“Excellent,” Markham preened. “I look forward to seeing what you can do.”
“I have a feeling,” Bromton’s baritone boomed from beyond her sight, “this won’t be my best game of Carambole.”
“Why?” Markham asked. “I should think you’d be in top shape now that you’ve been properly exercised.”
“Your mood has improved, anyway,” Bromton replied.
“Do you know why my mood improved?” Markham asked. “I’ve been imagining how Rayne and Farring would judge your courtship of the most unmarriageable lady in the kingdom.”
Bromton moved into sight. “She told me it was England.”
“Did she? Interesting.” Markham tapped his stick in his palm. “Perhaps she is not as opposed to this match as she wants me to believe.”
Ugh. It was one thing tothinkMarkham intended the marquess for her, quite another to hear the two of them collude. Well, she would show them both she was not a woman with whom they should trifle. In Lord Bromton’s sleep-deprived state, it should not take much to frighten him away. She strode into the room as if she had every right to be there.
“Good evening, gentlemen.”
Markham’s stick clattered to the table, scattering the balls.
She smiled, honey sweet. “I gather I should have announced myself?”
Markham cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t be in here at all. The billiards room is meant to be a man’s refuge.”
“A man’s refuge,” she repeated derisively. “Why? Are there lightskirts hidden under the table?”
Markham’s look would have wilted wheat.
“Oh, bother.” She sighed with Drury Lane flair. “Am I not supposed to know about lightskirts? I assure you, I do. When Cartwright cried off, he obliged my curiosity in scandalous detail. Let me see if I remember…there exists a demimonde, where ladies of wit and fashion enjoy afternoon soirees and evening theater, freely indulging in all things forbidden.” Another sigh. “I confess I am fascinated by this demimonde.” She widened her eyes. “Envious, even.”
The tips of Markham’s ears went red. “What,” he whispered, “do you think you are about?”
“Since I am,” she fluttered the lace on her mobcap trim, “clearlyon the shelf, I have decided to enter the waters of the forbidden. Tomorrow, I’ll head over to The Pillar of Salt to sample Lizzie’s famous, if not quite legal, gin. And tonight? Billiards.”
“Kate!” Markham hissed.
“Yes?” She blinked. “Are youthatopposed to my playing billiards? London ladies bowl—I’ve seen etchings. It follows that they must play billiards. But are the ladies in the etchings the good kind of women, or the bad?” She tapped her chin. “Actually, I don’t care one way or the other.”
Markham shook his head. “What is wrong with you?”
Katherine ignored the question. “Surely one can embrace a mistress’s freedoms without the”—she cleared her throat—“responsibilities. And since a spinster is invisible to Society, she should do as she pleases. Do you agree, Lord Bromton?”
She turned an expectant gaze on Bromton. His eyes, light and luminous, fixed on her like a fox stalking prey. Excitement skittered over her skin.
“A lady may do as she pleases,” he said in his smoldering timbre, “when in her own home.”
Well. That was unexpected.
“Yes,” Markham said significantly, “when in her own home. May I remind you Southford is mine?”
She glanced to the heavens. “Oh, do stop trying to rattle me, Percy. It won’t work.” She then turned to Bromton. “I hadn’t any idea you possessed such radical thoughts, Lord Bromton. What was it you said about the Carlton set?
“Freedom in privacy of one’s,” he coughed, “billiards room, is hardly radical. And, while I may not approve of the crown prince’s friends, like you, I honor tradition and precedence.”
She lifted her chin. “Like me?”
“Yes.” He leaned on his stick. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the particular consideration you’ve given my consequence.”
“Overwhelmed,” Katherine responded with a smile. “How terribly gratifying.”
