Free A Gentleman and a Scoundrel (The Regency Gentlemen Series) by Norma Darcy

of his if you and I wish to meet in private? He is not your father and he certainly isn’t mine!”
    “No indeed,” she agreed quietly.
    “What was he so angry about anyway? What did we do that was so very bad? I have never seen him so furious in all my life! He was white with it. I thought it would carry him off and he’d keel over in the rose bushes at any moment.”
    Louisa lowered her eyes to her lap and kept them there. “Perhaps…perhaps he’s very old fashioned in his views?”
    Nicholas burst out laughing. “Malvern? Hardly! He’s not exactly lily white when it comes to associations with the fairer sex, you know.”
    She raised wide, innocent eyes at that. “Isn’t he?”
    “God, no! Did you never hear about―?” he broke off suddenly. “No, I don’t suppose you did. Well, never mind…it is not the subject for genteel young ladies.”
    “No,” she agreed, now burning with curiosity.
    “But if you hadn’t sworn me to silence I would have announced the whole in The Times and to hell with what your father says.”
    “Oh, Nicky, no!”
    “Yes, I tell you! He is going to know soon enough anyway, so why not tell him now? At least that would stop him trying to foist a match you don’t want upon you. And it might stop Malvern sniffing around you all the time.”
    “He doesn’t,” she replied crossly. “Don’t say such vulgar things.”
    “He does. The man cannot keep away. It’s disgusting. He’s old enough to be your father.”
    Louisa’s eyes flashed. “He is not!”
    “Nearly,” replied Nicholas bitingly. “Ten years older.”
    “Then that is not old enough, is it?”
    He laughed scornfully. “Right.”
    She glared at him for a moment and then bizarrely, perhaps at the shocking thought of Malvern as a father at the tender age of ten, began to laugh.
    He looked contritely up at her. “Oh Louisa, darling, don’t let us argue. I have missed you so…”
    She sniffed. “Caroline Hinchcliff made me so unhappy.”
    “Goose,” he said lovingly.
    “Take the kitten, will you? I’m beginning to lose feeling in my legs. But do be careful, he does wriggle so.”
    “Louisa? Am I forgiven?”
    “Yes, but do take the kitten before he puts his claws through my skirts.”
    He smiled and held out his hands. “Never fear, my lady, he shall be safe enough. Now if you will hand him down to me…can you reach down a little further? That’s the ticket. There. And as soon as he is out of your hands he jumps to the ground and all over my new coat. What an ungrateful little wretch he is! No, do not dig your claws in, you vile creature.”
    “Oh he is not a vile creature, Nicholas; you cannot say that he is. Look at his face. Isn’t he adorable?”
    The gentleman looked up at the lady, a smile on his lips. “Adorable…yes.”
    Louisa looked away, blushing profusely.
    “And how will you get down from that tree, my lady?” he asked softly.
    “I shall climb down when you turn your back,” she replied, raising her chin.
    “But I am not going to turn my back.”
    “Ungallant of you sir!” she cried.
    He laughed. “Is it?”
    “Yes, for I shall be forced to stay up here all day and already my legs are numb.”
    “Then it is just as well that I have a better notion. Ease yourself forward off the branch and I will lift you down.”
    The thought of being caught in his arms brought the colour flooding into her face. “No sir. If you will be so kind as to turn your back for a moment, I shall jump down and then we will all be comfortable. It is not so very far after all.”
    “Far enough to turn an ankle. Better to do it my way. Never fear, I shall catch you.”
    “I do not doubt you, but what if someone was to see us?”
    “No-one will see us,” he replied smiling. “What are you so afraid of?”
    Louisa’s heart seemed to skip over itself. She remembered when Malvern had caught them at Vauxhall Gardens and her mouth went dry. But Malvern was not here. “Nothing,” she said.
    “Then come