God in heaven. He could hardly believe she’d had the nerve to describe those paintings to him! If he hadn’t heard it with his own ears, he’d never have believed it.
He’d never seen a lady’s cheeks burn so red in his life.
“Good. I don’t want another of your scandals, Jasper.”
Scandals? Who had time for scandals? Between Selina’s vows of vengeance and Miss Thorne’s thievery, his time was quite taken up as it was. He was only one gentleman, after all. “Not a single scandal, Grandfather.”
“Good. Now, I hear Basingstoke’s hosting a shooting party at his estate in Kent. Is that so?”
“Yes. It’s to be a fortnight of grouse hunting.”
“Ah, good. You’re leaving for Kent today then, eh, lad?”
“I am, indeed.”Someonehad to keep an eye on Miss Thorne.
“I see, I see.” The old man rubbed his hands together, looking pleased with himself. “It will do you good to get out of London for a bit.”
It might, at that, and with any luck, perhaps he’d find a way to steal his earrings back from Prudence Thorne.
CHAPTER7
Basingstoke House
West Farleigh, Kent
It was just past seven o’clock in the morning when Prue slipped out the front door of Basingstoke House, blinking at the pale fingers of sunlight curling over the peaked roof of the stables.
No one else was about. The Duke of Basingstoke’s other guests were far too fashionable to rise so early, so she had the entirety of the estate’s twelve hundred acres all to herself. She wouldn’t need all that, of course—a few dozen acres would do very well for her—still, it was nice to know it was there, all the same.
She lifted the hems of her riding habit and meandered down the pathway, the soft thud of her boots against the packed earth the only sound in the stillness of the morning, but just as the path gave way to the stable yard, she heard the thunder of hooves and the jingle of a harness, and looked up to see an elderly gentleman riding into the yard. He brought his horse up near the barn and attempted, with some difficulty, to dismount.
She paused, studying his profile. Why, it washim—the same gentleman she’d met outside the Duke of Montford’s townhouse yesterday. There was no mistaking that shock of thick, white hair or the formidable line of his jaw.
He was an arresting figure, dressed all in black, with the proud, upright bearing of a former military officer, and he put her so much in mind of her own beloved father, a sharp pang of homesickness pierced her breast.
“Take care with the reins, Colonel Kingston!” A servant in navy blue livery darted from the stables into the yard, frantically waving his arms. “Colonel! You mustn’t attempt to—”
But the man’s warning came too late. The white-haired gentleman stumbled as he dismounted, one arm pinwheeling as he lost his balance.
“Colonel!”
The servant rushed forward, but she was closer, and she raced to the gentleman’s side, catching his arm before he could topple backwards and keeping a firm grip on him until he’d regained his balance.
“My goodness, sir, you gave me a fright! I do beg your pardon for grabbing you like that, but I daresay a bit of manhandling is preferable to a tumble, isn’t it?”
“You, again!” Shrewd, bright blue eyes regarded her from underneath a pair of impressively bushy silver eyebrows. “Where did you come from, girl?”
“Er, the house?” Was this a trick question? “I was on my way to—”
“The last time I sawyou, you were all alone in Berkeley Square, wandering about the public streets where any thief or scoundrel might have got to you.” The silver eyebrows lowered disapprovingly. “Now here you are again, scampering about in the stable yard in the dark. What are you thinking, girl? Don’t you have any sense at all?”
The Duke of Montford had asked her that only yesterday, which meant two separate gentlemen had asked that same question of her in the same week. Mustn’t that mean the answer was a resounding, no?
The gentleman’s tone was gruff, his manner so blunt it bordered on rude. Another young lady might have been offended, but she was accustomed to plain speaking, and offered her interrogator a sunny smile. “I was thinking I’d quite like to ride this morning. Thisisa stable yard, is it not?”
He stared at her for so long she began to squirm, much as she did when she’d been a child on the receiving end of one of her father’s lectures, but then he let out a wheezing laugh. “Cheeky thing.”
“Colonel!” The servant hobbled toward them, his brow pinched with concern. “Are you hurt?”
