Read Online Beware of Virtuous Women by Kasey Michaels - Free Book Online

filled his head, and he couldn't seem to get her out again, even knowing he had to concentrate on his plans for bringing down these three men and, more importantly, through them, finding the leader of the Red Men Gang.
    Oh, yes, and then there was Richard.
    He had to avenge what he was sure was the murder of his cousin. Why did he have to keep reminding himself of that part?
    "Cluny?" he asked as the fire burned lower in the grate. "Do you think he was in on it, had been a part of the Red Men?"
    Cluny didn't pretend not to know who Jack was talking about. "He was a weasel, I'll give him that. Could be. Could be. And wouldn't that be a fine kettle of fish, eh? The pair of us sticking our necks into a noose to get some of our own back for a weasel. Besides, we're beyond that now. Your cousin is only a part of this. The rest is us and for us. Wrap your head about that one, boyo. Why, we should be putting down our pennies for Masses for that cousin of yours, he did us such a good turn. We're bad, bad men living a good, good life."
    "I don't think Eleanor sees the thing that way, Cluny," Jack said, then drained the remainder of his brandy. "I think she sees us as helping the people of Romney Marsh."
    "Ah, then it's going to Heaven I'll be, once they're done gutting me and hanging me in chains? A good thing to know."
    Jack grinned. "Isn't it, though?"
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CHAPTER FOUR

     
    After two days of travel, but mostly after two nearly full days spent in close approximation with Jack Eastwood, Eleanor had welcomed the rain that had fallen incessantly for the past three days. Ladies, she'd read, do not move about out of doors during inclement weather, and so she'd told him. She did not add that she needed time to recover her mental equilibrium before heading into Society on his arm.
    He'd already presented himself to Lady Beresford alone, before Eleanor had even risen from an exhausted sleep that had held her until nearly noon, and she was more than happy to have missed the interview.
    She actually had seen very little of Jack, who had once more taken up with Harris Phelps and Sir Gilbert Eccles, making the rounds of several gaming halls each evening, well into the morning, actually, and then sleeping away half the day.
    As for Cluny? After a cursory introduction the man had taken to his rooms as if he was ailing, not even appearing at meals. When she'd asked Jack if the man truly was ill he'd explained that Cluny came and went by the servant staircase, and was actually out and about more than she knew.
    Jack had also told her he had yet to encounter the Earl of Chelfham, but that this was nothing to worry about, as the earl preferred to do his gaming in the card rooms of his ton hostesses, or within the exclusive walls of White's or Watier's. "But," he'd told her, "once the earl learns of the small fortune to be made playing at cards with the inept Jack Eastwood? Then he'll show his face, or we'll be invited to meet him. I only hope his greed doesn't take too long to goad him into action. I'm more than ready to begin winning again, which I plan to do the moment Chelfham joins us at the table."
    After that first late morning she still couldn't muster up any shame for indulging in, Eleanor was up near enough to the crack of dawn the next two days to have seriously discommoded Mrs. Hendersen and her maids. Most especially when she'd walked into the kitchens this morning after waiting an hour for her morning chocolate the day before, sat herself down at the newly scrubbed wooden table, and politely asked if she might have a coddled egg and a dish of tea, thank you.
    Mrs. Hendersen had explained, gamely attempting to be civil, that the lady of the household should ring for a servant.
    Eleanor had then pointed out the illogic of such a plan. "A servant whom, I've now learned, would hear the summons, run up two flights of stairs to hear that I would enjoy a coddled egg and dish of tea. She would then run back down those stairs to have someone