Page 25 of Her Beast

“Bad. Same with Julia and her father. Apparently, Julia’s mother cheated on Harlow shortly before her death and he holds her behavior against their daughter. Mr. Harlow never showed much interest in Julia until her betrothal to Basingstoke.”

“Arsehole,” Malcolm muttered. And then he asked the question he told himself he wouldn’t. “What about Harlow’s brother Brian? Does he live with them?”

Joe turned back to his book. “No. He moved to Paris fifteen years ago and hasn’t returned since.”

So, Brian hadn’t returned, even after all these years. Ah, well—water under the bridge.

“Tell me more about this tutor,” Malcolm said. “What’s his name?”

“Solomon Vance.”

“Did the two actually fuck, or was it just a bit of flirtation that got blown out of proportion?”

“Mr. Harlow caught them in the act.” Joe clucked his tongue. “The servants say Miss Harlow hounded the young gentleman like a bitch in heat.” Joe looked disgusted that a well-brought up girl would be so interested in sex.

But Malcolm liked Julia Harlow more and more. Good for her getting what she wanted! It sounded like she was sensual and adventurous—more like her Uncle Brian than her humorless, passionless dry stick of a father.

Joe cleared his throat and even from across the dimly lighted room Malcolm could see that his face had darkened. “What is it?”

“The tutor wasn’t the first time she was caught, sir. Miss Harlow got up to naughty doin’s at her expensive school—polishing school, is it?”

“Finishing school,” Malcolm corrected. “What sort of naughty doings?”

“Well, uh, seems her and another girl were, uh,” Joe scratched his head, clearly searching for the right word.

“Engaging in Sapphic love?” Malcolm suggested.

“I don’t know what that is, sir—but if it means bein’ a rubster, then yeah, that’s what they were caught doin’.”

Malcolm burst out laughing. He laughed even harder when Joe’s eyes went round at the unprecedented sight of his employer all but pissing himself with mirth.

“Oh, God,” Malcolm said, once he could catch his breath, brushing tears from his cheek. “I’ve not laughed so hard in—hell, years. What a prude you are, Joe!”

“Glad to amuse you, sir,” Joe said stiffly.

“Rubster—that’s a term I’ve not heard since I was a lad. So, the young ladies were rubbing each other’s pussies, were they? Seems harmless enough to me.” Not to mention making his prick hard enough to pulverize boulders.

“Well, it didn’t seem harmless to her parents, sir. Even though Miss Harlow was eighteen and would have left the school in two months, her parents took her out early and forbade her to have any contact with the other young lady.”

“What a pair of moralizing prudes. Find out about the other girl for me, Joe—where she is, whether she married, and if the two really did break all contact.” There was no reason to investigate Julia Harlow’s girlhood lover, but Malcolm was suddenly insatiably curious and decided to indulge himself.

Joe made another note in his book.

“What next?” he asked, turning back to the diminishing pile of photos.

“Last spring the lass paid one of the grooms to get her some French postcards. He remembered what he bought on Holywell Street so I got copies for you—they’re in that envelope.”

Malcolm opened the fat envelope and shook the contents out onto his desk. “Why did she feel comfortable asking this groom to buy her such pictures?” he asked as he flicked through them.

“She caught him with a maid and threatened to tell her father about it if he didn’t take the money and buy her the photographs. The young man said she told him exactly what she wanted.” Joe cleared his throat. “She also blackmailed him to allow her to watch the next time he and his girl, er, went at it.”

Malcolm laughed. Good God, no wonder he’d been attracted to her even from several floors away! She was bold, sensual, and took what she wanted. Not to mention being a fellow voyeur.

“Our Miss Harlow is a hellion,” Malcolm said approvingly. He pitied her growing up in her staid, boring father’s household.

“Wild-to-a-fault was the most frequent description I heard.”

“If she’s twenty then she must have had a few Seasons.”

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