A Loving Scoundrel (14 page)

“Hell’s bells.” Jeremy grinned in delight. “I’ve been hoping you’d suggest that.”

“Borrow, puppy, not keep, so you’re still to look for a permanent man. Artie suggested it, actually. Since he and Henry share the job at my house, it really doesn’t give them both enough to do.”

“Which one do I get?”

James laughed. “Both of them, of course. They’ll take turns here as they do at home. Those two old sea dogs have been sharing the job for so long, I wouldn’t doubt they think that’s the normal way it’s done.”

J
EREMY FOUND
D
ANNY IN THE PARLOR
, dusting one of the tables, over and over, so deep in thought she didn’t hear him enter the room. He wondered if her thoughts were about him. He wondered if she was still furious. He wondered if she would blacken his other eye if he turned her around and kissed her again.

He coughed instead to draw her notice. She spun around and seemed more surprised than she should have been to see him there.

Her question indicated why. “You’re still alive?”

Jeremy mulled that over for a moment. “Expired from a black eye? No, don’t think I’ve heard of that one.”

“Weren’t referring to wot I did,” she mumbled. “And your eye ain’t black.”

“Yet,” he corrected cheerfully, causing her to scowl at him. He chuckled. “Very well, I give up. Spit it out, wench. Why were you expecting my demise?”

“That visitor ye ’ad,” she almost whispered in her nervousness.

“I hid in the kitchen till ’e finally left. Scared the bejesus out o’ me, ’e did. Was easy to tell ’e’d slit yer throat without batting an eye.

There’s not many men who are that ruthless, but ’e ’ad that look about ’im, if ye know wot I mean. And ’e was mad at ye.”

Jeremy started laughing. Danny was back to scowling. “Wot d’ye find so funny, eh?” she demanded indignantly.

“You’re talking about my father, dear girl.”

“Sure I am,” she scoffed. “Wot a clacker. ’E looked nothing like ye.”

“No, he doesn’t, but he
is
my father. James Malory, Viscount Ryding, fourth born of the elder Malorys, ex-rake, ex-pir—er, never mind, but he’s now a devoted husband, and father of four with more on the way.”

She believed him finally, even commiserated, “You poor man. I’d ’ate to ’ave a father that frightening.”

He grinned. “He’s not, really, well, not once you get to know him.”

She humphed. “Well, obviously ’e didn’t rip ye to pieces as I figured ’e were ’ankering to do—more’s the pity, if ye ask me.”

That easily her own anger was back in place. Jeremy coughed. “Let’s have a chat, Danny.”

“Let’s not.”

“You haven’t figured out yet that you need to humor your employer at all times?”

“Not bleedin’ likely when my employer is a randy buck only interested in getting under my skirts.”

“Devil take it, you have to work on this bluntness of yours, really you do.”

“Why?”

“Because—”

He stopped short. She was right. It was one of the things about her that was unique and he didn’t want to change her in that regard. Besides, right now he was after frankness from her, and he wouldn’t get that if she started prevaricating as most women tended to do when they were asked pointed questions. And he intended to ask a few of those.

“So you have brothers and sisters, do you?”

Jeremy’s hopes soared high. She hadn’t waited for him to answer her question, and her curiosity was an excellent indication that she was more interested in him than she pretended to be.

“Twin brothers and a sister, actually,” he told her. “All quite young still.”

“Why weren’t they at your party? Or your father for that matter?”

“They were visiting my uncle Jason in the country. He’s head of the family and doesn’t come to town very often. So if we want to see him, we go to the family estate at Haverston. But children that young aren’t usually allowed at adult gatherings anyway.”

“Not even when the gathering is all your own family?” she asked.

Jeremy grinned. “We’ve tried that. There are a
lot
of youngsters in m’family now. It’s quite like a battlefield when they all get together.”

She chuckled for a moment. “I’ve been in a few o’ those m’self.”

“Have you? There were a lot of children in your band of misfits?”

“Mostly all children, and all o’ them orphans like me. Dagger supplied the roof and food and taught us how to make do.”

“You mean, how to steal.”

“That, too.”

“He was your elected leader, I take it? The one who kicked you out?”

She nodded curtly and turned away, going back to her dusting—with a vengeance. A touchy subject, apparently. It was probably still too soon after her ousting from that band for her to want to discuss it. He was surprised she’d said as much as she did, when she’d refused to talk about any of it before.

“Have a seat, Danny,” he suggested agreeably. “There are a few more things I’d like to ask you. Might as well get comfortable.”

He’d indicated the sofa. She stared at it a moment then shook her head. “Wouldn’t be proper, would it? You have a seat. I’m fine right ’ere.”

“What I’m going to ask you is rather—intimate. Really, sitting down would be most appropriate.”

“So ye can sit next to me and try yer tricks again? I’m onto you now, mate. You might as well give up.”

“Not a chance, luv.”

It wasn’t intentional, but Jeremy’s look turned so sensual, Danny actually gasped and quickly glanced away. She even started fanning her face with her duster, apparently not realizing she was doing it. When she did, she made another sound, close to a groan.

And Jeremy was met with a dilemma. Should he take advantage of having just aroused her or proceed with his plan to get to know her better? Much as it went against his instincts, he was forced to opt for the latter. He simply wanted more from her than immediate gratification. And he was afraid that even if she succumbed fully, she’d later see it as his taking advantage of the moment and be so furious with him, this time, that she’d quit her job and leave.

A moment later she said rather breathlessly, “I’ll sit. But you sit somewhere else, eh.”

Jeremy grinned. Progress, definite progress. But when she moved to sit on the sofa, she sat on the end farthest away from him. He sighed and moved to the other sofa across from her.

“This won’t take long, will it?” she asked, sounding somewhat annoyed now that she’d given in. “I’ve more work that needs doing.”

“It could, but it probably won’t. And don’t worry about your work when I detain you. If you don’t finish today, I’ll accept the blame.”

“Wot do you want to know then?”

“Let’s start with your age?”

“Thought I’d already mentioned that.”

“Fifteen, was it?”

“Ten actually. Just tall for my age.”

He burst out laughing. She didn’t share his humor so he tried to curb it quickly and asked, “So you were orphaned when you were what? Two or three?”

“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.