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rotter and a coward. I wish he’d cause trouble, damn me if I don’t. Give me a reason to wipe the floor with him again.But chaps like him only bedevil those who can’t fight back.”
    Kelsey shivered at the anger she felt from the one called Derek. She wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling they were speaking about the blue-eyed lord who had been bidding on her but had left in such a fury. And if that was so, then apparently these gentlemen had crossed paths with him before.
    She wasn’t going to ask, however. In fact, she moved over by the desk to sit down in the chair that had been offered, hoping to stay out of their notice. But that was a mistake, drawing both of their eyes back to her. She started to squirm, but was really sick and tired of the nervous, fearful state she’d been in all day.
    A spark of anger formed, countering it, allowing her to say, “Don’t mind me, gentlemen. Do go on with your conversation as it pleases you.”
    Percy blinked at her. Derek’s eyes narrowed. And she realized immediately what she’d done wrong—again. She might not look like a lady in the garish red gown she was wearing, but she’d certainly just sounded like one. Yet this was something she couldn’t help. Pretension was not her forte. Even if she’d tried to sound less cultured, and managed it for a time, she would have slipped at some point and then had even more explaining to do.
    So she decided to brave through and lie. The truth, of course, was out of the question.
    With an innocent look that she bestowed onboth of them, she asked, “Did I say something untoward?”
    “It’s not what you said, m’dear, but how you said it,” Derek replied.
    “How I said it? Oh, you refer to my speech? Yes, it does surprise people occasionally. But you see, my mother was a governess, and I was able to benefit from the same tutors assigned to her charges. A very uplifting experience, if I do say so myself.”
    She had to smile at the pun, whether they caught it or not. Percy relaxed, taking her word for it. Derek was still frowning, however.
    And he didn’t take long to say why. “I find it hard to imagine that being allowed, when most lords are from the old school and believe the lower classes should be kept the lower classes, as to say, ignorant of higher learning.”
    “Ah, but there was no lord to say yea or nay, just a lord’s widow my mum worked for who really couldn’t have cared less what the children of her live-in servants were up to. She did, in fact, give her permission. My mum wasn’t one to take such liberties on her own, after all. And I will be forever grateful to the lady—for not caring one way or another.”
    Percy coughed at that point, followed by a snicker. “Give it a rest, old man. What you were thinking ain’t possible and you know it.”
    Derek snorted at his friend. “As if you didn’t think the same thing.”
    “Only for the briefest second.”
    “And what, may I ask, are you both referring to?” Kelsey asked, keeping up her pretense at innocence.
    “Nothing that matters,” Derek replied in a low grumble, and stuffing his hands in his pockets, he moved to stand in the open doorway, leaning against the frame there, giving his back to the room.
    Kelsey looked to Percy for a clearer answer, but he just smiled sheepishly, shrugged, and stuffed his hands in his pockets as well, rocking back on his heels. She almost laughed. Of course they wouldn’t admit they had, however briefly, thought she might be a lady. The very thought of it wasn’t to be borne by men of their class. And that really was her protection. Her family had endured one scandal. She wasn’t going to be the cause of another if she could help it.

5
    You sure you don’t want me to be in your debt for life, Derek?”
    “Getting greedy now, are we? I could’ve sworn we’d finished that subject.”
    “Well, that was before you ended up with the prize,” Jeremy said with an engaging grin.
    Kelsey had no idea what they were