The Care and Taming of a Rogue Read Online Free PDF Page B

night, and instead he had conversed, albeit briefly, with her.
    “Excuse me,” she said, as soon as Simpson returned with her mother’s tea.
    She needed to go read through Golden Sun of the Serengeti and Walking with Pharaohs again. After all, the next time she saw him she was not going to waste the opportunity with girlish babble. She meant to have something to say.

Chapter Three
    I always approach a village’s chief first. It’s both custom and practical; everyone to whom we speak requires a bribe, with each successive one being of higher rank than the last and thus requiring a greater treasure. Meeting the chief first means parting with a magnifying glass. If we met him last, I would be forced to hand over Langley. Or a Baker rifle, which I consider even more dear.
    T="5%"HE="5%" J="5%"OURNALS OF="5%" C="5%"APTAIN="5%" B="5%"ENNETT="5%" W="5%"OLFE

    B ennett borrowed a horse from Jack and rode to Ainsley House, the Duke of Sommerset’s London residence.
    After prowling Clancy House since before dawn, by midmorning he had run through a dozen different scenarios for his first meeting in over three years with the president of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. In addition he’d frightened Jack’s mother, Lady Emery, half to death when he and Kero appeared on the stairs behind her, and he’d convinced Jack that keeping him there kicking his heels wasn’t a wise idea under any circumstances.
    Yes, he remembered that mornings began late during the Season. But years of rising with the sun, walking for miles, and eating what he or his porters could catch had all left him with a distinct dislike of both idleness and small places. And small talk, for that matter, though he’d never had much of a fondness for that.
    At least Kero seemed to enjoy the ride across Mayfair, as she clung to his jacket lapels and uttered threat hoots at every dog and cat they passed. He left the big bay, Jupiter, with a stable boy and topped the steps of the granite portico.
    One side of the massive double oak doors swung open. “Good morning,” the butler in fine black livery stated.
    “Good morning. Bennett Wolfe to see His Grace.”
    The servant didn’t bat an eye at either the name or the monkey; perhaps word of his non-death had begun to circulate. “Your calling card, sir?” the fellow asked, holding out his hand.
    “Don’t have one.” As he said that, he could almost see the butler’s opinion of him drop several rungs.
    “No one may see the duke without a calling card,” the servant said in the same even voice. “I shall inform His Grace that you stopped by.”
    Bennett was not about to be turned away because he lacked a bit of inked vellum. “Inform the duke that I’m here,” he said evenly. “I have something urgent to discuss with him.”
    He kept his gaze on the servant. Evidently the fellow had enough wits to realize either his level of determination or the poor odds of keeping Ben nett out if he should attempt an entry, because after a moment he nodded. “I shall inform him. Wait here.”
    Bennett’s annoyance rose another notch. While he understood caution, he did not like being kept from a goal. And this morning, that goal was seeing the Duke of Sommerset. “You have two minutes,” he said aloud. “After that, I’ll be looking for him, myself.”
    The massive door closed again. He was armed; he didn’t know of any explorer worth a hedgehog pelt who wasn’t prepared at any time for an ambush of some sort. At the moment he preferred to save the weaponry for a better cause—like hunting down Langley—but one never knew. Reaching down, he loosened the knife stuck into his boot.
    Kero tugged on his ear as he straightened, then leaned around to peer into his right eye. “Hungry again?” he asked, shaking out his muscles a little. No sense frightening to death one of his few allies, fur-covered or not.
    She chittered, the sound altering to a contented hum as he