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smile answered his. “You know how I hate to repeat rumors—”
    “Of course.”
    “But word is that the girl is to wed the noble Adam Keane.”
    Throwing back his head, Judson burst into laughter. “Adam Keane?” He laughed again. “The viscount of Rawson? That sour seaman? Oh, that’s too good.”
    Pleased with his master’s merriment, Gianni laughed, too. “Yes, my master.”
    “I was raised with him, you know, and I hated him even then.” Judson stared in the mirror, but he saw into the past. “Wretched man. So self-confident. So handsome .”
    “Not more than you, my master,” Gianni assured him.
    “Oh, yes,” Judson hissed with malevolent envy. “Even before the smallpox, he turned heads where I did not.”
    Gianni wrung his hands at his master’s unhappiness.
    “But how delicious. An ugly bride. What distress that will cause him.” Carroll Judson dusted his fingers. “I’ll not have to worry about her, then. He’ll never let her off his estate, never speak to her, do no more than give her children. Let’s leave this place.” Having lifted the leather pouch that hung around his waist, he opened it with care. Gianni turned his back as his master fumbled with the coins, waiting as he always did for the largesse Judson dispensed. “Here.” Judson thrust the money at Gianni and glanced disdainfully at the bloody bed. “Give this to the landlord and tell him he needs to clean.”
     
    “She’s just as beautiful as rumor said.” Adam Keane kept his horse under restraint with a strong hand on the bridle.
    Northrup swallowed. “Sir?”
    The setting sun shone toward the riders, and Adam stared through his spyglass across the green sweep of his lawn. “Look at that black hair, that fair skin. See how gracefully she sits her mount. No doubt she’ll be just like the other Sirens of Ireland—none too bright, a good breeder, a good manager. That woman is worthy to be the mother of my children.”
    Tugging at his cravat, Northrup said, “Sir, I believe there’s some mistake.”
    “True, she looks younger than her twenty-two years.” Adam scraped his thumb across his chin, already darkening with the shadow of his beard. “If the marriage contract hadn’t assured me she was of a suitable age, I would have never thought it. The Edanas wouldn’t be fools enough to try and cheat me?”
    “No, no,” Northrup burst out, horrified. “I met Lady Bronwyn during my days at court, and assure you her family isn’t trying to cheat you.”
    “Good man. I knew I could depend on you.” Adam nodded briefly. “For all that she’s an Irishwoman, I’ll have no trouble bedding her.”
    “Sir, I believe you’re looking at Lady Bronwyn’s sister.” Once he’d spit out his message, Northrup sighed with relief. When Adam folded the spyglass together and turned his gaze on him, the secretary gasped at the dash of cold. He’d forgotten how frigid those gray eyes could be.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    Adam’s grammar was as fine as Northrup’s, but in his speech Northrup could hear the distinctive meter of a seaman. That betrayed Adam’s perturbation more than the tightening around his mouth. A high note colored Northrup’s reply. “I said, my lord, that you’re looking at Lady Bronwyn’s sister.”
    “I heard you.”
    Northrup cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “Yes,sir. Lady Bronwyn is the woman next to the…girl you described.”
    Adam glared at the wedding party as it rode closer. “That’s the maid.”
    “No, sir. That’s Lady Bronwyn. If you will recall, I told you of her distinctive features when I returned from my trip to Amsterdam.”
    Adam’s grip tightened on the reins, and beneath him his horse stirred. “Now I remember. From now on, I’ll have to listen more closely to my esteemed secretary, shan’t I?”
    His smile froze Northrup’s bones. Lord Rawson seldom took advantage of his position as master, Northrup mused, but when he did, it always made Northrup unhappily