After the Kiss

Read After the Kiss for Free Online

Book: Read After the Kiss for Free Online
Authors: Suzanne Enoch
dipping his hands into the washbowl and scrubbing off the dirt.
    “Done. And then you can tell me what you’re going to do about your problem.”
    His problem. Lady Isabel Chalsey. With a shrug he tossedBramwell a bottle of whiskey. “She’s not much of a problem,” he said offhandedly, trudging up the stairs to change into evening attire. “She’s had her moment of bravado, so I’ll tolerate her for a day or two and meanwhile make it clear that she needs to keep her pretty mouth shut.”
    “Her ‘pretty’ mouth?” Lord Bramwell repeated from the ground floor.
    Bloody hell. “Yes, her mouth. Her keeping her nose closed wouldn’t much benefit me, now, would it?”
    “That depends on how much time you’ve been spending in the stable with the horse shit.”
    The wisest plan for tonight would probably have been to stay at home and spend the ensuing hours before his morning visit to Chalsey House figuring out what precisely he was going to do about Lady Isabel. Sullivan blew out his breath.
    He was popular with ladies of quality, and he’d had his share of lovers. This, though, was different. This was complicated. And despite the kiss and the odd…connection he felt with her, he wasn’t certain this difficulty was something he could resolve through physical domination or intimidation. What did spoiled, pretty chits fear? What could he offer or threaten that would convince her to keep her silence? She’d kept his secret to this point, but he had no idea why. And he needed to find the answer to that question without delay.
    He pulled on a clean shirt and buttoned a waistcoat over it, then shrugged into a jacket. Jezebel’s had a very mixed clientele, from merchants to bankers to horse breeders to second sons of dukes, but he would be in Bram’s company, and so he would look the part. And to himself he could admit that he didn’t want to appear common. Of course, he wasn’t common. Without his father’s acknowledgment, he wasn’t anything.
    “You look lovely,” Bram drawled from a chair by the fire downstairs. “Prettier than me, even. I don’t know that I like that.”
    With a snort, Sullivan pulled on his greatcoat and beaver hat. “You’re still the prettiest,” he said, calling for his housekeeper and instructing Mrs. Howard to bank the fires and go home for the night.
    “As long as we agree about that,” Bram continued, leading the way to his coach. “So what do you know about the Chalsey family?”
    Sullivan took the opposite seat, and the big black behemoth rocked into motion. “Wealthy, two sons and a daughter. The oldest boy is an earl with a fondness for fine horses, the daughter is a light sleeper, and they used to own one of my mother’s paintings.”
    “You’re beginning to sound cynical.”
    “I am cynical.”
    Bramwell gazed at him for a moment, his eyes shadowed in the dark coach. “By some miracle you’re not dead, Sullivan,” he finally said in a quiet voice. “The Chalseys are a straitlaced lot. And their daughter is one of polite Society’s darlings. Don’t take Lady Isabel’s silence for granted. I’d hate for you to end on the gallows after I went to the bother of saving your life in Spain.”
    Sullivan narrowed his eyes. “You’re not actually concerned about me, are you, Bram? Because I think I was fairly clear about my intentions when this all began, and you still agreed to point out the locations where I might find those paintings once you spotted them. Nothing’s changed.”
    “Someone saw you. That changes things. And even if you can persuade her to keep her knowledge to herself for now, what’s going to happen when you go after the next painting? Will she stay silent then?”
    For a long moment Sullivan gazed through the coach window at the moonlit evening. His stable was just outside London, but it felt far more countrified. Yet within a mile or two they’d reached the heart of town again. “The risks are mine, Bram. If you’re backing out of

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