The Naked King

by Sally MacKenzie

  “That’s a very good question.” Clorinda raised her eyebrows.

  Anne raised her hand and rested it on the doorknob. She would rather fry in hell than tell Clorinda the tale of her initial meeting with Lord Brentwood. Thankfully Clorinda didn’t press her.

  “Well, what did you and Lord Brentwood talk about?”

  It was all a horrible blur. “Er, dressmakers and, ah, my betrothal.”

  “Lady Dunlee said it looked like a lover’s spat.”

  “It was definitely not that!” “Love” and “Brentwood” did not belong in the same sentence—in the same paragraph. In the same library. “I’m sorry to offend you, since I know Lord Brentwood’s mother is your friend, but I cannot like the man.”

  “That was exceedingly evident.” Clorinda shrugged. “Frankly, I thought Mr. Parker-Roth was going to discuss the issue with you tonight—he was obviously in a pet when we got home—but”—Clorinda eyed Anne’s drooping bodice again—“apparently he was more interested in other topics.”

  Anne gripped the doorknob rather than pluck at her poor bodice again. Could she leave now? No, Clorinda was shaking her finger at her.

  “You don’t want to get the gabble-grinders in a frenzy and annoy Mr. Parker-Roth, Anne. You’re quite lucky to have snagged him, you know. If he’s not quite rich as Croesus, he’s very well to grass—splendid head for investments, Dickie told me tonight. He’s been quite the catch on the Marriage Mart ever since he made his bows.”

  “I see.” So the man was not only handsome but rich as well. No wonder all the women were glaring at her tonight.

  “I confess I thought your betrothal was all a hum at first—the man reeked of spirits when Lady Dunlee dragged you both into the study—but now it does look as if he means to have you.” Clorinda gestured at the betrothal ring glowing on Anne’s finger. “What I still don’t understand is how you formed this tendre.”

  “Ah.”

  “And don’t fob me off with that tarradiddle Evie told me about you being introduced to him at a house party ten years ago. Really! Only a child could swallow that tale.”

  “Ah.”

  “So?” Clorinda looked expectant.

  “So?” Anne smiled. How was she going to get out of this room?

  “How did you become attached?”

  “Ahh . . . it’s rather complicated.” Anne turned the doorknob at last. “Far too complicated to discuss now. I really am exhausted. Thank you for the brandy; I’m afraid I must be off to bed now. Good night.”

  She opened the door and fled to the safety of her room.

  Chapter 14

  Stephen whistled as he rapped on the door to Le Temple d’Amour. The morning had been extremely profitable. Knightsdale’s information was correct, of course—Lord Brentwood did owe many, many people money. He grinned and patted his pockets, stuffed full of the IOUs he’d just purchased. But now the marquis had just one creditor—him.

  Once Anne told him what Brentwood had done to her, he would decide on the most appropriate way to use the man’s vowels.

  He rapped again, harder. It was early, but Mags would just have to bestir herself. She was one more link in the chain he intended to draw tight around Brentwood’s neck.

  He finally heard a stream of invectives on the other side of the flimsy door and then it was flung open.

  “What the bloody hell do you think—oh.” Mags’s jaw dropped. “It’s you.”

  “It is indeed.” He stepped past her; he didn’t want to give her the opportunity to slam the door in his face. She was wearing a faded blue dressing gown and a nightcap that might once have been white but was now a dingy shade of gray. She looked significantly older without all her rouge and powder, but he found he liked her better this way. She seemed more human.

  Mags closed the door behind him. “And what are you doing here? All my girls are still asleep—as I was before you started banging on my door.” Mags made a sound of disgust. “Not that I think you’re here for the girls. Mags’s place ain’t good enough for you, is it?”

  “Mags, you know I don’t frequent brothels.” Though if he did, this one would be at the bottom of his list. It wasn’t that it was rundown; it was that no one—neither Mags nor her girls—cared much about cleanliness. Picking up a few lice would be the least of his worries.

  Mags, looking extremely mulish, crossed her arms. She clearly wasn’t going to offer him a seat. Just as well. He’d prefer to remain standing. Any manner of vermin might infest the furniture.

  “So why are you here, Mr. Too-Good-For-Me Parker-Roth ?”

  “I wish to speak with you about the Marquis of Brentwood.”

  Mags spat into a corner. “That piece of dung? I don’t know nuttin’ about him and I care less.” She stuck her nose in the air. “He don’t want to dirty his precious little cock—and it is little—dipping it into the likes o’ me when he’s got a fancy lady who’ll spread her legs for him. Talk to your whore, Lady Noughton. She’s the one he’s swiving now.”

  “Lady Noughton is not my anything.” It was revolting to consider he’d ever visited Maria’s bed. He’d let his cock do his thinking for him, but now even that organ cringed at the notion of having anything more to do with the widow.

  “That’s right. Brentwood said he pushed you out of her bed.”

  “Mags, do I look like I would let Brentwood push me anywhere?”

  Mags looked him up and down. “Well, no.”

  “Of course not. Lady Noughton and I parted company months ago; Brentwood is welcome to her—they are birds of a feather.”

  “Aye, you can say that again.” Mags’s lips curled. “They can burn in hell together.”

  Mags’s reaction was only slightly more violent than the men from whom he’d bought Brentwood’s vowels. Brentwood was most unpopular, but then bullies usually were. Everyone was eager for him to get his just deserts. “So you wouldn’t be unhappy should poor Lord Brentwood encounter a spot of bad luck?”

  “Unhappy? I’d stand up and cheer, and that’s a fact. All the girls would.”

  “Then perhaps you and they would like to whisper in your customers’ ears that Brentwood’s pockets are to let.” Brentwood had hidden his penury well; not only would he be furious when the truth got out, he’d find his credit cut off immediately.

  “He’s really in Queer Street?” Mags looked simultaneously skeptical and hopeful.

  “He is. He’s been punting on the River Tick for months. I’ve got his vowels to prove it.” He pulled the wad of papers out of his pocket far enough for her to see it.

  Her nostrils flared. “The bloody bastard. I’d like to boil his cock in oil. I’d never have let him in the front door if I’d known that. The lying whoreson told me he was going to buy me a new house closer to Mayfair. Make me one of the top madams.” She snorted. “I should have known it was all talk. Half the time he didn’t pay me for my night’s work—and it was work. Maybe Lady Noughton don’t mind his tiny prick, but if I’m giving a man a free tumble, I want something out of it, if you know what I mean.”

  She looked pointedly at Stephen’s crotch. “And I’m sure you know what I mean. Lady Noughton must be colder than ice if she’s happy with Brentwood after having your—”

  Stephen yanked out his pocket watch. “Look at the time!” He had no desire to discuss Brentwood’s—or his—performance in the bedroom. “Sorry, but I’ve got to run—promised my fiancée I’d take her young brothers to see some of London.”

  “So I can’t interest you in a quick ride? I’ll not charge you for the pleasure.” Mags grinned at him, revealing several missing teeth. “It’d be my pleasure.”

  “Thank you, but no.”

  Mags frowned and looked as if she might take offense. He didn’t want to insult his new ally, but he was not at all interested in her generous offer. How could he—of course. He was betrothed now—he would hide behind Lady Anne’s lovely skirts.

  “My fiancée would not approve.”

  Mags’s frown t
urned immediately into a shout of laughter. “That’s rich—the King of Hearts is to be a hen-pecked husband!”

  “You’ve found me out.” He took the opportunity to step outside. “But I hope I may prevail upon you to keep my secret.”

  “Aye.” She dimpled at him as if she were a coy, young miss. “I’m more interested in spreading the word about a certain penniless bastard.”

  “Splendid. I encourage you to do so at every opportunity.”

  He grinned and bounded down the steps. Mags’s girls entertained all manner of men—peers temporarily under the hatches as well as footmen and tradesmen. The news of Brentwood’s distress should spread from all directions and be common knowledge in a day or two.

  Stephen was very much looking forward to watching the marquis squirm.

  “What are you grinning about, big brother?” Nick was in Stephen’s study, sprawled in one of the wing chairs by the fire, a glass of Madeira dangling from his fingers. He did not look happy.

  “I’ve had a profitable morning.” Stephen poured himself some Madeira and sank into the other chair. “What’s gnawing at you? I thought you’d be chomping at the bit to get to Crane House.”

  Nick shot him a wry look. “Mama and Da are here.”

  “What?” Stephen jerked upright, spilling a few drops of Madeira on his breeches. “Damn.” He pulled out his handkerchief and mopped at the spot, before looking back at Nick. “They can’t be here.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. “Well they are. They’ve gone off to the Pulteney.”

  Stephen’s heart was lurching about in his chest in a most distracting manner. He loved his parents, but he loved them more when they were home at the Priory. “You must be mistaken. Mama wouldn’t leave baby Jack, and Da wouldn’t leave his study.”

  Nick looked up at the ceiling as if he thought he might discover some intelligence there, as he clearly felt Stephen lacked any. “I may be eight years your junior, dear brother, but I’m not a knock-in-the-cradle. I do recognize our parents. I assure you Mama about hugged me to death. And yes, Da just looked as if he wanted to get back to his sonnets.” He cocked a brow at Stephen. “But I’d say they both were somewhat keen on talking to you.”

  “Bloody hell.” Stephen downed his Madeira and poured some more. “Mama could not have got wind of the betrothal.” He took a more judicious swallow and shook his head. “And even if she had, there’s no way in Hades she could have made it to London this quickly. The notice was just in the papers this morning.” And the thought hadn’t been in his head before yesterday, but he wasn’t about to tell Nick that.

  “I suspect she decided about five minutes after I left home that she didn’t care to have me loose in London with only my brother, the King of Hearts, to provide supervision.”

  Stephen cringed. Damn that nickname. “I’m not your keeper.”

  “I know that. You know that. I think even Da knows that. Mama, however, is of a different opinion.”

  Nick was likely correct. Mama would expect him to look out for his brother. And he would, of course, but his notion of acceptable behavior for a young man about Town and Mama’s were certain to be vastly different. “I could have sworn nothing short of the end of the world could separate Mama from her new grandson.”

  “Well, yes, but I imagine she convinced herself in short order that my visit to London, a cesspool of sin and vice, qualified as world ending.”

  Stephen snorted. “But what about the girls? Shouldn’t she be home riding herd on Juliana and Lucy?”

  “Meg and John aren’t so besotted with their baby that they can’t see the girls don’t run amok—and anyway, the girls can look after themselves. Juliana just turned seventeen, you know. If she hadn’t singed her eyelashes off in the explosion after her last experiment, she might be making her come-out this Season.”

  “Good God!” Little Juliana, here for the London Season? She had looked rather grown-up at Jack’s christening. He’d obviously been away from home too long.

  “And of course, once Mama got to London and heard you were betrothed—and yes, she definitely has heard, but not from me—wild horses couldn’t drag her away from Town, you must know that.”

  “Zeus.” Stephen looked longingly at the Madeira, but he couldn’t have any more. He was promised—he and Nick were promised—to Crane House. The twins would be expecting their outing. “When do you think they’ll be back?”

  “I don’t know. They didn’t say.” Nick sat up and put his glass on the occasional table at his elbow. “But I suggest we leave promptly so we aren’t here when they do return.”

  Evie was driving Anne to distraction. “Will you sit down and stop looking out the window? You’re worse than the boys.”

  Anne was already on edge, thinking about seeing Stephen—Mr. Parker-Roth—again. What must he think of her? She’d behaved like a complete wanton last night. Worse, she was tempted to behave in exactly the same fashion today.

  Evie flushed and sat down on the edge of her chair. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?”

  Anne glanced at the table clock which Evie could see as well as she. “It’s just five minutes past the hour.”

  “They’re late.”

  Anne put aside her sewing. She obviously wasn’t going to get any more work done. “When a gentleman says he will call at two o’clock, he doesn’t mean precisely two—as you well know.”

  Evie picked an invisible speck of lint off her skirt. “Well, of course I know that. It’s just that your Mr. Parker-Roth struck me as very punctual.”

  “You’ve only just met him; I don’t see how you can have formed an opinion of his habits.”

  Evie shrugged. “He just seems very precise and capable. He must be, if he organizes all those expeditions, don’t you think?” She raised her gaze to meet Anne’s. “But you’ve known him for years—am I right?”

  O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. Sir Walter Scott got that exactly right. “I, ah—”

  Footsteps pounded down the stairs out in the hall accompanied by Harry’s manic barking and the boys shouting and whooping.

  Evie sprang out of her chair and twitched back the curtain. “They’re here!”

  Anne frowned. Evie was much too delighted by this outing. She grabbed her sister’s elbow before the girl could go dashing out to greet their visitors as enthusiastically as the twins. “Evie, you don’t want to give Mr. Nicholas Parker-Roth the wrong impression.”

  Evie flushed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You do. You will make the man think you favor him too much.”

  Evie turned a deeper red. “I do favor him.”

  Good Lord! “You can’t. You’ve only just met him. And anyway, he’s too young. You’re too young.”

  Evie’s jaw hardened. She was usually possessed of the sunniest of dispositions, but occasionally something would stir her passions and she would dig her heels in. This appeared to be one of those times.

  Anne’s gut clenched. Surely Mr. Nicholas Parker-Roth had not stirred those passions?

  “He is not too young,” Evie said, “nor am I. You were just my age when you met his brother, if you’ll recall.”

  Damn! Why the hell had she said she’d met Stephen at Baron Gedding’s house party? She just did not have enough experience with lying. “But that’s different.”

  “I don’t see how, except you wasted ten years of your life pining for your Mr. Parker-Roth. I do not intend to be so nonsensical.”

  Anne heard the door open. Stephen and his brother must have entered the hall; Harry was barking as if he were possessed. She still had her hand on Evie’s elbow. She shook it to emphasize her point.

  “Just be cautious, please? Men are very different from women. You can’t assume you know what they are thinking.” She’d certainly made some disastrous assumptions about Brentwood’s thoughts.

  Evie pulled herself free. “I know that. I’m not a child, even though some people seem to think I am.” She gave Anne a
speaking look before she pulled open the door and stepped into the entryway.

  Anne closed her eyes briefly, her stomach twisting into a tight knot. She’d been just as certain she knew everything when she was Evie’s age. No one could tell her anything—and look where it had got her. She wouldn’t let that happen to Evie.

  She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Really, the situations were not all that similar. Yes, Evie was young, but she had a good head on her shoulders, and she didn’t have any of the foolish anger Anne had had over the then-impending birth of the twins. And, most importantly, Evie had Anne by her side to keep a sharp eye on Mr. Nicholas Parker-Roth.

  Stephen stuck his head into the sitting room, and she jumped. He laughed.

  “Are you coming out of there, Anne? We’re getting ready to leave. The boys and Harry are quite eager to be off.”

  “Oh.” She could barely get her breath. She was as silly as Evie; just seeing Stephen made her heart pound. “Where are we going?”

  “To the Tower to see the Royal Menagerie. It’s a sad little collection of animals these days, but the boys said they don’t care. It won’t take long, and then we can take Harry for a romp in the park.”

  “Ah. Yes.” Her heart wasn’t the only organ pounding. Did he remember their activities of last night as clearly as she did?

  “I see you’re wearing another one of Celeste’s creations.” His eyes slid over the gold-toned walking dress as he stepped all the way into the room. He had a hat box in one hand. “Very nice.” He grinned. “But I still like the red dress better.”

  “The red dress would be completely inappropriate for day wear, as you well know.” She eyed the box. She was too polite to ask what was in it, but she was sorely tempted.

  His grin widened. “I’ve brought you something.” He handed her the box.

  A present. She felt foolishly thrilled. “I’m sure you shouldn’t have.”

  “I’m sure I should have. Go ahead, open it.”

  She untied the strings and lifted off the top. Nestled inside was a bonnet trimmed with gold ribbon and bunches of forget-me-nots. She lifted it out and held it up. “Oh! It’s beautiful, and it goes perfectly with this dress.”