Read Online Lady in Green by Bárbara Metzger - Free Book Online

or two,” he’d said on his way out. “I’ll send a message when to expect me.”
    “He can send his message to hell!” Annalise exclaimed, finally finding her voice twenty minutes later when Rob came back into the kitchen. “I’m sure they are expecting his lordship’s arrival daily! Let him just see what kind of welcome they give him!” Not even hot tea and the last of Henny’s strawberry tarts could calm Miss Avery’s rage. The dastard had eaten all the rest!
    Rob straddled one of the kitchen chairs and lit a pipe. “What did you think a fancy young buck like him wanted with such an unfashionable address?”
    “I never thought he wanted it to set up a…a bordello!”
    “Tain’t that at all, chickie. Just somewheres cozy for him to be private-like, away from all the rattlin’ tongues of Mayfair.”
    “He talked about bringing friends for cards and such! He’ll be throwing orgies next thing you know!”
    “Now, what do you know about orgies, huh, chickie? Anyways, the gov told me as I’d be fetchin’ young ladies from Drury Lane and such.”
    “Ladies, hah!”
    Rob took a deep pull on his pipe and watched the smoke rings rise. “He don’t seem evil to me, just a young buck sowin’ his wild oats.”
    Annalise pounded her fist on the table. “Not in my house, he won’t!”
    “But it ain’t your house, chickie, that’s the point.”
    Henny stopped banging her pots and pans around and took a seat at the table. “But, Robbie, Miss Annalise’s reputation! No young lady should even know about such things, much less be living amid such carryings-on! We’ll have to leave, that’s all.”
    “Can’t do it without makin’ people wonder what happened and why. No, no hope for it. ’Sides, it’s safer this way. Even if Sir Vernon happens to locate Lady Rosalind’s address, there won’t be a trace of any Miss Avery, just a swell and his sweeties.”
    Annalise grimaced, but she knew Rob had the right of it. “I have no reputation left anyway, Henny, not after running away and spending all those nights on the road. No one would believe I’m innocent of nothing worse than avoiding marriage to a womanizer. Hah! This philanderer is worse. At least Barny kept some loyalty to his Sophy!”
    “Maybe we won’t have to stay too long,” Henny said hopefully. “Just till we get word to your aunt.”
    “I already sent letters through the foreign office and the embassy. One of them has to reach her. I know she’ll come or send for me, and I’m sure Lord Elphinstone can have the guardianship overturned. He has to!”
    Henny patted her hand and poured more tea. “He will, dearie, he will.”
    “And meantime his lordship ain’t so bad,” Rob commented.
    “Rob, he’s a libertine!”
    “He’s generous with his blunt, knows his cattle, and likes Henny’s cookin’. That’s enough for me. I’ve worked for worse.”
    “He’s a despicable, lust-ridden whore-monger!” Annalise insisted. “And you don’t have to work at all if you don’t want to!”
    Rob made another smoke ring. “I wouldn’t leave you alone here, chickie, even if Henny’d let me. ’Sides, I’ve a mind to see the fancy lord’s fancy pieces.”
    Both women glared at him.
    *
    The next morning Henny was humming while she baked enough strawberry tarts for an army. Rob was whistling when he went off to the livery stable to see about Seraphina and a coach for his lordship. Miss Avery was loudest of all, gnashing her teeth.
    “Ain’t he the handsomest thing that ever lived?” the maid Lorna rhapsodized, skipping along at Annalise’s side as they went to the shops. “He’s got the broadest shoulders in all of London, the bluest eyes, and the nicest smile I ever seen.”
    “The man’s a rake!” Annalise stormed back. “An unprincipled, immoral rake.”
    “Me mum says they’re the only sort worth having.”
    “Hogwash,” retorted the ladylike Mrs. Annie Lee. “You’ll want a nice, steady fellow when you’re old enough,