Read Kasey Michaels - [Redgraves 02] for Free Online Page B

more about their guest. “Valentine tells me London is very flat this season, my lord. Is that true?”
    “London is London, my lady, and in the end, I suppose what you make of it,” he answered, having somehow already downed half his sandwich, rather like a person who has learned to feed his belly as quickly and efficiently as possible. Someone like a soldier, perhaps?
    “Yes, and I made a shambles of it last year. It was really quite enjoyable.”
    “Kate,” Valentine said warningly.
    “There’s no sense in pretending it didn’t happen, Valentine. Now is there, my lord?”
    “I’m certain you were quite justified in your actions, my lady.”
    “No, I wasn’t. I could have done any number of things. Walked off the floor, for one, cutting the man dead. Claimed a sudden indisposition and asked him to return me to my grandmother. Feigned an overturned ankle. Any number of things. I simply preferred my chosen rebuttal to his statement.”
    “Again, may I say I’m certain you were quite justified.”
    “Thank you.” She turned to Valentine. “Now, see how simple that was? Rough ground gotten over swiftly and smoothly. It had to be said, didn’t it? Elsewise, it would hang over us all. My goodness, she’s the barbarian who bloodied that man’s nose last year at Almacks.” She gave a slight toss of her head. “I feel much better now. Shall we cry friends, my lord, as you and Val have already done? We prefer to be informal here at Redgrave Manor.”
    “I would be honored,” the marquis said with an inclination of his handsome head. “Kate.”
    “Simon,” she answered, again feeling heat climbing into her cheeks. She was going to have to be extremely careful around this so pretty, so pleasing man. “I’m certain Dearborn is waiting outside, to show you to your rooms.”
    As Kate rose, he stood up, as well. “I would like to change out of my traveling clothes, thank you.”
    “We keep country hours, Simon,” Valentine told him. “Dinner gong goes at six, tea at ten and then early to rise. We might think about a ride over the estate in the morning?”
    Simon looked to Kate. “Do you ride?” His tone implied if she didn’t, he wouldn’t, either.
    “I do,” she said, “thank you for asking.”
    He inclined his head to her once more. “My mount will be arriving shortly, if it hasn’t already, along with my coach and valet. I eagerly anticipate the dinner gong, so that we may become more acquainted.”
    She dropped him a small curtsy, then watched as he strode out of the room. Grabbing up one of the well-cut sandwiches, she plunked herself back down on the soft couch and clunked her heels, one after the other, on the low table before crossing her legs at the ankle. “All right, where did you meet him?”
    “Is it impossible for you to employ correct posture for more than ten minutes?” Val asked, seating himself on the opposite couch and repeating her action with his own legs.
    She spoke around a bite of ham shoved between a split roll spread with their own homemade mustard. “No, but that doesn’t answer my question, does it?”
    “Sussex. Somewhere in Sussex, I disremember where. We met again in London, at some insipid affair, and soon I was regaling him with the beauty of Kent. Did you have to bring up Almacks?”
    “Of course I did. Everyone knows, even if Gideon made it clear no one was to talk about it. You can’t stop gossip, Val, you can only make it whisper instead of shout. Why else did you all decide I shouldn’t return for another year? Simon was sure to have heard, so why not admit it and be done?”
    “I’m not certain I like you addressing him as Simon.”
    Kate rolled her eyes. “I’m not overjoyed with his blatant flirting. You might consider advising him to not lay it on so thick and rare.”
    “You don’t use cant expressions like thick and rare,” Valentine said, almost as if the correction was by habit, without having to think about it. “And I did not invite