Margaret Moore - Regency - Rogues and Runaways - A Lover's Kiss / The Viscount's Kiss

Once Polly was finished, Juliette left her to tidy the bedroom and walked down the long corridor toward the staircase. As she descended, she passed a footman who dutifully paused and looked at the floor. While she might get used to having somebody dress her hair, she doubted she would ever get used to the way the servants turned away when she passed, as if they were not even worthy to be seen.

She arrived in the dining room and found Lord Bromwell seated at the long table, dressed in plain clothes, reading a book, and with a plate of half-eaten eggs quietly congealing in front of him. Two footmen stood at either end of the long sideboard, where a host of covered dishes rested.

Lord Bromwell glanced up, smiled and rose in greeting. “Good morning, Miss Bergerine!” He frowned. “You look tired.”

“I had a bad dream.”

“How unfortunate! Come, have some tea. It’s just the thing to give you a little vitality. I’d steer clear of the kidneys, though.”

No need to tell her that, Juliette thought, her stomach turning at the thought of that revolting English dish. “Just toast, please,” she said, heading to the sideboard.

“Have a seat and I’ll get it,” the nobleman offered with his usual kindness.

As he set a plate with toasted bread before her, Millstone appeared at the entrance to the paneled room, a silver salver in his hand and something akin to annoyance in his eyes. “I beg your pardon, my lord. There is a gentleman here who refuses to leave, even though I told him you are at breakfast and planning to depart in an hour.”

Juliette hadn’t heard about any journey. “You are leaving?” she asked the young nobleman.

“I have to go to Newcastle for a few days. Lord Dentonbarry may contribute to my expedition, if I can make it clear to him why he should.”

Juliette couldn’t help wondering that herself. After all, what good could spiders do anyone?

Lord Bromwell grinned, looking very youthful despite the wrinkles around his eyes which were neither completely blue nor gray, and the well-fitting morning coat that accentuated his broad shoulders.

“It seems odd to you, I’m sure,” he said. “But all knowledge is useful in some way. And consider the spider’s web, Miss Bergerine. Given its size and weight, the fibres are incredibly strong, yet very flexible. If we could figure out why, it would be very useful knowledge, don’t you agree?”

She had never thought of a spider’s web as useful before. They had always been nuisances, strung across a path, or cobwebs in corners. Or things to frighten her in her dreams.

Millstone cleared his throat. “The visitor, my lord?” he prompted.

“Oh, yes.” Lord Bromwell studied the card. “Mr. Allan Gerrard. I’ve never met the man.” He raised his eyes to Millstone. “What does he want?”

“He wouldn’t say, although apparently, my lord, he was expecting Sir Douglas Drury to be here.”

Lord Bromwell brightened. “Oh, he’s probably come to see Drury,” he said, as if that made everything all right. “Didn’t you tell him Drury’s gone to his chambers?”

Millstone cleared his throat with a delicacy that would have done credit to an elderly maiden aunt. “I did, my lord. He asked when Sir Douglas would be returning, and since I have no idea, I said I didn’t know. Then he asked if your lordship and Miss Bergerine were here.”

It was clear Millstone didn’t approve of the young man, or having to interrupt Lord Bromwell at his breakfast.

Lord Bromwell didn’t seem as concerned about that as confused by the man’s request. “Miss Bergerine?” he repeated.

“Yes, my lord,” the butler replied. “I told him I would inquire if you were at home.”

A wild, hopeful notion burst into Juliette’s head. Perhaps Sir Douglas had asked this man here because he could help find Georges.

She rose swiftly. “I will be happy to meet this Mr. Gerrard.”

Lord Bromwell gave a good-natured shrug. “Very well, Miss Bergerine. Where have you put Mr. Gerrard, Millstone?”

“In the study, my lord.”

“Excellent. Come along, Miss Bergerine. Oh, and Millstone, I still intend to leave within the hour.”

Juliette had never been in the study of Lord Bromwell’s town house. Unlike the other rooms, however, it was not a pleasant chamber. It was too dark and too much the English gentleman’s, and it smelled strongly of tobacco.

A young man who’d been sitting in a heavy leather armchair got to his feet as she entered with Lord Bromwell. If this was Mr. Allan Gerrard, he was a nice-looking fellow, fair and with a pleasant smile.

“Mr. Gerrard, I presume?” Lord Bromwell said.

“Indeed, yes, I am,” he answered. “I hope you’ll forgive the intrusion. Sir Douglas agreed to meet me here—or so I thought.”

Mr. Gerrard slid a shy glance at Juliette. “He offered to introduce me to his cousin yesterday. I suppose I shouldn’t have stayed when your butler said he wasn’t here, but I, um…” He shrugged his shoulders and gave them both a sheepish grin. “I was rather anxious to meet you, Miss Bergerine—and you, too, my lord.”

“Might I ask why?” Lord Bromwell inquired, not quite as friendly as before.

Mr. Gerrard got a stubborn glint in his eyes of the sort Juliette had seen when a woman was told a certain fabric or shade wasn’t right for her coloring, or the cut of a dress was less than flattering. “Surely it’s no surprise I’d want to meet the celebrated author of The Spider’s Web , or the beautiful cousin of Sir Douglas Drury. My sister’s dressmaker spoke very highly of you, Miss Bergerine.”

No doubt Madame de Malanche spoke highly of anybody who gave her a good deal of business. Nevertheless, Juliette smiled. “I’m flattered.”

Apparently encouraged, Mr. Gerrard eagerly explained. “Sir Douglas and I decided to have a contest and we made a wager on the outcome. I proposed an introduction to you if I won.”

“You’re here because of a wager? ” Lord Bromwell demanded incredulously.

Mr. Gerrard flushed and looked from one to the other. “Yes, well, it makes fencing more interesting if there’s a wager.”

“ Drury made such a wager?” Lord Bromwell repeated, as if trying to convince himself that wasn’t utterly impossible.

From what Juliette had heard of men of that class, they all gambled. Often. “He does not make wagers?” she asked.

“Not recently, or so I thought. Now if that’s all, sir, I think you may leave,” Lord Bromwell said with a curtness that was completely, and shockingly, unlike his usual manner.

Embarrassed for both herself and the blushing Mr. Gerrard, Juliette wasn’t sure what to do or where to look.

Whatever he was feeling, however, Mr. Gerrard made a polite bow to her. “I’m delighted to have met you, Miss Bergerine. I hope you won’t hold the circumstances of our introduction against me, and that we shall meet again.”

Then he took her hand and lightly kissed the back of it.

No one had ever kissed her hand before. She discovered she didn’t like it and quickly drew it back.

“Good day, Miss Bergerine. I’m sorry to have intruded, Lord Bromwell. I enjoyed your book very much, especially the part about scorpions. It’s not pleasant to be stung, is it?”

With that, he touched his hand to his forehead in a jaunty little salute and marched from the room.

When he was gone, Lord Bromwell’s long, slender hands balled into fists. “I’m sorry, Miss Bergerine. Drury shouldn’t have used an introduction to you as the prize in a wager. It was in extremely poor taste, and he, of all men, should know better.”

Her host started to the door before she could ask him what he meant. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d best be on my way. Good day to you, Miss Bergerine. Although I hope the villains who attacked you and Drury will soon be caught, I look forward to seeing you when I return.”