It was, in fact, a very good question.
“Do you know what Brinker said when he was flat on his back, blood oozing from his nose? ‘Oh, you’rethatCaptain Hardy.’ What do you suppose he meant?”
Angelique looked thoughtful.
Then shook her head. “I couldn’t begin to guess. Maybe Brinker was simply dazed from the blow to the head.”
“That must be it,” Delilah said blithely. “Helga, do you think we can have extra sausage for breakfast? I amstarving.”
A night of unforgettable lovemaking put Tristan in a downright sprightly mood. He was bounding out through the foyer to have a look at his ship and to meet Massey for breakfast when a dulcet female voice called from the drawing room.
“Good morning, Captain Hardy.”
He stopped.
Mrs. Breedlove was alone, sitting on the settee, fetching in a gray morning gown with the light behind her.
“Good day, Mrs. Breedlove. Tolerable weather we’re having.”
She was as different from Lady Derring as diamonds from daisies. They were both beautiful women in their ways, shaped, he suspected, by entirely different circumstances.
“I’ve a little tea left in the pot, Captain Hardy, if you’d like it before you leave. I thought I’d drink it quietly before we feed the family, as it were.”
All at once he was certain Mrs. Breedlove had something she wished to speak to him about. It was also an opportunity to ask a few pressing questions of his own.
“That’s a kind offer. Thank you.”
He sat in the chair opposite her. “You and Lady Derring have created such a comfortable, welcoming place here. How did the two of you come to meet?”
“I was her husband’s mistress.”
Whatever he’d been expecting—circumspection? A delicate use of euphemism?—it wasn’t that. He had the sense that she’d intended to shock him. Or to discover whether he was, in fact, shocked.
“You don’t say,” he said neutrally.
Which made her smile. “We discovered, awkwardly and quite accidentally, that Derring had left the two of us penniless. We found we had a good deal in common in addition to the feckless Earl of Derring. The only thing Delilah had left was this building, and she was kind enough to include me in her mad scheme. We rub along together quite well.”
“Lady Derring is kind. As are you,” he added, gallantly. Though he was less certain such a gentle word applied to Angelique.
She didn’t thank him. Angelique merely tipped her head. “You and I are very alike, I think, Captain Hardy.”
“Ah. Does your beard begin to darken at about five o’clock, too?”
She smiled politely. “Nothing makes a dent. Not anymore. But that’s all to the good, isn’t it?”
Tristan stared at her, instantly cautious.
“I find it so,” he said shortly.
“I’ve concluded people are more or less the same beneath the surface. Saints, sinners, the differences are a matter of semantics and rather superficial.”
“Then we are agreed. I can’t help but suspect, Mrs. Breedlove, that you are taking the long way round to make a point. And in this approach, we differ. Hence the following direct question: What are you getting at?”
“When you are done with her, whatever your reasons, she will be in smithereens. And you won’t even sport a nick.”
For a moment he didn’t breathe.
Tristan betrayed nothing of what he was thinking, which was, in fact, that she may be right.
