“Am I?”
“Naturally. It is a pleasure to meet me, after all. And you’re meant to offer your name in return.”
“Really?”
“It is the generally accepted mode when it comes to introductions.”
“If you say so, your lordship.”
“Oh, please, Archibald.Archieto my friends.” He bent a leg and leaned at a jaunty angle over the counter. “We are to be friends, aren’t we?”
She met his eye again, and he leered at her. No doubt he thought he was smiling, but Nigel knew a leer when he saw one, even from behind the double-delight rose, where he’d taken up temporary residence, observing the scene as it unfolded.
Before Luna was obliged to make any sort of answer, the two Silly Young Things crowded the counter and began begging for readings. Luna offered them her basket of tea pouches, assisted them in making their purchases, and put on the kettle behind the curtain. All this while, Lord Bruxley lingered.
“Are you going to take me behind that curtain with you?” he asked suggestively, when the first of the two ladies emerged from her reading. “I want my fortune told. It’s sure to be full of delights.”
He waggled his eyebrows. Actuallywaggledthem.
Nigel’s grip on his pruning shears tightened, but the double-delight rose placed a warning cane against his arm, and he restrained himself.
Luna, unperturbed, merely invited the second young lady back for her reading. Lord Bruxley, bored, prodded one of the tiger lilies with the end of his walking stick. When he turned away, the lily took a swipe at his heel, but he didn’t seem to notice.
The second lady emerged from the nook, all giggles, and joined her friend by the gardenia display. Lord Bruxley, seeing an opportunity, presented himself at the counter once more and plucked a silk pouch from Luna’s display basket. “This one, ifyou please,” he said. “Brew it up extra strong; I like a little bitter with the sweet.”
“No,” Luna said quite clearly.
Nigel held his breath.
Lord Bruxley blinked. “What was that?”
“I said, ‘no,’ your lordship. I am not taking any more readings at this time.”
“What, is witching hour over already?”
“Something like that.”
His mustache drooped rather ominously before bowing in another greasy grin. “That’s all right—I already know what my future holds. A long, leisurely, candlelit dinner with a certain tea witch. Tonight, I believe. At The Blue Moon Club.And afterwards . . .” He let his voice trail away even as his eyes made an indecent run up and down Luna’s person.
The rose added a second cane to Nigel’s arm, holding him at bay.
Luna, however, merely looked at the gentleman demurely and said, “What a surprise, your lordship.”
“Surprise?” he queried.
“That you should happen to knowtwotea witches. I shouldn’t think it was a common profession.”
The gentleman’s brow furrowed for a moment with uncertainty. Then he caught her drift. He also reached out and caught her hand. “You know, I am a very powerful man,” he said, his voice dropping an octave.
“Yes,” Luna replied, withdrawing her hand rather sharply. “And you keep sugar in your pocket for your gray hunter, though that sweetness does not, apparently, extend to those who wait upon you in shops.”
A look of surprise flashed across his handsome face, and Lord Bruxley stood up a little straighter. “How do you know about the sugar? And the gray hunter?” When Luna didn’t respond,however, he slipped back into charm and leaned in. “You’ve seen me in one of your visions, haven’t you? In your own teacup, perhaps. Come, little witch, there’s no good in denying it.”
Luna offered the man a cold look. “I must ask you to step away from the counter, sir, and make room for other customers.”
“What other customers? There’s no one here but me and my little cousins. And I haven’t gotten what I want yet.”
“If you have a purchase to make, I am happy to assist you.”
