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Chelsea Handler Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (epub
Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
C J Busby [Deep Amber 01] Deep Amber (retail) (epub)
Carl Ashmore [Time Hunters 01 The Time Hunters (epub)
Drew Hayes [Super Powereds 02 Super Powereds Year 2 (epub) i
Beth Harbison [Shoe Addict 02 Secrets of a Shoe Addict (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
Body Heir 02 Nimisha's Ship McCaffery, Anne

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.”“He does look wild eyed.”“He should stop singing.It is disturbing the men,” Penelope frowned.“I think a wheel in his brain has dislodged,” Celine suggested.“And now that wheel is rattling around in his head,” Penelope agreed.“Not rattling but sloshing around so loudly that he can no longer think, and hence he is spewing nonsense.”Penelope pressed Celine’s hand warmly, “I am glad we are related.We can read each other’s thoughts so well.”Celine smiled.“Wench,” George stopped singing and addressed Celine, “what sort of an establishment is this? Get me a brandy.”Wench, Celine mouthed in shock, while Mrs Beatle inside her head collapsed in a dead faint.“Celine is not a wench,” Penelope informed him, “she is a lady.”“Pardon me, Miss, you do look like someone starched enough to cut a man in two,” George corrected himself cheerfully.His smile vanished when he spotted Penelope’s large belly, “Is that—” he started to ask but never finished, for Penelope swung back her fist and punched him in the face.A minute of stunned silence later, the duke carefully asked his wife, “My dear, was that necessary?”“He was ogling my bosom,” Penelope replied primly, “and singing a bawdy song.I am surprised you did not take offence, Charles.”The duke wiped his brow, “I would love to agree with you, but I don’t think he could see straight or think straight.You might have been a little hast—”“Lord Adair,” Penelope cut in, “I have been told that most aristocrats are related to each other.Is that true?”“I suppose to an extent, yes,” Lord Adair replied, confused at the sudden change in topic.Penelope chewed her lip thoughtfully.“Do you think Lord Elmer is related to the king?”“Undoubtedly,” Lord Adair said.Penelope howled in distress.“I have given the king’s cousin a bloody nose.I am so, so sorry.”Celine let the duke handle Penelope.Meanwhile, she spent her time ensuring that not a speck of blood tarnished the duke’s excellent Turkish carpet.Within a few moments she had every handkerchief in the room laid under George’s head and under his nose.She then called for the brandy.The clock was striking eight ‘o’ clock in the morning, but the way things were going she was sure that everyone would need something far stronger than tea or coffee.Perkins wobbled into the room with the brandy tray, and Celine picked up a glass and froze.The silver tray was well polished, and in it she could clearly see her reflection and the fact that not one, not two, but three strands of dark brown hair had escaped her coiled bun.She frowned.Chapter 5Celine dipped the quill in ink to write a letter on behalf of the duchess politely declining an invitation to yet another party.The duchess herself sat reading her favourite novel with her feet up on the footstool while a maid fanned her with a bunch of large peacock feathers.Celine paused to stretch her arms and rub her tired eyes.The morning’s excitement combined with precious little sleep the night before was taking a toll on her.The large grandfather clock struck three times.Her wits woke as if doused with cold water.She had twenty minutes to finish all the letters before Dorothy was done with her music lessons and half an hour before she would have to insist that Penelope retire to her room to rest.Thereafter, Mrs Cornley would meet her in the …The duke stormed into the Blue Room.“Lord Elmer cannot stay,” he groused.“He is only here for a day, Charles,” Penelope soothed her irate husband.“Adair should have taken the fellow with him,” the duke muttered.“You know he had to urgently leave town on the King’s business.Besides, I invited Lord Elmer to stay for dinner.It would have been rude not to ask him.Mrs Beacon’s handbook for housewives that your mother kindly left for me clearly states that—”“Penny, I don’t like him.Adventure seems to trail him, or he seeks out danger like an irresponsible child.All my life I have heard of pickles that the fellow has got into.Once I heard he was shipwrecked, another time kidnapped, and then that he had kidnapped someone.I remember now, I had met him in a pub once when he had come to return a priceless vase that he had stolen from Lord Belair.He said he had stolen it to see if he could steal it.Then when he realised that he had successfully stolen it and that no one realised that it was him who had done the deed, he decided to return the vase.”“That was noble of him.”The duke’s mouth twisted humourlessly, “He said the vase was so ugly that it offended his refined senses.He couldn’t sleep with the thing in the same room as him.He was compelled to give it back.He is a thief, a blackguard, a flirt.”“So is Jimmy the highwayman, and he is my friend,” Penelope snapped.The duke gave up and glared at the only other person present in the room … Celine.Celine smiled.She was used to the duke’s moods.He had a heart of gold even if his face wore a constant glowering expression.She picked up the glass which Perkins had just brought into the room and dangled it in front of Penelope.“Here, Penny, drink up.”“No,” Penelope said firmly.“Come, just a sip,” Celine coaxed.“You are trying to poison me,” Penelope said, her nose wrinkling in distaste.“With cow’s milk?”“Where is Lord Elmer?” Penelope asked taking a reluctant sip.“In bed.Lord Adair suggested that I let him sleep all day and only wake him at dinner time,” Celine replied going back to her chair and picking up the quill.“Do you want to marry him?” Penelope asked, dumping the milk into a priceless vase.“Marry who?” Celine asked producing another glass of milk.“Lord Elmer.”“Penny!”“I could ask the duke to keep him around if you fancied him,” Penelope persisted.“You can safely send him home.”Penelope sighed, “Once this babe is born, I will invite you for a season in London.You will have plenty of men to choose from.”Celine produced a third glass of milk, since Penelope had dumped the second into a potted plant.“Drink … for the babe.”Penelope drank.***Later that evening Celine caught Lord Elmer on his way to the dining room.She scrutinised his pallor from beneath her lashes.Sleep had done him good.He was only a trifle green and looked far handsomer than he had that morning.She swallowed and peeked again [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]