Read Online Dukes Prefer Blondes by Loretta Chase - Free Book Online

set out on your own to find the tiresome boy.”
    â€œAnd I’m to do what?”
    He gave a dismissive wave. “Whatever it is ladies do.” He started away.
    She stamped her foot.
    He turned back and gazed at the pink-­clad foot. “You stamped your foot,” he said. “Like a spoiled child.”
    â€œI am a spoiled child, you insufferable man,” she said. “I am only trying to be a little less spoiled and to be of use to somebody.”
    â€œYou’re of no use to me,” he said, ruthlessly beating back the other, arguing self. “I’m not overly scrupulous about using ­people when necessary, as anybody will tell you. And I should use you if there were any sense to it. But I will not enter Seven Dials or Whitechapel or wherever the wretched brat’s gone to ground, encumbered by a young lady—­and not merely a young lady, but a peer’s daughter. You’d only be underfoot, and I should have to look out for you as well as myself. If you think I mean to complicate this asinine business needlessly, because you’re bored and too many men love you, then what small brain you might have once possessed has atrophied.”
    C lara wanted very much to strike him with her umbrella, but she hadn’t brought one, and Davis, who always did carry one, was inside, where she’d told her to remain.
    Furthermore, Clara knew he was right.
    She’d only be an encumbrance.
    How on earth had she thought she’d be of any use to him?
    This wasn’t the scrawny adolescent boy who might have broken his hand when he punched the lumpish bully for speaking offensively in her presence.
    Yes, even at not quite nine years old, she’d known what that was about. Trailing after three older brothers, she’d learned things, like what bubbies meant. She’d understood, too—­perhaps not then, but not long thereafter—­that if Harry or Clevedon had been about, they would have done what the Professor did. Probably more successfully, but that made his doing it all the more admirable.
    Now he was as big as Harry or Clevedon. And judging by the powerful physique whose contours the well-­tailored black coat and trousers outlined, he’d spent the intervening years exercising his body as much as his brain.
    She would not think about his physique. He was intolerably supercilious and conceited. She wished Harry had taught her more about fisticuffs. Fighting worked so well for males, old and young, never mind who was right or wrong. How she would enjoy giving Mr. Radford a Chancery suit on the nob!
    â€œI fail to see what’s thrown you into such a snit,” he said.
    â€œSnit!”
    â€œDo try to use your head,” he said. “What other means had I to talk to you? I don’t circulate among the haut ton. I could hardly appear at your door and hand a footman my card. Then your family would wonder how we’d become acquainted. Your disguises make it clear they don’t know what you’ve been up to.”
    She hadn’t dared tell even her sister-­in-­law Sophy, who could have helped her with the disguises. Sophy had married Harry, and Clara didn’t want to ask her to keep secrets from him.
    â€œYou went to all the trouble of summoning me here, in the most clandestine manner, only to satisfy your curiosity ,” she said as calmly as she could.
    â€œDid I not say so? Did it not occur to you that your appearing in the Central Criminal Court was in any way strange?”
    â€œThat’s why I was in disguise,” she said. “I never dreamed you’d notice.”
    â€œThat was unintelligent of you.”
    â€œIt was perfectly reasonable.” You great lout . “I assumed you’d be concentrating so intently upon your task, you’d never heed the crowd in the gallery except as a crowd. But you did glance up, I recollect, and must have recognized Davis.”
    â€œI recognized you