“Truly?” Miss Hannah Wick looked astounded by his inadvertent confession.
“He’s telling the truth.” Lady Calliope must have taken pity on him… or perhaps not. Eoin didn’t trust the slight smile playing at the corners of her lips. “In fact, I don’t believe he’s even flirted with a woman, although I suppose he did when he first met you. But he isn’t normally like that.”
“That fact may actually help my plan,” Miss Hannah said. “As I will be his first lover—”
Eoin coughed… or maybe he wheezed. Whatever it was, it was a strangled sound.
Miss Hannah shot him a brief look and then continued. “As I was saying, if I am his first lover, it will make sense why he is so terribly infatuated that he cannot bear for me to leave his side.”
“Do—do you plan to be with me constantly?” Eoin asked, his voice still a trifle hoarse. Yet despite his shock, he found the proposed charade appealing… perhaps exciting even. Life would certainly be less boring with Miss Hannah in it, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to slide back into the grooves that his grandfather had carved for him.
“Yes. It will be the best way to glean information. Perhaps I can goad something out of your aunts and uncles, or they might let something slip in my presence.”
“You wish for me to introduce you as my mistress to my relations?” The words escaped him before he could think of a more judicious response.
“Why, yes.” The slight upward tilt of Miss Hannah Wick’s lips told Eoin that she was enjoying his bafflement.
Eoin lost the ability to speak any words at all. He merely stared at her as she smiled at him rather triumphantly. The sliver of his mind that was still capable of rationality hazily noted that her grin was sadly not of the flirtatious kind.
“Hannah, it would be difficult for His Grace to open his home to a courtesan,” Lady Charlotte said in that soft gracious way of hers that had made her an esteemed hostess of her mother’s salon.
“Oh, I am well aware that men don’t set up their lovers in their familial abodes, even ones with more polish than acoffeehouse proprietress. Although I suppose that my mother is a legitimate daughter of a marquess, but that certainly doesn’t offset the fact that my father is a pirate.”
Despite the harshness of Miss Hannah’s words, Eoin could detect her defiant pride. She clearly loved her father.
“But my low status doesn’t signify for what I have planned. It only supports it,” Miss Hannah Wick continued. “If you’re enamored enough to allow me to live in your home, then it won’t surprise people if I brazenly ask personal questions. Nor will it be as shocking when I drag you to disreputable establishments that you would normally disdain.”
Hannah paused and winked at Eoin rather saucily. “And there’s another advantage to cooking up a plump, juicy scandal for the ton to feast upon.”
He blinked. He felt like he was drowning from a spinning sensation even though his body wasn’t moving at all. Had anyone ever winked at him before? He didn’t think so… and certainly if they had, they wouldn’t have done it saucily.
“There’s another advantage?” he parroted rather dully.
“I’m curious as well,” Lady Calliope said.
Hannah sighed dramatically. Eoin was beginning to realize that the firebrand did nothing in half measure.
“I’m not even a part of Society, yet how is it that I understand how gossip works better than the nobs in this room? Especially you, Lady Calliope. Your family thrives on creating tittle-tattle.”
“Because they’re so far up in society that they’re like untouchable clouds,” Alun Powys interjected.
“Are you inferring that I have no substance?” Lady Calliope whirled on the Welsh playwright.
The actor only grinned broadly. “Your words, not mine, my dear Lady Calliope.”
“This is no time for you two to trade barbs,” Hannah said.
“You are forever telling us that,” Mr. Powys pointed out. “I cannot believe we are that disruptive.”
Hannah simply glared the man into silence, which Eoin found impressive. Although he’d only seen Mr. Powys perform onstage, the playwright had a reputation as a shrewd business owner who would not typically be cowed by a single look.
“Now,” Hannah said with a compelling command to her voice, “as I was trying to explain, if the ton gorges themselves on tidbits about Foxglen and me, they should pay less attention to the news that he’s reunited with his mother or sister. If the two of them wish to take their rightful place in Society, they won’t face as much scrutiny with me as a more interesting target.”
“Ooooh, Hannah. You are a devious schemer.” Lady Calliope gave a little clap.
“I grew up in a notorious coffeehouse that caters to former and not-so-former criminals. Do you really think I wouldn’t be able to handle the feeble machinations of tea-sipping matrons and fat lordlings?” Miss Wick jammed one of her fists against her side as she smiled broadly.
Watching her bask in triumph caused a rather odd sensation in Eoin’s chest. He felt like he’d run a mile, even though he’d been standing in one place.
