Read Online Major Lord David by Sherry Lynn Ferguson - Free Book Online Page B

to escape into the empty supper room. But Kit
had appeared from that very room-he must have entered the
house from the mews-and now he handed Billie her muchdesired glass of punch.
    She thanked him and tried not to gulp the drink.

    “When did you arrive?” she asked. “I’ve been watching-”
She realized she’d been watching only Major Trent.
    “Came around back to surprise fusty old Withers and leave
my gift for you in the kitchen.”
    “Whatever have you brought me?”
    He laughed. “Come and see”
    She was so relieved to have Kit sober, and to have an excuse to leave the party, that she let him lead her by the elbow
through the drawing room and down to the kitchen. Cook and
several startled servants abruptly ceased talking and looked at
them in astonishment.
    Kit left Billie’s side to stride to the back door and open it to
the cold night air. When he returned, he was holding a dripping,
moving lobster above a copper pot.
    “Look here, Billie! You love lobster patties-this fellow
should give you a birthday feast!”
    She had never seen a live lobster before. At once the thought
of eating the magnificent, struggling creature made her ill.
    Kit must have read the dismay on her face. “I won him off
P.B. Marsh at Boodles this evening,” he added stubbornly.
    “Won him?”
    “At faro. What’s wrong, Billie? I thought you’d be pleased.”
He brought the poor thing closer. “Don’t be squeamish, now.
You used to like to find crayfish”
    “Oh, Kit!” She fought the urge to wring her hands. It did
seem that though everyone about him wished Kit would learn
some sense, Kit himself was most determined to disappoint
them. That he should bring such a thing to her party-and
expect an ecstatic reception! Billie’s gaze rather desperately
sought out Cook’s disapproving face.
    “Not that way, Master Caswell,” Cook cautioned as Kit
moved to place the pot and the lobster on the stove. “We must
boil the water first-else it will suffer.”
    “Suffer? Why, the thing’s to be eaten!”
    Kit was laughingly holding the lobster up to Cook’s grim features when a purposeful clearing of a throat at the kitchen
door made Billie turn. Major Trent, looking every inch the
distinguished military officer, his blue gaze focused in amusement on the scene before him, smartly bowed.

    Billie knew she flushed, whether from embarrassment, the
heat in the kitchen, or Lord David’s quick, penetrating glance,
she could not have said. She raised her chin, observing silently
that he had at last managed to tear himself away from Charis
Athington’s charms.
    “Your pardon,” David said, apparently speaking most directly to Cook. “I was told I might find Miss Caswell in the
kitchen.” As his keen gaze took in Billie’s pink cheeks, he
seemed to be fighting a smile.
    Kit’s high spirits had fled. He again looked resentful.
    “Why, Major,” he asked, “d’ya think my sister’s preparing
supper?”
    “Certainly not, Mr. Caswell. You would appear to be the one
charged with that chore”
    “Oh, the devil!” Kit scornfully tossed the lobster into the
midst of the carefully prepared serving dishes on the table. As
Cook protested, Kit sent Billie a dark look. “One red back’s
as good as another, I s’pose,” he muttered disagreeably, and
he brushed rudely past Lord David, who stepped aside.
    Recalling the major’s charge that she “babied” her brother,
Billie held her tongue. She had to concede that Kit had not
acted just then in anything other than rag-mannered fashion.
    “He is certainly a fine-looking young man,” David conceded mildly. His gaze seemed to envelop her. “I had not seen
him upright.”
    She almost rose to the bait, half compliment though it
was. Instead she turned to Cook and assured herself that her
brother’s unusual and unfortunate gift would be handled appropriately. When she looked again toward the doorway,
David Trent had held his ground. He still