Or yours.
Leith heard the words.Monty didn’t need to say them.
“That seems, all in all, the best excuse to tender to Miss Salisbury for why you cannot bed her.As my wife says, you have already said she doesn’t suit you.”
Strangely, now that he had been told hecouldn’tbed her, Leith felt less sure about his feelings for the woman.
It was true that he did like tall brunette women with large bosoms and touch-me-not airs.
And he supposed, now that he thought of it, that described Miss Salisbury exactly.
Suddenly, he imagined her kitted out differently—in fashionable dress, her wild hair tamed.
The image stirred him.He couldn’t deny it.
But Leith was in no position to argue with Monty.His best friend already thought him a depraved bastard with no proper feeling for anything other than his own cock.
“Very well,” he said, rising and trying to flash a normal smile.“As you say, it should hardly be a struggle to resist a woman so little to my tastes.”
Leith strode from the room and out the door of Carrington Place to where his own carriage waited in the street.
As he approached, his coachman, Preston, flicked the reins and his footman, Charles, straightened up on the box.
“Charles,” he said, as he approached.“Inside.”
For his entire life, Leith had done everything by the letter.And that letter dictated that the footman rode on the box.
But, as of recent times, he had, increasingly, asked Charles to ride in the carriage with him.Perhaps it was a sign of his age, but he had taken a kind of paternal affection for the boy.After all, he had known Charles, now eighteen, for his entire life, as he was the son of his housekeeper and butler.The boy always seemed so thankful to be taught things about the world which he would, otherwise, never have any chance of knowing.
And Leith was aware, albeit somewhat dimly, that he had come to confide in Charles in a way that, perhaps, it had been difficult to do with his friends since their marriages.
“Was it a good visit with the earl and his lady, sir?”Charles said, once he closed the door after himself.
Charles was fairly innocent, as far as Leith could tell.And, in his opinion, it was better to keep him that way.But, of course, he knew of Leith’s mistresses, so he was not completely blinkered.
“Not precisely, Charles.I will have a new mistress at the St.James’s house.And not one of my own choosing.”
“That seems very strange, sir.”
“Yes, it is bound to be.But it could not be avoided.”
“Is that so, sir?”
“Unfortunately.The earl is a close friend of mine and well—have you ever quarreled with a friend, Charles?”
Charles looked at him, his earnest expression pensive for a moment.“Of course, sir.Once, my best mate, Jack, kissed my sweetheart, Lillian.”
These types of admissions were why Leith appreciated Charles.Sometimes, when he was riding around, he wanted to focus on something else besides the whirring of his own thoughts.And Charles had no shortage of lively anecdotes.
“What did you do to rectify the matter?”
“I hit him, of course, sir.And gave him a right bloody lip.And wrote Lillian off as a bad business.”
“Are you still friends with this Jack?”
“Of course, sir.He’s my best mate.We’ve been best friends since we were babies.And he had only made one mistake.Lillian is very pretty.And she admitted she tried to kiss him first.”
“Mm, it does sound that Jack was rather cornered, then.”
