Read Online Miss Westlake's Windfall by Bárbara Metzger - Free Book Online

reading. “Oh. Oh, no, that won’t be necessary.”
    Relieved at the interruption, for in Jane’s mind any company was better than her sisters-in-law’s, Lady Westlake tossed aside the fringe she was trying to knot. The thing looked more like a cat toy than a lady’s reticule anyway. The gentleman whose broad shoulders nearly filled the doorway was infinitely more appealing. “I should say not.”
    Seated at the pianoforte, Tess did not stop her playing. She’d hit one key, then write on the scored page in her lap. Plunk, pencil scratch. Plunk, pencil.
    Leo swallowed, which left his mouth too dry for his tongue to move in it. Lud, there were three ladies. He stood in the doorway, silent as a statue.
    “Invite him in quickly, Ada,” Jane whispered in an aside. “He has the look of a determined suitor about him.”
    “He is no suitor,” Ada hissed back, as she moved past Jane’s chair. “He is a smuggler.” Still, she took Leo’s hat and gloves, which the butler had forgotten, and drew Tobin into the room, to make introductions.
    “Why, Captain Tobin,” Jane burbled, after Leo had made a proper bow. “I am delighted to make your acquaintance, having heard so much about you. And to think you have met dear Ada unbeknownst to me. Sly boots, our Ada.”
    Jane didn’t care if the man were a Captain Sharp. He looked prosperous and he was calling on cabbage-headed Ada. That was enough for Jane. Of course, if he was a real gentleman, with a title instead of a trade, Jane would have made a push to fix his interest for herself, he was that attractive, in a darkly sensuous, silently brooding way. “You must stay for tea, Captain. I’ll just go tell Cook, shall I?” She waggled her finger in his face. “Nothing improper about leaving you two alone, of course, not with our Tess in the room. And you seem a fine, trustworthy gentleman, to be sure.”
    Aghast at Jane’s blatant matchmaking, Ada followed her to the door. “He’s not trustworthy! The man is a smuggler, I told you!”
    “A prosperous one, by all reports, and certainly handsome enough, and the first caller you’ve had since turning down Lord Ashmead. He’s the only one you’re likely to have, too, with a reputation for being so hard to please.” She gave Ada a shove. “Now get back in there and try to be pleasant to the man. Think of your poor family for a change.”
    Ada returned to the drawing room to find that Captain Tobin had not moved. He was staring at Tess, who was entirely oblivious to his presence. Frowning, Ada said, “You’ll have to forgive my sister. Tess forgets her manners when in the throes of creativity.” When he still remained quiet, she raised her chin, as if in defense of his silent criticism of her beloved sister. “Tess is a creative genius. She, ah, has not quite decided upon which Muse to follow. Today she is composing.”
    Plunk, pencil scratch. Plunk.
    “Will you please take a seat?” Ada offered, trying to distract Tobin from her admittedly odd sister. The impossible man had still not offered a word, and what did he mean by calling on Ada in the first place? She’d made it as plain as the straight, slightly aquiline nose on the dastard’s handsome face that she had no wish to have anything to do with him or his ilk. Well, she could be as rude as he. “Cobble said you insisted on seeing me?”
    Brought to his senses, and the realization that for the moment he only had to face one female, Charlie’s sweetheart and the least intimidating of the trio, Leo sat. He reached into his pocket for the money pouch. “Returning this, ma’am. Not mine, nor my men’s.”
    An honest smuggler? She’d never be the wiser if he’d kept the coins. Ada was touched, almost glad now that Jane had thought to offer him tea. “Then whose could it be?” she wondered.
    And wondered again at the blush that suffused the dark complexion.
    “Yours now, finders keepers.”
    “Oh, no, I could never keep such a sum. Someone must be