Read Online What an Earl Wants by Kasey Michaels - Free Book Online

boy and, rumor has it, his own nephew, with or without their agreement. But
as I said, all that was years ago.”
    “God, I adore that woman, much as she terrifies me,” Max said
in some admiration. “Why did she wait so long with Wickham?”
    “Probably because she was diddling him. You’ve seen her diamond choker, that ruby bib she sets such
store by? They’re only a sampling. She’s been bleeding the fool dry on and off
for years. Oh, close your mouth. You know Trixie. She’s a cat with a mouse,
playing with it as long as it amuses her, and then, once bored, she pounces. I
remember her telling me a few months ago that the man has developed what she
termed a disky heart, making him of no further use
to her. She’s probably already ordered the gown she’ll don as one of the chief
mourners when they wall him up in the family mausoleum.”
    “And had the bill sent to Wickham?” Max added, pushing himself
up from the desk. “‘Frailty, thy name is woman.’”
    “True enough. A true possessor of all the better vices, both
moral and spiritual. We lesser mortals can only admire and aspire. But as she
has ever pointed out, she isn’t evil. She’d never strike just for the thrill of
the thing. All her targets are deserving of her attention in one way or another,
at least to her mind.”
    And then Gideon frowned.
    “What? You’re suddenly back to that same puss that greeted me
when I came in here. Is it something to do with Trixie?”
    Four men, dead in separate accidents in the past year. All four former members of the secret
society founded by Trixie’s son. Twenty years. Some would think that too long to
wait for revenge, for some perverted sense of justice. But then how did he
explain Wickham?
    “No,” Gideon said firmly, not liking his thoughts and
definitely unwilling to share them. “Nothing to do with Trixie. I was simply
searching my mind for a way to rid myself of that primping, posturing fool I’ve
inherited.”
    “Adam?” Max said unnecessarily. “Aren’t you going to toss him
back to school next term?”
    Gideon fingered the letter that had arrived in the morning
post. “According to the headmaster, that’s not possible. He was full of
apologies, but it would seem he and a few of the instructors convened a meeting
concerning young master Collier, and decided they would forego the pleasure of
his company in future. I can’t say I blame them. The headmaster went on at some
length about my ward’s sad lack of talent save a decided propensity for
calamity. He actually set fire to his rooms when he employed a candle to burn
loose threads from his waistcoat and the damn thing flamed, so that he screeched
and tossed it in a cupboard, then went off to dinner. If not for a
quick-thinking proctor, they could have lost the entire dormitory.”
    “I’d never say the boy doesn’t rattle when he walks, so many
loose screws in his brainbox. But there’s other schools.”
    “Yes, there are. He’s been asked to vacate several of them. If
I buy him a commission the tongues will wag that I’m trying to have him killed
in order to gain his inheritance, and if I send him to the estate Kate will have
murdered him within the week. In other words, I’ve been sitting here this past
hour or more cudgeling my brain to discover what sin it was I’ve committed I’m
being punished for in the form of that paper-skulled twit.”
    “Some sin? Only one? If I weren’t in such a hurry to be off, I
could pen you a list. Not only that, but I don’t think I can stand watching you
this way, brother. Glum. Defeated. It’s so unlike you. So much so, I find myself
wondering if there’s something you’re not telling me, something much more
disturbing than locating a deep well in which to deposit your latest ward.”
    Maximillien could play the fool with the best of them, but he
was rarely fooled.
    Gideon looked at his brother. “Go away, Max.”
    “Ah, then I’m right. I’ll have to write Val and tell him.