Page 10 of The Notorious Lord Knightly
Knight immediately spotted Rook and Bishopat their favorite table in a back corner. Tumblers of scotch were already waiting for them as he and King drew back the empty chairs and sat. In a ritual from their Oxford days, they each immediately lifted a glass and held it aloft in a salute before tossing back the contents.
Bishop began pouring from the bottle he’d no doubt purchased to save the barmaid being run ragged with all their requests. “What kept you?”
“Knight took a fancy to the earl’s daughter and decided to have a dance with her.”
“Thought you were going to let me tell them,” Knight said, glowering at his friend.
“You’d have lied.”
“She must have been pretty, then,” Rook said. “He only dances with the pretty ones.”
“She was very comely,” Knight admitted. “Like King here, she didn’t want to be there.”
“Hence you thought your company would make the evening more pleasant for her,” Rook said, grinning.
“How could it have not?” He took a sip of his scotch. “I’m the most pleasant among us.”
His comment received a mixture of groans, laughs, and headshakes. He did enjoy time with his mates. But not nearly as much as he’d enjoyed those few minutes with Miss Regina Leyland.
Chapter 3
What he asked of me was simple enough. “Turn around.” His voice was gravelly with need, and I did not hesitate to comply. Then his mouth swooped in to capture mine. Of their own accord, my lips parted for him. Soon his tongue was tangled with mine. Nothing had ever felt so wicked... or so sublime.
—Anonymous,My Secret Desires, A Memoir
June 5, 1875
When the coach finally drew to a halt in front of her residence, Regina was still trembling from her earlier encounter with Knightly. Blast the man for ruining her evening, tonight of all nights, when she’d spent a delightful afternoon with Lord Chidding and was striving to determine if he could provide her with the protection she required. If he was strong enough, powerful enough to withstand Society’s censure if the truth of her ever came out. If? No, when, because the truth always revealed itself, usually at the worstpossible time. Would he stand beside her—or would he bolt at the last minute as Knightly had done?
She’d simply needed a few hours of not worrying about how her carefully constructed life had begun to fray at the edges. Of looking upon her past, of acknowledging decisions made that at the time had seemed so very wise—and all too often had threatened to be her undoing.
And Knightly, damn the man, was at the center of each and every unfortunate decision made. Damn, damn, damn him.
She was reaching for the door when it suddenly opened. Crossing the threshold, she smiled at her butler. “You didn’t have to wait up, Shelby.”
“I can’t sleep until I know you’re home safe and sound, miss.”
“Well, I’m safe. I don’t know how sound I am.” As she had no wrap or other item to hand off to him, she merely bade him good night and headed up the stairs.
Once in her bedchamber, she rang for her maid. It wasn’t until Millie had assisted her into getting out of her gown and into her nightdress and was brushing out her hair that her most trusted servant mused, “Things didn’t go well at the club.”
Regina looked up, realizing only then that her focus had been on her hands, and met Millie’s gaze reflected in the dressing table mirror. “Whatever gave you such a notion?”
“You look like you encountered a ghost, lass.” Millie was only five years older, but she’d always had a motherly, nurturing way about her.
“Not a ghost. Just my past.”
“Lord Knightly, I take it.”
She gave a barely perceptible nod. “We spoke.”
“Did the bounder apologize?”
“I think... he may have wanted to. But at first, he spoke to me as though nothing untoward had ever happened between us. He invited me to join him for a libation in the club library.”
“Hope you tossed the drink in his face.”
Regina laughed lightly. “You are a vengeful sort.”
