Page 29 of Just About a Rake


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He could feel the creature turn its beady eyes on him. “I’m going to ring this bird’s neck if it calls me an idiot one more time.”

“Oh, come now. The bird isn’t calling you an idiot.”

“I’m an earl, and it’s on my shoulder. It nowfeelsas if I’m the idiot.” He was feeling a lot more than an idiot at the moment. He felt hot, too. And it was a heat that spread from his chest in all directions in his body. He hadn’t felt this hot in a long, long time. He couldn’t look away from her, the way her face brightened in amusement at his expense, that lovely face making everything in him twist.

“But you are nottheearl,” she reassured even though it didn’t sound all that reassuring.

His gaze finally left her and swept their audience in search of their host, who had yet to show his face. “Do you think this will matter to the gossip rags? You should leave before you get dragged into the headlines as well.”

“I fear it might be too late for that,” she said, amused. “I didn’t know you cared about the gossip sheets so much.”

“I don’t care for myself,” Dare said, trying very hard to ignore the parrot shaking out it’s feathers on his shoulder. “I care that you might be ridiculed.”

She inched closer to him, directing a smile at the parrot before her eyes landed on him. “Ah, my heart just skipped a beat.”

This minx. Damn if a beat of his heart didn’t skip, too. “Devil take it, what the hell do we do now?” A quick sweep of the room confirmed all the hushed titters had calmed somewhat.

“There is nothing else to do. All we can do is be swept along by whatever gossip erupts until it dies down. Which is quite thrilling. And quite the moment. Dashing off now will only make it worse,” Leonora pointed out.

“Only you would call this thrilling.” Where the hell were their hosts? His gaze caught on one particular figure staring at them. “And don’t look now, but the duchess has arrived and is staring at our debacle.”

A sparkle entered her gaze. “She is?”

“Don’t look,” Dare hissed beneath his teeth when she started to turn her head, “or she will know we are talking about her.”

She shot him a sulky glance. “But I want to look.”

“Try to hold back the urge,” Dare said, swallowing a laugh. “You might benefit from practicing a bit of self-restraint. Unless youwanther to know?”

Her lips puckered in a brief pout before settling back into place. “No, you are right. I want to observe for now without raising any suspicion.”

Dare watched her fight the desire to blatantly turn her head and search for the woman in question. His amusement at her expression slowly faded his annoyance at continuing to be the center of attention in a ballroom with a parrot on his shoulder.

“Lord, it’s hard,” she sighed.

“Lord?” a voice boomed, causing them both to flinch. “It’s good that you know to pray. You’ll need your prayers after tonight, Leonora.”

Dare turned to Heart, who had a murderous look on his face. The man also looked tired, Dare noticed, as though he had endured trial after trial—the kind forged in the pits of hell. Dareinwardly sighed but lifted his lips into a smile. “Nothing to see here, Heart. Just a bit of a pickle.”

“Says the man with a parrot on his shoulder and bird shite on his back.”

Dare’s smile slipped. The bird had done what?

He glanced at Lady Leonora who inspected his clothing, gasping when she stepped around him. The titters grew louder.

Bloody wonderful.

“Fiction or fact?” he asked Lady Leonora.

“A big, white, scattered fact.”

Dare finally turned his head to glare at the bird. Some things, like this infernal creature, belonged in a cage, or in a damn habitat better suited to its noisy, insufferable existence.

Beady eyes stared back at him.

Calm.

Unruffled.