little hellcat,” she murmured as her eyes went wide over the magnificently garbed pair of gentlemen callers. One was dressed in purple velvet with gold braid, the other in black velvet with a powder blue ostrich feather sweeping from his wide-brimmed hat. Powder blue, begod! She’d never seen anything like it in her life.
Her eyes began at their thigh-high cavalier boots and traveled upward to their black, shoulder-length hair and frankly assessing eyes. One of the men held her gaze for what seemed a lifetime as panic rose within her at her state of undress. Relief swept through her as one of her aunt’s footmen stepped into the foyer and she fled upstairs, her black cloud of hair in wild disarray and her cheeks stained crimson.
Ruark Helford stared up the stairs long after she had gone. The girl’s looks had almost bowled him over. Her darkly dramatic features were exotic, unusual, almost mysterious, and she was physically exciting in the extreme.
The pristine nightgown she wore with the little bows all up the front sent his imagination soaring. Today’s fashions were so voluminous a man couldn’t gauge a female’s figure accurately until heactually stripped her of her whalebone and padding, but the prim white garment had fallen about her in soft folds which hinted at the delicious swell of high-pointed breasts and round
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