Read Online Nicholas: Lord of Secrets by Grace Burrowes - Free Book Online

such things, for I will send twice as many tomorrow.”
    “What do they mean?” she asked after a time. “The flowers you sent?”
    “The snowdrop is for hope,” Nick said, pleased she would ask. He’d chosen the bouquet carefully and visited more than one shop in the process. “The little sprig of wood sorrel is for joy, the wallflowers are for fidelity in adversity, and the lilies of the valley, as you know, are for a return to happiness.”
    “There was a very pretty blue flower as well.” Beside him, she took a deep breath of the night air. “It reminded me of your eyes.”
    That was a compliment. He was sure of it, and equally sure his eyes had never received a lady’s compliment before.
    “Salvia,” Nick said, finding himself fascinated by the rise and fall of her chest.
    “It has no meaning?”
    “I cannot recall at the moment.” Nick shifted his gaze to the dark foliage around them. What on earth had he been thinking, sending blue salvia?
    “You met with Hellerington earlier in the week?” Leah asked, leaning more closely against his side.
    “I most assuredly did.” Nick forced himself to attend the sense of her words rather than her scent, the pure pleasure of her voice in the darkness, or the warmth of her body next to his. “We had a delicate little exchange, with me giving him to understand I’d appreciate it if those fellows whose vowels I hold would behave in a gentlemanly fashion toward their creditors, particularly before they take on additional familial obligations.”
    “Did he respond to that?”
    “I wish I could tell you he caught a packet for France, lovey,” Nick said, “but I was firing an opening salvo, and he understood it as such. I’ll next make a few pointed remarks at the club, maybe suggest something ought to be put in the betting book at your father’s club, call upon the baron again, and loudly hope I need not reduce my demands to writing or perhaps seek satisfaction through other means.”
    Leah leaned closer still, maybe hunching in on herself but also dropping her voice to a near whisper. “What other means?”
    “Typically, one offers a challenge in such a circumstance or simply beats the stuffing out of the party who’s refusing to pay a debt of honor,” Nick said, letting her scent come to him on the soft night air.
    “Would you go that far?”
    “If I say yes, you will think me a brute beast. If I say no, you will think me a bully who threatens those weaker but backs down at the first hint of risk.”
    She said nothing for a moment then surprised him.
    “I wish I knew how to use a gun, or that I was as big and powerful as you are.” Her voice was low and bitter, a tone no lady should ever have cause to adopt. Nick slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her gently against his side.
    “You must allow me to be your champion. I would meet him over pistols,” Nick said, nuzzling her temple, though only once and lightly. Very lightly. “I would not raise my hand to him.”
    “Why not?” She sank against him easily, as if she’d been waiting for him to make the first overture.
    “Murder is frowned upon,” Nick said, thinking it quite the pity in this case. “He’s old and sick, and it wouldn’t be sporting to beat the man with bare fists.” Ladies needed comfort, he told himself, and Leah was very much a lady.
    Before he nuzzled her again—or worse—Nick bestirred himself to pose a question to the woman tucked to his side. “What manner of brother is it who allows you to languish here in the dark with me? I want to like the man, but one does wonder.”
    “He’s the best of brothers, but he has troubles of his own. He knows if I’m languishing, it’s because I want to.”
    “Hmm.” Nick’s fingers insinuated themselves over Leah’s hand. “And what if Hellerington were to appear here?”
    “I’d not hesitate to scurry back to the ballroom. I know his coach. I know his scent. I know him. He’s not here.”
    “So you can enjoy