Attempting to blackmail a duke was, it seemed, only the start toherday.
He let the draperies fall back, marched out into the entryway, and waited, his arms crossed over his chest until his grandfather mounted the stairs and entered the townhouse. “What did she say to you?”
“Who?” His grandfather stopped short, blinking. “Jasper, my dear boy, what are you doing, standing about in the hallway in that . . . that . . .” He waved a hand at Jasper’s wrinkled coat and bedraggled pantaloons. “Costume? For God’s sake, lad, you look like a pile of soiled linens the laundress left behind.”
“Doing? Why, nothing much, Grandfather, just wondering what that hellion was saying to you.”
“Hellion?” His grandfather glanced at the closed door, then turned back to Jasper. “What, you mean that young lady I just passed? She’s no hellion, lad. She was a sweet little thing. Clever, too. That sort of young lady is worth a dozen of those simpering misses who parade in and out of your bed.”
Jasper snorted. Just what every gentleman in London looked for in a lover—cleverness.
“This sounds like the start of a lecture, Grandfather. Perhaps you’d be good enough to deliver it while I have my morning coffee.”
He turned toward the breakfast room, his grandfather on his heels. “Coffee, Esmond,” he barked at the footman, throwing himself into a chair. “What will you have, Grandfather?”
“Nothing for me.” His grandfather waved Esmond off. “I dined hours ago.”
Jasper drained his coffee in one gulp, ignoring his burning tongue, and signaled Esmond for another cup. “So, Grandfather. To what do I owe the pleasure of your exceedingly early morning visit?”
Pleasure, indeed. He didn’t take any pleasure in anything that happened earlier than the late afternoon. His grandfather knew it well, and didn’t approve of it, any more than he did any of Jasper’s habits. Still, his grandfather was the closest thing he’d ever had to a parent, and one didn’t toss one’s parent out of one’s townhouse, no matter how annoying they might be.
“Not so early I’m your first visitor, by the looks of it. What did that young lady want? It looked as if she was coming from here.”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.” It was closer to the truth than one might think. He couldn’t make heads nor tails of Prudence Thorne, but he wasn’t about to tell his grandfather the girl had just tried to blackmail him.
His grandfather eyed him. “I wouldn’t take kindly to your trifling with a young lady like that, Jasper.”
Jasper set his coffee aside with a sigh. For all his wicked ways, he didn’t trifle with innocents. Indeed, he should be offended at the mere suggestion, but he didn’t have the energy to do battle with his grandfather today. “Is that why you came this morning? To warn me away from innocent young ladies?”
“Not innocent ones, no. I came about that courtesan you’ve been carrying on with. That dark-haired chit—what’s her name? Sienna, or Sophia?”
“Selina. Lady Selina Archer.”
“That’s the one. Now, you know I don’t like to interfere in your business, lad—”
Jasper snorted, and his grandfather’s bristly eyebrows lowered.
“You needn’t concern yourself with Selina anymore, Grandfather. We’re finished.”
“Well, I knowthat, my boy.”
“Of course, you do.” Jasper just managed not to roll his eyes. “Despite having just claimed you don’t like to interfere in my business.”
Of all the busybodies in London, his grandfather was the busiest. He was likely bribing one of the servants, as he seemed to know every detail of Jasper’s life, but he couldn’t be bothered to find out which one. “If you already know about Selina, then what are you doing here?”
“Don’t take that tone with me, boy.” The eyebrows lowered another notch.
“I beg your pardon, Grandfather. I’m, ah, a bit out of sorts.”
“Yes, I can see that. I’m here because I happen to know you were with that Lady Sienna—”
“Selina.”
“—last night, so I came to warn you away from taking up with her again.”
“No need. We’re finished for good.” Until Selina’s next move, that is.
As if Selina wasn’t enough to try his patience, now he had this business with Miss Thorne and those bloody earrings. He might not have seen them with his own eyes, but she had them. Either that, or she had a vivid imagination when it came to a gentleman’s anatomy.
