She didn’t knock on his door, she was too angry for that. She marched in and found him on the bed, wide-awake, just lying there looking smug and self-satisfied. He was surprised by her unannounced entrance, though, and sat up. His expression even turned wary when he noted hers.

She stopped in front of him, her hands on her hips, and shouted, “Ye son of a bitch! Ye ever try tricks again to get under me skirt and I’ll gullet ye. And I don’t care if I get fired for it!”

“What tricks?”

“Being foxed. Ye weren’t drunk last night. Yer incapable o’ being drunk!”

He actually grinned. “I did mention that, didn’t I? Definitely recall doing so.”

“And that ye couldn’t find yer bleedin’ bed on yer own? D’ye recall mentioning that, too!”

He chuckled. “Danny, luv, you leave a man few choices. So I was getting desperate enough to take advantage of the conclusion you drew. A few minor fibs, but it was well worth it to finally taste you.”

“Was it?” she snarled just before her fist cracked against his cheek.

She’d expected him to move out of the way. He’d done that easily enough before. She didn’t expect to have her knuckles throbbing now. But it was very satisfying that they were.

“D’ye still think so?” she asked him smugly. “And that’s letting ye off lightly, mate. Keep yer kisses to yerself from now on!”

She marched back out of the room and ran straight into a brick wall. Well, that’s what it felt like. The intimidating chap she’d left in the entry hall had come upstairs, his patience gone, apparently.

“Run along, wench,” he told her. “I’ll be taking over where you left off, you may depend upon it.”

That sounded too ominous by half. Malory was about to get more than a black eye, she’d wager. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving scoundrel.

Chapter 23

JEREMY DROPPED BACKon his bed with a groan, recognizing that voice outside his room. He’d thought he would have another day or two before his father returned to town. But George had no doubt dragged him back as soon as she’d gotten word that her brother’s ship was in. And to go by what James had just said, Jeremy had been right last night in thinking his wonderful relatives were too concerned about his behavior to keep it to themselves. Either Percy’s remark had been relayed to James, or he’d been told that Jeremy was bedding his upstairs maid. Probably both. Though how the deuce they’d gotten to James this quickly boggled him.

“Hiding behind a black eye, puppy?”

Jeremy sat up and pointed to his upper cheek. “Take a look. Her fist landed here, but my eye does smart a little. Think it will turn black?”

“What I think,” his father said, “is you’ve bloody well lost your mind, tangling with a wench who throws punches instead of slaps.”

Jeremy grinned. “You don’t think any such thing. You saw her. You know exactly why I’d want to tangle with her, no matter what she throws.”

“Beside the point,” James said, but he still came over to the bed, took hold of Jeremy’s chin to tilt his head at a different angle, and examined the rapidly bruising area on his upper cheek.

“Won’t be a full shiner, but you might have enough bruise there to put off Albert Bascomb’s girl, so she’ll tilt her cap elsewhere.”

Jeremy flinched and exclaimed, “Hell’s bells, you even heard abouther? ”

James moved his large frame over to one of the two stuffed chairs in the room and got comfortable. “Let me tell you about my morning, dear boy. I manage to get to the family home by mid-morning, much to George’s delight, only to find Eddy boy burning a hole in the carpet of my study with his impatience to see me. Thirty minutes later the elder marches off, unsatisfied with my replies, of course.”

“Naturally,” Jeremy grinned.

His father was unique to the Malory clan, always had been, going his own way and breaking convention as he pleased, the black sheep of the family, as it were. He’d been disowned by his brothers for over ten years when he took to pirating on the high seas. He was back in the fold now, but he still bucked convention.

James simply enjoyed being different. Even names had to be different for him. Most of the family called Regina “Reggie,” but James insisted on calling her Regan, much to his brothers’ annoyance. Even his own daughter, Jacqueline, he called Jack, much toher uncles’ displeasure.

“Then Tony shows up with the prediction that your staff will soon be abandoning ship because you’re bedding one of them,” James continued.

“I would have thought at leasthe’d understand,” Jeremy said.

“Oh, he was quite amusing for the most part. My brother took to fatherhood rather well and nowthinks like a father, don’t you know.”

“Which means he’s forgotten what it’s like to be young and unshackled?”

“Exactly.”

“But you haven’t—”

“We’ll get to that, puppy,” James cut in. “And then Regan, the dear puss, walks in before Tony’s finished and proceeds to add yet a new subject, said Lady Bascomb to be exact, to this growing list of concerns.”

“How the deuce did she find out about that chit? I only mentioned it to Drew and Percy—never mind. Percy and his bloody big mouth.”

“Actually, the Bascomb girl is spreading the rumor herself that she’ll be married to you before the end of the year. But as it happens, Regan overheard her telling a friend that she was going to have you—one way or another.”

“One way or another?” Jeremy frowned. “And what the devil does that mean?”

“Exactly what you think it means. There will always be a few rotten apples in the bunch who will lie and manipulate to get what they want.Are you pursuing the lady?”

“She’s a debutante, her first season out. I avoid them like the plague.”

“I thought as much. I’d advise you to keep your distance from her then, a very far distance, though even that might not help. False rumors tend to condemn a man just as easily as the truth does.”

“I can keep away from the social scene for a while, until she starts casting her eyes elsewhere. The young husband-hunters aren’t known for their patience, seem to think theyhave to get married their first season out, which doesn’t really give them much time to work their wiles for the most part. And now that George is back in the city, she can see to dragging her brother about to those fancy affairs that all the debutantes flock to.”

“Bite your tongue, puppy. That means I’d get dragged to them, too.”

Jeremy chuckled. If there was one thing his father detested above all else, it was London’s social whirl. “Fortunately, Drew’s preferred form of entertainments are more in line with mine, places where he can be guaranteed a wench for the night. He’ll make his excuses to George as he always does.”

“That’safter she gets her way a few times. My dear wife always does, you know. But never mind, I’ve already got my own excuses lined up to avoid joining my wife and brother-in-law. Now—” There was enough of a pause that Jeremy groaned inwardly, knowing what was coming. “What in the bloody hell were you doing entering the very bowels of this city’s criminal element?”

“I didn’t,” Jeremy was quick to assure him. “Well, only the edges, but that was for a very good cause.” He quickly explained the problem Percy had had and how he’d elected to solve it.

When he finished, James grinned. “Stole them back, eh? Don’t think I’d have thought of that.”

“No, you would have invited Heddings into the ring for a round or two.”

James shrugged. “Does work wonders, don’t you know. I don’t think I like the fact that he had one of Diana’s trinkets, though. Stealing from m’niece feels like he stole from me, damn me if it doesn’t.”

“Well, we cleaned him out, or rather, our thief did. I managed to return those pieces we recognized to their rightful owners and had the rest delivered to our nearest magistrate. Hopefully, he can figure out what belongs to whom and get it back to them.”

“Didn’t want to just turn Heddings over to them?” James asked.

“Couldn’t do that without admitting we’d found the jewels in his house while robbing him.”

James coughed. “Quite right. I suppose theywould require proof of where you found the stolen baubles. Well, maybe he’ll see the error of his ways and steal no more, now that he knows someone is onto him.”

“But he doesn’t. He probably just thinks he got robbed by a common thief and nothing will come of it. Very unlikely that he’d think the thief might recognize any of the pieces, or even know he was stealing already stolen property.”

James sighed. “I suppose I’ll just have to kill the fellow then, to make sure he doesn’t rob any members of my family again.”

Jeremy coughed now. “You really don’t need to get involved. I intend to keep an eye on the chap. I was going to find out his haunts and start frequenting them m’self. I’m not sure how he’s stealing, but I plan to catch him at it. No trouble a’tall then, turning him in.”

James was silent for a moment. His next remark indicated he’d let it go for now. “By the by, how’d you manage to hire your thief’s sister if you didn’t go back into that den of thieves?”

Jeremy wished he could lie to his father for once, he really did, but he never had and he wasn’t going to start now. “My new maidis our thief. And I didn’t have to find her again, she came to me, since I was responsible for her getting kicked out of her gang.”

James raised a brow. “I take it your chum Percy don’t know that?”

“No. She masqueraded as a male, has done so apparently for most of her life. Percy never saw the woman in her, so when he saw her again last night, he concluded it was her twin brother he’d met before.”

“I see. Bloody hell—no, I don’t. You’ve hired a common thief to your staff?”

Jeremy flinched at the raised tone. “There’s nothing common about that wench. Did you really look at her face? She’s got such fine bones she could be a princess! She talks like a guttersnipe, but she would, since that’s where she was raised. But she’s an orphan. She has no idea where she came from or even what name she was born with. But she wants to better herself. I’ve no doubt she can, because she’s smart as a whip. Her speech has even improved in just the few days she’s been here. She sought me out merely because she blames me for losing her home.”

“Was that your fault?”

“Apparently. I didn’t exactly give her a choice about coming along with us that night. Her little band of pickpockets had their rules to abide by, and she ended up breaking a number of them by helping us.”

“So you hired her because you feel you owe her?” James asked.

“Course not,” Jeremy said, and with a blush added, “I hired her because she gave me no choice in the matter. She threatened to go to Heddings and tell him all.”

James frowned. “Let me get this straight. Instead of extorting money from you to keep silent, she demands you put her towork? I thought you said she was smart?”

“She is. A good job is part of her plan to better herself.”

“Money would have done that,” James pointed out dryly.

“I know. Deuced odd that she didn’t go that route instead. But then I’m beginning to think it was just a bluff.”

“Probably. If she’s as smart as you say, then she must know that confessing to Heddings would implicate herself as well.”

“Exactly. But she’s working out rather well as a maid. Didn’t think she would, but she is, and besides, I still mean to bed her.”

“Then why the devil don’t you do so and then send her on her way?”

“Because I doubt once will be enough, and, well, she isn’t interested in a pleasant tumble.”

“Good God, don’t tell me a thief and blackmailer is holding out for marriage!”

“No, she just wants nothing to do with me.”

James rolled his eyes. “What an odd statement. I’m sure you believe it to have said it, but you’ll never get anyone else to believe it.”

“It’s true. I just haven’t found out why yet.”

“Did you think to ask her why?”

“That’s putting too many cards on the table, ain’t it?”

James snorted. “To go by why she socked you, I’d say you’ve already tossed the whole deck on the table. Ask her, deal with it, bed her, then get her out of this house. Aside from the fact that she’ll probably rob you blind if you keep her here long enough—”

“She’s given up stealing.”

“Sure she has,” James replied dryly.

“No, really, she claims to hate it, and come to think of it, that’s probably why she didn’t demand money from me. She’d see that as stealing.”

“Regardless, set her up elsewhere if you want to enjoy her for a while, but get her off your staff. You can even install her here if you must, but do it right. Keeping her as a maid and bedding her as well is going to make for a very unhappy household.”

“Is thatyour thought on the matter, or what got whispered in your ear this morning?”

James chuckled. “Malorys don’t whisper complaints, youngun. But you’re right, doesn’t matter to me if you want to muck up the hearth and home with contention. What Ido object to is having the elders breathing down my neck about it, Jason in particular. So satisfy the rest of the family that you’re not bucking convention and managing your household splendidly, then they won’t go running to Jason about it, and I won’t have to listen to any more of his rants.”