His Heart's Delight Read Online Free PDF Page B

as he did. Now he watched from the corner of his eye
as Roberts looked over his shoulder and tried to see exactly what
had caused the display of words Morgan reserved for only the
greatest vexation.
    “Here, Roberts, you may read it without
damaging your spine.” Morgan thrust the paper under his valet’s
nose and held it out to him until the manservant took it. “You will
have no trouble deciding which lines have ruined my morning.”
    He watched Roberts carefully set aside the
crushed lengths of fabric before he ran his eyes down the columns
of small type. Middle-aged eyes squinted at the print and then he
pursed his lips. He said nothing.
    “Roberts, I hired a valet who could read so
that you could do something besides tie a cravat. Now you can tell
me how to set this problem to rights.”
    Roberts folded the paper and placed it near
the door. “The services I perform, milord, have nothing to do with
dancing or beautiful young ladies.”
    Morgan leaned back in the chair and closed
his eyes, calling on whatever god inspired stupid bachelors and
inveterate gamblers. He turned to look at his valet. “I could call
on ‘Miss L’ today and extend my personal apologies for making her
the subject of gossip.”
    “It would seem to me, milord, that calling
on, ahem, Miss L, would only draw more attention to her. Of course
if that is your intention...”
    He let his voice trail off and the phrase
became a question. Morgan gave him a mischievous grin. “Curious,
are you, Roberts?”
    He bowed. “Only to the extent that it will
enable me to serve you better, milord.”
    “No plans, matrimonial or otherwise, Roberts.
I had an enchanting dance with a lovely lady and returned to the
card room. The play was challenging and rewarding and I never gave
the ballroom another thought.”
    “As you say, milord.” Roberts nodded and
began gathering shaving items.
    The man was an insufferable snob. Morgan
picked up two of the discarded neckcloths before Roberts could
reach them, just to irritate him. Roberts had dressed and shaved
him since he’d come to Town. He had seen him ill, drunk, and close
to ruin. Despite that familiarity, his valet maintained a formality
that was as admirable as it was irritating.
    Morgan held out the discarded neckcloths and
Roberts took them with obvious reproof and moved toward the door.
“Is there anything else, milord?”
    Advice, damn you, I want advice. Truth
to tell, he would rather have Roberts’s advice than ask almost any
of his friends. There was thirty years difference in their ages and
Roberts had, after all, spent his life observing society.
    The man was right. If Morgan called on Miss
Lambert it would only add fuel to the idea that he was courting
her. No, the solution was to make an appearance at Almack’s,
preferably on a night when Miss Lambert was otherwise engaged. If
he danced with every eligible chit in the room then surely that
would put the gossip to rest.
    Almack’s. He groaned. He had managed to avoid
the weekly assembly so far. Now it would be a penance more than
worthy of his thoughtlessness.
    He thought he had found the perfect solution
to James’s command that he find a wife. He could dance his way
through a dozen balls and convey the essence of courtship with none
of the heart. He could pretend to find a wife. It had worked
beautifully until his overconfidence had undone him.
    It was such a good plan. There must be a way
to revive it. Once he had sufficient funds he could establish his
own Town residence and see to it that the property in Wales had the
subsidy it needed until the harvest. In a year or two the land
would produce enough to support a wife and family. It would be a
time of his choosing and not because of a command from an arrogant
brother willing to step into the shoes of their autocratic
father.
    Those few lines of gossip taught him a
valuable lesson: Pretending to find a wife would be more of
a challenge than a real courtship. Unless he exercised