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.“You could have hit me harder than you did.I thank you for your restraint.”“You’re welcome, sir.Very welcome.” He lifted his glass.“I hope you two will visit me at Blackfern when I am there, and in Town whenever you happen to find yourselves at loose ends in London.”Niall hefted his mostly empty glass.“I’ll drink to that.”“I as well.” Glynn met the toast.“You had better take me up on my invitation.”“Hear, hear.” Glynn touched his side.“Damn you, Thrale.I take back every word I said about your restraint.Need you have hit me quite that hard?”“I ask the same of you.”“I was fighting for my dignity.”Thrale snorted.“I was.Damn me, man, you’d take Granger himself.”“If he had one hand tied behind his back.”Niall laughed.“I’m not so sure of that.I own, I am relieved that I did not allow you to pummel me the way you did that poor fool.”Glynn acknowledged that with a wry grin.“I’ll make a better account of myself next time, my word on it, my lord.”“I shudder to think of that.”“A question for you, my battling friend.” Glynn leaned forward, gingerly rubbing his side.“You are given a choice between two events.Neither will ever happen again, and you may choose only one.An epic battle between” —he waved a hand— “name your fighters.”“Granger and Clancy?”“That.” He nodded as soberly as was possible for a man half drunk.“Or the perfect fuck.Which will you choose?”“Is there a choice?” Niall said.“That’s not something you ask a man.”Glynn lifted a hand.“It’s a serious question, Niall, and I have asked him.You’ll answer the question next, my friend.”Niall shook his head, disgusted.“Who’d choose anything but a woman?”He gave a low laugh.“My lord? Your answer? The perfect fuck or an epic battle?”“The fuck.” Thoughts of Lucy—Mrs.Wilcott—filled his head.Gad.He knew just the woman to give him that fuck.“What’s this? Not even a moment to reflect?”“Did you think I’d choose the battle?”Glynn cocked an eyebrow.“With a certain woman, then?”He smiled slowly.With great satisfaction.“Oh, oh! You have.Who was she?”Although he trusted both men’s discretion, the fact was, he was not about to compromise himself or Mrs.Wilcott.“A man needs encounters like that.Moments with his pulse racing because he’s about to die in the arms of a beautiful woman.”“I’ll second that.”He doubted either man had any trouble attracting willing partners to his bed, though he suspected Niall more frequently did so, simply because in London one had more opportunities.He was going to have to get Glynn to Town for a session at Gentleman Jack’s and a night or two or three, among the demimonde.Glynn gave him a knowing look.“Whoever she is, may you soon fuck her again.”He laughed.“I’ll say, hear, hear, and leave it at that.”Silence fell again.Comfortable.Then, he and Niall spoke at the same time.“Speaking of ladies,” Niall said.“Since you mentioned battles—Please, Captain, you first.”“I meant to say that as the subject of lovers has come up, I heard the most astonishing rumor about a certain beauty.”Glynn said, “Oh? Do tell.”Niall picked up the bottle they’d nearly emptied and poured the remainder into their glasses.“A certain milady most notorious, who would have us believe she is unobtainable, is, in fact, engaged in an affair.”Thrale’s chest tightened, but he maintained his composure.“Someone we knew in London?”“Yes.” Niall laughed.“Oh, yes.A widow, it happens, whose paramour is a married man.”A married man.And so his worry that Niall could have discovered him and Lucy was put to rest.He relaxed on his chair.“Is that so unusual?” Glynn lifted his glass and examined the contents by the light reflected from the chimney glass.The muted sounds of song from the tavern downstairs carried in the silence.“A gentleman may have his mistress, after all.”“None, I daresay.But as I said, the woman pretends she cannot be had for love nor money.” Niall leaned forward.“The man in question let it slip, or I’d have suspected nothing.She’d have us believe she dislikes him when nothing could be farther from the truth.”Glynn sighed.“That’s what comes of all you Londoners and Flash men showing up in Bartley Green.I’ll be damned glad when the lot of you are gone.Present company and pretty whores excepted.”“You won’t like London much, then,” Thrale said.Niall said, “There are pretty whores in Town, I grant you that, but none as pretty as your local beauties.”“They are here in Bartley Green? This woman and her married lover? Do I know her?” Glynn sat forward.“Or her paramour?”Niall looked at the ceiling.“They could be here right now, in this very inn.She might this very moment be giving him the perfect fuck.”Glynn tipped his glass in Niall’s direction.“May we all find that perfect fuck.”They drank a toast to that, and Thrale rested his head against the back of his chair.There was an edge of resentment to Niall’s amusement that bothered him.“At least she’s come up from amusing herself with lowborn men and will give time in her bed to a gentleman.”“When the lights are down,” Glynn said, “there’s no woman can tell the difference between noble cock and common cock [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]