Chapter 17
Gabe felt himself tense as they neared the morning room. The sound of uninhibited laughter and answering titters echoed through the hall. It would seem that they were not the first guests to awaken.
Pasting a self-assured smile on his lips, he affected a jackanapes swagger and pushed open the door to the breakfast room. A nauseating waft of the presumably inedible fare curled up to his senses and he hid a cringe.
Without breaking stride, he led Mary into the grand, lavishly appointed morning room. This one was more absurd than the others they had seen of yet. The walls were draped in gilt wall hangings, the white floors were polished to such a high shine that they reflected everything in the room as though it were a mirror, and small cupids holding fruit smiled down on them from the painted ceiling.
Egad.
They greeted the others in the room but halted when a new man rose from his seat at the table.
“Mary!” The man boomed as he spread his arms wide and strode toward them.
Mary smiled in return and accepted his buss to her cheek. Gabe clenched his jaw to keep from loudly protesting and sweeping Mary from the room.
“Won’t you introduce me to your friend?” the cad with auburn hair and striking green eyes asked.
Mary’s grin widened at the curst man. “Of course! Tony, this is Mr. Anthony Spencer.”
Gabe’s confident expression slipped as he was momentarily nonplused.
“Tony, this is Anthony Walstone, Viscount Boxton.”
“TwoTonys, eh wot?” Mr. Piper laughed from his seat at the long table.
Gabe affected the appropriate bow and said the customary things, all the while he was seething at the knowledge that this man and Mary already knew each other. The question was,howdid they know each other? Did they have anassociationsuch as the one Mary had with Lord Reddington?
Perish the thought.
Gabe had heard of Boxton through his dealings—orincidents—with Hydra’s family. Hydra’s sister, Miss Annabel Bradley—now Lady Devon—had been courted by the man over the past season. From what Gabe had gleaned, Boxton was a right bastard and ended up forced into a loveless marriage after being caught doing unspeakable acts to his loathsome future wife.
“Tell me, how do you know each other?” Gabe cursed his quick tongue the moment the words escaped his mouth. He did not want to know the answer to that question.
A slow, predatory grin grew on the man’s lips and Gabe felt his pulse begin to hammer in his temples.
“Oh, we gowayback, don’t we, love?” He winked at Mary, and Gabe had to resist the urge to punch the man in the nose. “But I thought you would not take on a protector, Mary.” He turned to Gabe with a jaundiced eye.
Mary gazed at Gabe with adoration, her hand running up and down his coat sleeve. “Tony knew precisely what to say and what todoto alter my opinion on that score.”
“Do stop,” Lord Reddington grumbled around a mouth full of food from his seat at the table. “You’ll make us all jealous.”
“Yes, come in and eat,” Lady Kerr intoned from her seat beside her husband at the head of the table. “I saved a seat for you, Mr. Spencer.”
Lord Boxton raised a critical eyebrow at Gabe. “It seems that my lover has taken a liking to you…” his gaze flicked to Mary and back, “andthe woman whose favours I, and dozens more, have very nearly begged for. You must be something special, indeed.”
Damn. He had not meant to attract so much attention. That would not be conducive to their anonymity once this assignment concluded.
He shrugged a shoulder and affected a confidence he didn’t feel. “What can I say? I learned some veryinterestingthings while living abroad.”
“Will you lot quit your blathering and sit your arses down to eat?” Lord Sheffield wheezed, his extra chin jiggling as he spoke. “The food is getting cold and your chatter is setting me off my feed.”
“And that’s damned difficult to do!” Mr. Piper laughed.
Gabe silently gripped Mary’s elbow and led her to the sideboard where they both filled their plates. Nothing appeared or smelled appetizing in the least, but he swallowed past his repugnance and selected the lesser of the evils: nearly spoiled fruit and a slice of toast.
He sat next to Lady Kerr as she had requested, and Mary sat between the scurrilous devils, Reddington and Boxton. She smiled and flirted as she ate, laughed or turned her warm grey eyes on them when they whispered something in her ear, and batted her lashes at what Gabe could only assume were appropriate times. Damn them. Damn them all.
Why did it bother him so? Could it truly just be that he did not wish for Mary to be hurt? He was not certain that he wished to learn the answer to that question. He had best not dwell on it.
