Scandal And The Duchess

His face and hers were very close together, the kissable lips an inch away.

“My dear fellow,” the woman said breathlessly. “Are you all right?”

“No,” Steven tried to say. “Damn, woman, but you’re beautiful.” The words came out a jumbled mess, in broad Highland Scots, but the journalists heard them.

“Your Grace, who is he?” “A regimental affair, is it? Or a Highland fling?” “What about the comte? And the earl?”

“Good Lord,” came the impatient voice of Steven’s angel. “Leave the poor man alone. Can’t you see he’s ill?”

“Falling down drunk is more like it,” one of the journalists said, and laughed. “Who is he? Give us a name.”

“You lot, clear off!”

The coachman had come down off the box, and flapped his hands at the journalists like a woman shooing chickens out of her garden. Steven wanted to burst out laughing. At the same time, a footman exited the house from which the woman had emerged and laid hands on Steven. Steven heard the cry of a constable coming up the street, along with the man’s heavy footsteps.

“Off with you,” the footman growled at Steven. The constable came faster, his tall helmet bobbing out of the gloom and making Steven laugh harder.

Laughter and the footman’s heavy hands made Steven slide down the woman’s body. He found the hard street beneath his knees, his face buried in her abdomen, the black bombazine of her gown smooth against his nose.

She smelled wonderful. The perfume didn’t come from a bottle. It was her—soap and the scent of fabric, warmth and woman. Steven pressed a his face to her belly, wanting to take his ease with her.

“Sir.” Her hands were on his hair. Steven snuggled in closer. If they’d been alone and without so many clothes, this would be the perfect way to finish the night.

She leaned to him, his angel, and whispered, “What on earth are you doing?”

“Loving you,” Steven said. “You deserve every bit of loving a man can give you.”

“Oh,” she said. “You are very drunk, I believe. Perhaps the nice constable will see you home.”

“No home.” His home was a tent in Africa, under huge sky, in blessed warmth. “I have no home.”

“Dear me, that’s sad. Do you need money? Perhaps a meal?”

Steven’s laughter returned. She thought him a homeless, helpless sot, and maybe he was.

The journalists surged forward. More people seemed to be on the street, and someone threw a stone. “Tart!” a woman yelled. “Be off with ye.”

The coachman growled. He flung open the door of the coach and more or less hoisted the woman inside. Steven grabbed the door as it swung shut, hanging on to it to keep him upright. The coachman started to wrench him away, but the journalists pushed in, as did the sudden crowd. London loved a riot—best way to keep warm in the winter, Steven mused—any excuse to begin one.

“Miles, let him in. He’ll get trampled.”

Steven heard her voice, felt himself be hauled up under the arms by a man of amazing strength, and then he met the floor of the carriage. The door slammed, bumping Steven’s booted foot. After a moment, the carriage jerked forward, and things splattered against it—the denizens making good use of the handy horse apples in the street.

The angel seemed to be speaking to him. Steven heard her clear voice but no words. He laid his head on her skirt, blissfully warm, and drifted off to sleep.

***

When Steven cracked open his eyes, it was daylight; at least as much daylight that could filter through the narrow, dirty window on a London winter day.

The narrow window went with the narrow room, wide enough only for a single bed and a corner washstand. That was all. No curtain or blind, no bureau, no cheerful fire, only a brick chimney that went up through the room and gave off a modicum of heat.

Where the hell was he? The last thing Steven remembered was a card game . . .

No, a cold London street, someone throwing things . . .

Green eyes, red lips curving into a little smile, and a scent like roses. Deep red roses, heady and intense.

Had Steven dreamed her? If so, he wanted to go back to sleep.

But the cold, Steven’s pounding head, and details of the night were knocking for attention. He should climb out of bed, dress, and face his problems like a Scotsman and a soldier.

The bed was warm, and raising his head hurt like hell. Steven laid it back down.

He must have slept again, because when he opened his eyes again, the room was brighter. The door swung open, and in came his angel with a wooden tray heaped with crockery.

“Good morning,” she said brightly. “Would you like some tea?”

Chapter Two

The unknown man stared at her over the bedcovers with bloodshot, sunken eyes, and a face covered with stubble. Rose reminded herself he was a pathetic creature, a war veteran, likely in need of charity.

The former soldiers she’d seen eking out a living on the streets weren’t nearly as handsome as this one, though. Winter sunlight burnished his short hair golden, his whiskers too. His hard face was the bronze color of someone who’d spent time in a climate hotter than England’s. Rose had thought him older on the street, but she could see now that he was a fairly young man, battered and suntanned from his profession.

The man’s eyes, other than being bloodshot, were a profound gray. He pinned her with that gray gaze as though she were an enemy soldier, not a kind young woman come to bring him breakfast.