[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.“What do you want, Messerden?”The man cheerfully accepted the snub to his question, as if it were not unusual.“Wondering where you’ve been the past week.Betting has been hot at the club.”“Has it?” the viscount said coolly.“I don’t recall hiding.I saw you stumbling your way through a waltz at the Pemberleys’ two nights ago.”The man waved his hand and sat in a chair that magically appeared.“Everyone was there.I meant at White’s or Newmarket.Or the Merrick brothers’ new little hell down east.Can’t believe you haven’t been yet.And then for you to show up here with the gossip churning over the possibility of a duel on top of the other bits.Well, you do know how to make an entrance.”Miranda grew increasingly uncomfortable.She wondered if there was something in Messerden’s personality or in the amount of drink he had consumed that made him unaware of the forbidding look and tenor of the conversation with the man he was trying to verbally engage.“I was unaware that my presence necessitated such discourse.”“Gads, man.She’s got both of them in a box on the other side.” Messerden motioned right, swaying as he went off-balance.“Can’t tell if they are going to take a turn with her in the bushes or kill each other first.”“Sometimes the world is better off if one always defaults to option number two.” The viscount picked up another grape, his posture too idle once more.“Is Werston making nice with Tarking?” Messerden said in reference to the viscount’s father and his latest scandal.“Been missing for a month.Both of them.”“Is that so?”“Rumor floating that you were going to marry Tarking’s chit.Make the sprog legitimate to the line.Keep it in the family even if it’s the marquess’s.”The viscount raised a brow and said nothing.Messerden stared over his red nose and through bleary eyes as if the viscount would reveal the information if he but concentrated hard enough.The silence stretched.Miranda wished she were somewhere else.Reading about gossip was much easier on the nerves than watching it take place.Messerden cracked first.“Everyone has been wondering what you’d do this time in response, and you go and do nothing.”“I will have to extend my apologies for damming the entertainment.”Ah.The root of his disingenuous apologies was starting to take shape.She tilted her head.The motion must have been just enough to call attention, because suddenly Messerden blinked at her and leaned forward.“I say.I don’t recognize you at all now that I think on it.A good disguise? Or maybe not.You been hot for something new, Downing? Who is this?”“A Russian princess,” he said smoothly and without a pause, as if he were speaking the truth.“Here for the festivities.Do keep it to yourself, Messerden.”“Of course I will.” The man looked affronted.He leaned a bit more forward toward Miranda.“Are you really?”She looked to the viscount in a panic.“Doesn’t speak a lick of English.Alas.” The viscount popped a grape into his mouth.“Don’t need to do much speaking though, do you, Downing?” The man obviously thought himself highly amusing.He chortled at his own joke.He turned back to her.“What is your name?”Miranda stared at him.“I”—he pointed to himself—“am Messerden.You?” He reached out to touch her.The viscount made a motion, too small for the other man to catch, especially in his inebriated state.Two attendants immediately stepped forward, and one placed himself in the man’s path, Messerden’s finger hitting the button on his shirt instead of touching Miranda.“Sir, let us escort you back to your box.There is an excellent bottle waiting for you there.On the house.”Messerden shook their hands away, needing to stand in the process.“Gads, keep your dirty paws away.Do you know who I am?” He straightened his jacket.“Service here is going straight to the dogs, I tell you.”The viscount shrugged lightly, almost apologetically.“The Russians are very protective of their princesses.”Miranda stared at him.His mouth didn’t even curve in shared amusement.“Well, I suppose that could be.” Messerden brushed a hand down his trouser leg.“But they should know who they are handling first.Gads, I’m the grandson of a duke.” He gave the men in the shadows a glare, then turned back to the viscount.“Downing, stop in and have a chat later.Need to know where to place my bets.”“Place them where you please, Messerden.I can’t help you there.”“Don’t be coy, Downing.Of course you can.Bring the princess too.I won’t tell a soul.” He crossed his chest and staggered away.Miranda watched him go, remembering just a moment too late to close her mouth.He stumbled into a couple and gestured animatedly, pointing back at them.The couple craned their necks.Miranda shrunk back into the shadows.The couple simply craned farther.“It will be all over the grounds within ten minutes,” the viscount said idly, fingering another grape.“I can’t believe you told him that.”“Why?” He smiled slowly.“You are my princess.”“Do you have no shame?”“Me?” He raised a brow, settling back into his chair.“Not a lick last I checked.”More of the attendees craned their heads for a better view.She tried not to return their frank stares.This was why she didn’t opt to come and stare.And she promised herself from here on out that nothing Georgette said would make her change her mind to do so.“Don’t pay them any heed, it just makes them more rabid.” There was a bite to his words.She didn’t think it possible not to pay attention though.It was a little like watching the black-and-white pages suddenly turn to color, active and alive.And she in the middle of the print.Twisted in a sinking splotch of ink.She watched a pair of tightrope walkers tossing pins and a number of acrobats flipping and flying through the air.One pin landed atop a man’s head in a balance-defying manner.“Are you enjoying them?”The colorful men were mesmerizing with their tricks and served as a distraction.“Yes, they are wonderful.”He waved the performers on the floor toward their area, signaling a man in the shadows.To pay a tuppence, probably, for the show.“Straight from Paris.The latest rage.Though much more spectacular when seen in the proper setting.”They must be part of the Cirque Diamant then.She smiled wistfully.“Someday I shall see them in full then.”“Someday? Why not tomorrow? They are in town for a few weeks at the Claremont.”“The papers said the show is sold out through its entire run.”“Tickets can always be found if one searches the right places.”“I have to catalog your library tomorrow.”“And the next day as well.I will hardly let you leave.But at night you are free.” One side of his mouth crooked deliciously.“At least for now.”She tucked hair behind her ears, coloring.“Perhaps.”But there was working for her uncle and saving for her grand visit.Something always came up.“Mmmm.That hardly sounds convincing.” He tapped two fingers together [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

listy-do-eda.opx.pl