Read My Wicked Marquess for Free Online

Max admitted, “but all is not smooth sailing, I’m afraid. Especially now.” As far as Daphne Starling knew, he was a wastrel, a drunkard, and a whoremonger.
    No doubt, the sight of him stumbling out of that brothel would only seem to confirm what she would soon hear about him in Society if she learned his name and started asking questions.
    Unfortunately, it wasn’t as though he could just sit her down and tell her the truth. No, not at all, Miss Starling, I wasn’t there rogering harlots. I was only there to spy on you.
    That was not exactly going to help his cause.
    What cause? He was not choosing her for his wife. He was not .
    He frowned in irritation at himself. “At least I want to go to this ball for a little while and make sure she’s all right,” he grumbled. “Also let her see I’m quite unscathed so she won’t blame herself.”
    Dodsley looked at him with no idea of what he was talking about. “Naturally, sir.”
    â€œYou know how women are. The way they worry.”
    â€œIf they have a heart,” his butler said with a sage stare.
    â€œShe does. By God, she does,” he murmured barely audibly, staring at nothing as his thoughts returned to her reluctance to leave the scene of the fight. “Sir!” she had called to him.
    Twice. Risking her own safety to try to save him, even in the midst of his attempt to rescue her.
    â€œWell, then.” Dodsley took the empty shot glass back from him and lifted his chin. “I shall inform Lady Edgecombe to expect Your Lordship at the ball tomorrow night. Being so recently returned from abroad, it is only fitting that my lord should wish to pay his respects to his noble kinsmen.”
    â€œAh, my kinsmen…I like that angle, Dodsley! I had almost forgotten. They are my distant cousins, aren’t they?”
    â€œOn your mother’s side, my lord. Second cousins, twice removed.”
    Max smiled at his longtime servant in amused appreciation. “Good, then. For Lord knows, I shall have my work cut out for me.”
    â€œWith the Edgecombes, sir?”
    â€œWith the girl,” he said with a wince. “Afraid I’ve got some repair work to do.”
    â€œAlready?” Dodsley asked indignantly.
    Max just sighed.
    Â 
    Daphne did not leave the Strand for another half an hour. With her worried servants looking on, she paced anxiously, waiting for the magistrate’s men to return with word of her mysterious rescuer—at least to find out if the gang had murdered him.
    She was eager to learn his identity, but when the old watchman returned, he told her they had found no such personon the scene, just a dozen low thugs nursing bloody noses, bruised ribs, and a couple of nasty gashes.
    The other officers had made a few arrests for disorderly conduct, and had gone to haul their prisoners off before the magistrate; but in typical Bucket Lane style, no one admitted seeing anything.
    Nobody had anything to say.
    This news left Daphne even more distressed. While it might mean the lunatic lord had escaped, it could just as easily suggest that they had already killed him and stashed his body someplace. He had been so badly outnumbered.
    The officers had made a cursory search of the pub and the brothel’s first floor, but they could not scour the other buildings on that dark and dingy lane until they came back with a warrant. Even the Bucket Street gang had their rights.
    â€œI’m sure he must have got away, whoever he was,” William said with a worried glance from the driver’s seat of the gig as the three of them finally headed back to South Kensington on the green and pleasant outskirts of London.
    â€œThe main point is, we did the right thing,” Wilhelmina chimed in.
    â€œOh, what if he was killed?”
    â€œI should think, miss, that when a gentleman goes to a place like that, he must know what he’s in for, surely. He had no cause to provoke them