Read Online A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James - Free Book Online Page B

forget the idea of trading my Cossack Fleece for his English one.”
    “Really?” His majordomo cocked an eyebrow. “After meeting your esteemed relative, I cannot help but think that the young lady may succumb to your charms, impoverished though they are.”
    Gabriel gave him a wry smile. “I’m not that desperate. My uncle nearly ran down their carriage because he thought he heard his dog barking. The yapping came from a pack of mongrels the size of fleas. And the Fleece was as unattractive as her dogs: overdressed, overly bold with her eyes, and overly gaunt. I have minimal standards, but I have them.”
    “I like her,” Wick said thoughtfully. “And she has only three dogs.”
    “They’re the kind that spin in circles and bite their own tails. Which is what I would do if I had to spend much time with her. She looked at me as if I were a disreputable banker. I think she didn’t like my hair.”
    Wick grinned. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Disapproved of you, did she?”
    “Soundly.”
    “Well, you’ll have to get through dinner with her, because I’ve put her at your right and I’m not switching places at this point. I have you dining in the morning room and the rest of the horde in the dining room proper. There are more arriving tomorrow, so I’ll have to switch to the great hall for meals.”
    “You don’t mind all of this, do you?” Gabriel asked, looking at the boy he’d known his whole life, now grown to a man.
    “I was made for it.”
    “Well, I’m glad I got a castle for you to muck about in.”
    “You should be glad for yourself,” Wick pointed out.
    “I’m not,” Gabriel said. “But I have a brotherly pride in the fact I spared Augustus the sight of you.”
    “Not very nice of the Grand Duke,” Wick said, pouring himself a small glass of brandy and tossing it back. “Throwing out his own brothers like that.”
    “Augustus would prefer to forget that our father left quite so many counterfeit coins with his own face around Marburg.”
    “I don’t look like Augustus,” Wick said, revolted.
    “That’s because he resembles my mother, whereas the two of us take after the old devil himself.”
    Wick’s mother was a laundress, and Gabriel’s a Grand Duchess, but the distinction never bothered either of them much. They were born mere days apart, and their father had promptly brought Wick into the nursery to be raised with his legitimate children, not to mention a pack of other assorted half siblings.
    “He was a ripe one,” Wick said. “I always liked our papa.”
    “Did we see him enough to judge?” Gabriel asked. “Here, give me some of that brandy.”
    Wick handed over a glass. “We saw him the right amount, I’d say. Look what happened to Augustus, after he had to spend every day with him.”
    It was true. Gabriel and Wick shared a bone-deep conviction that being the last son and an illegitimate son were far better fates than anything closer to the crown.
    “I know why you’re brooding over Dimsdale’s fiancée,” Wick said. “It’s because you’re nervous about the impending arrival of your own.”
    “She’s got the look of a shrew,” Gabriel said. “I’ll admit, it gave me a qualm about Tatiana.”
    “I know,” Wick said, “you want beddable and biddable.”
    “It’s not as if you’re looking for anything different,” Gabriel said, stung by something in Wick’s voice.
    “I’m not looking for a wife at all,” Wick said. “But if I were, I wouldn’t want biddable.”
    “Why?”
    “I’m easily bored.”
    “I wouldn’t mind a bit of shrewishness,” Gabriel said. “But the Fleece has no figure. I could tell, even though she was bundled in a shaggy traveling costume. She doesn’t look as if she’d be fun.”
    “Wives aren’t supposed to be fun,” Wick said, putting down his glass and straightening his neck cloth. “Time to go down and jockey everyone into the proper places. The cook that we brought over is threatening to leave. Plus I