Read Online A Gentleman and a Scoundrel (The Regency Gentlemen Series) by Norma Darcy - Free Book Online Page A

splodge on his nose, as if he had been caught drinking from a saucer of cream and the wind had changed and forever stained him.
    He was mewling from the bough of the tree somewhere up above her, a plaintive sound that spoke to her maternal instincts. Louisa had been looking everywhere for him; his curiosity had already had him trapped under the floorboards in the kitchen of Foxhill Manor for a week. She spoke softly to him as she climbed, hampered by her skirts as she struggled to find a foothold on the trunk of the tree.
    “Come little one,” she cooed as her head drew level with the kitten. His green eyes looked hopefully up at her and he meowed again, showing a very serviceable set of teeth, his paws neatly set together with his tail wrapped around them like a stole.
    Louisa pulled herself a little higher; the rough bark scratched the soft white skin of her hands as she hauled herself up onto the branch beside the tiny cat. She pulled the creature into her lap and it meowed contentedly as she stroked his ears. They sat there a while in the cool shade of the tree, watching the parkland shimmer in the heat, the deer sleeping lazily in a distant lake of shadow, the cat happy to relinquish the knotty problem of how to get down from the tree into the hands of his companion.
    She and her sister had been in Devon for a week, staying with their Uncle King and his daughter Eliza at their home at Foxhill Manor, a beautiful Tudor manor house set in small but delightful grounds. It was a favourite haunt of both girls and the good, amiable nature of their uncle and the friendly society of the neighbourhood made them often wish that Foxhill was their home rather than the larger, greyer building of their father’s seat at Haymarsh. Mr Marcus Ashworth’s home of Stoneacre was not three miles from Foxhill, which meant the owners of the two estates were firm friends and often in each other’s company. Mr Ashworth was often to be found at Foxhill even if his younger brother still preferred to reside in Town. Devon was, by Nicholas Ashworth’s standards, a trifle flat―excepting when the Lady Louisa came to visit.
    “Well now, fair rescuer,” said a voice behind her. “And how do you propose to get your little friend there safely back to earth?”
    “Nicholas!” she cried, jumping so violently that she almost toppled backwards off the branch. “You startled me! What on earth are you doing here?”
    “Marcus has business at Stoneacre so I thought I’d come along and surprise you. Are you not pleased to see me?” asked he, grinning as he ducked under a branch of the tree and came to stand in front of her. “Is this not a nice surprise?”
    She made no answer but turned her head away, blushing faintly. The kitten rubbed its soft cheek against Louisa’s hand.
    “Louisa? Are you not pleased to see me?” he demanded again.
    She shrugged.
    His smile slipped a notch. “What? And is this the welcome I am to have? Have your forgotten me so soon?”
    “I am always pleased to see any of my old London acquaintance.”
    He leaned an arm against the tree trunk. “ Any of your London acquaintance?”
    She looked down at the kitten. “Yes.”
    “Well, I had hoped for a warmer welcome than this, I must confess.” He folded his arms and leaned his shoulders against the tree. “Egad, I hoped I had a place somewhere in your heart. You have not missed me and I have come all this way just to see you.”
    “ Just to see me?”
    “Well, there is the trifling matter of a tailor’s bill…but that doesn’t signify.”
    It never does , thought Louisa, remembering a rumour she had heard about him but she said instead, “And your brother is to …er…stump up the ready?”
    Nicholas looked a little irritated. “Well I…I have an allowance of my own, you know; Marcus is the trustee and never begrudges me so much as a groat; but never mind all that now. Am I to understand that all is at an end between us? I thought that we had come to an