Read The Trouble With Being Wicked for Free Online

accept all responsibility for creating unnecessary alarm. Routine is the bedrock of a well-run house, as you are fond of reminding us, and when Evans informed me you did not arrive for your toilette, I worried some ill fate had befallen you. Knowing as how you are always advising the Misses Lancester of the dangers present on the moors, I think I was not wholly in the wrong.”
    There was definitely something dangerous lurking about the moors. A vixen with a succubus’s body and a quick tongue. “If you say you were not wrong, Nordstrom, then I’m inclined to agree with you. In my defense, I’ve never been required to escort anyone off the old Amherst property.” He looked askance at his butler as he shrugged out of his greatcoat. “Nor can I recall being required to explain myself to my retainer. The day doesn’t lack for larks, does it?”
    Nordstrom’s hands fell to his sides, leaving Ash’s hat to dangle from his fingertips. “ True danger, my lord! I see nothing funny in your coming upon lurkers.”
    “Lurkers? Much worse, Nordstrom. Women.”
    “Women, you say?” Nordstrom’s jaw hung nearly open.
    “I was just as incredulous.”
    “I should think so! Are the ladies from London, then?”
    “They’re not ladies. But yes, I think they are from Town.” Ash paused. “What an odd thing to ask. How did you know?”
    “I didn’t, my lord,” Nordstrom replied with a straight face. “How could I? I’ve been here all day.”
    Ash shot his butler a warning glower, the same testing suspicion he turned on his sisters from time to time. “Should you hear anything of interest, inform me without delay.”  
    “Yes, my lord.” Nordstrom’s lips turned down, giving the impression he would walk about with his fingers in his ears to avoid any such unpleasant discussions in the future. Then he blinked, as though he’d just recalled a message. “Your sisters were out,” he said, causing Ash to stiffen. “They returned their mounts only just ahead of you. Stevens sent word but a minute ago.”
    “He might have not saddled their horses to begin with,” Ash grumbled. He knew it was futile to chide his servants, though. They were the best eyes and ears he had, but he suspected their allegiances lay with the younger members of his household.
    With a nod to Nordstrom, Ash took himself up to dress for dinner. Aside from his strict rule on arriving clean and neat, freshening up now was a stall tactic. God knew, he and his sisters butted heads often enough when he was in a pleasant mood. It didn’t improve his humor to know he must now withhold the treat he’d gone through so much effort to obtain. At least ribbons and tongs would hold until a more appropriate time, unlike the morning he’d tried to surprise Lucy with a special birthday breakfast, only to have her lie abed until three in the afternoon. It was her birthday, she’d defended, and she might spend it how she liked. He still suspected she’d slipped out of her window for those hours she’d allegedly been snuggled beneath her blankets.
    Once again, his thoughts came back to Miss Smythe. Years of raising his head-splitting sisters had made him wary. Unlike his sisters, however, who had been his wards until they’d reached their majority, he had no right to interrogate Miss Smythe or Mrs. Inglewood, no authority over them at all. They could lie to him all they wanted to and he was powerless, because he’d signed the papers that made it so.
    He paused in tying his cravat. It was driving him mad to waver between conviction and guilt. Were they lying? Or was he seeing villainy where it didn’t exist? Lucy and Delilah certainly accused him of that enough. Could his appalling physical response to Miss Smythe be causing him to seek out a plausible excuse to push her away?
    He frowned. Either way, she was to live right next door. It was enough to send him to Bedlam.
    At six of the clock, he arrived in the drawing room only to discover his sisters were not