Dunscore was a libertine, and everyone knew it. “I think you’ll find that Lady Dunscore has any number of qualities that would make her well suited as a wife,” he said and hoped Hollyroot wouldn’t press him for details.
“Seems more suited to someone like Ingraham, if you ask me.”
“Ingraham.” If Ingraham so much as imagined himself marrying her, James would kill him. “Listen here. Lady Dunscore is an agreeable woman.” In a certain sense. “Practical. Well-meaning. She needs someone decent. Sensible.” Someone like Hollyroot, with a harmless demeanor and an estate that could use an infusion of resources. It was the most efficient way. That bill would have almost no chance of advancing if she married.
It was the logical answer.
A few swallows of liquor sat cold in his gut, along with the full implications of what he was suggesting if this conversation was successful. Hollyroot touching her. Bedding her.
James gripped his glass so hard he felt a twinge in his thumb.
“Suppose I ought to be flattered,” Hollyroot said, “but this is a devil of a thing to spring on a fellow.” He knocked back a swallow of bourbon and set his glass down, leaning heavily on one forearm propped on the table. “I mean, there’s no denying her beauty—”
“She’s got more than mere beauty.”
“Indeed,” Hollyroot agreed grimly. “Rumor has it she’s got a child.”
Every muscle tensed. “Anne is a sweet girl. Would make an excellent daughter.”
“Daughter!” Hollyroot shook his head. “All due respect, Croston, but I think the sea’s gone to your head.”
Christ. “Very well. Forget I said a word about it. And if you breathe a word of this conversation to anyone...”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. Holy God. Do you think I’d want anyone to suspect, to even imagine— Holy God. I admire the hell out of you, Croston, but you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
* * *
“HOLD STILL IF you please, my lady.” A painful tug had Katherine second-guessing her decision to appropriate Clarissa Holliswell’s lady’s maid. The girl had developed methods of torture more suited to a medieval dungeon. But piece by piece, Katherine’s hair was shaping into a deceptively simple coiffure that involved numerous rolls and braids woven through with copper ribbon.
“A man like that wants his balls removed,” Katherine said derisively over her shoulder to Phil, who sat by the window in Katherine’s dressing room, reading aloud from the papers.
“I should have warned you about the duke.”
“With so many men who require warning off, it’s little wonder you overlooked it.”
Another tug forced Katherine to face the looking glass. “My lady!”
“‘Adventures in the Mediterranean’?” Phil read aloud. “Insulting. I prefer to think of us as having been engaged in business.”
“We were engaged in business,” Katherine snapped. “And I have the fortune to prove it. I tell you now, if His Grace tries to strengthen his acquaintance with me tonight in any manner—traditional or otherwise—I shan’t be responsible for my actions.” The maid cast her an uneasy glance in the looking glass. She had no way of knowing how severely Katherine’s words contradicted her thoughts.
The morning’s disastrous round of visits had made one thing clear: she would need to strengthen her acquaintance with as many lords as she could, in any manner she could.
“I can think of any number of ways to ensure the duke does not misunderstand me,” she added anyhow.
Phil set aside the papers. “Sometimes you positively frighten me. You need to win over the natives, not alienate them.”
“At least indulge me some measure of aggravation. Men are such fools.” Except one man, but she would not think of that now. Worse, Phil was right. “I’ve got half a mind to go to Westminster, bare my breasts and see this whole business finished.”
Phil laughed. “The situation may be a bit more complicated than that, dearest. Though I daresay if you can gain the attention of a man’s cock, you’ve won three-fourths of the battle. All that’s left is to influence him in the proper direction. Tonight’s party will be an excellent start. Tomorrow night we shall go to Vauxhall, and to the theater the next, until they cannot possibly ignore you.”
No, they would not ignore her. She would make sure of that. “I hate that they amuse themselves so well with their impertinences.”
“Which you must laugh off as though you haven’t a care in the world. All of London is fascinated with you—”
“As they would be with a two-headed ape.”
“—and that can’t help but work to your advantage, especially with Captain Warre’s endorsement. I saw Lady Mullen after I passed you going into Lady Derby’s this afternoon, and she had so many questions about how we managed aboard the Possession I swear she has a notion of going to sea herself. And she wasn’t the only one. And of course, they are all over the moon about Captain Warre.” Phil’s blue eyes sparkled wickedly at Katherine in the looking glass. “But of course, that wouldn’t interest you.”
Katherine smiled at her. “No. It wouldn’t.” But the smile faded almost immediately. “Captain Warre believes there will be a second reading.” It was a struggle to keep the fear from her voice. “After that, will it not be put to a committee? What do you know of committees?”
“Only that they are full of men, which leads back to our original premise. You must bewitch them, Katherine. Once you have them all in hand—and I do not mean that literally, as that would be counterproductive—they will be falling over themselves to please you.”
“With the singular goal of foraging beneath my skirts.”
“Of course. That’s what men do. And it is astonishing what they will sometimes agree to in pursuit of that goal.”
“Indeed.” More than one crew member over the years had followed her not out of respect but sheer fascination. Lust akin to slavery. She never kept those crew members long, but she knew very well how to use such motivation to her advantage.
She would bring the men around as if she were maneuvering at sea, using every tactic to keep another ship precisely where she wanted it—and then grappling on with her hooks to take it. She would use their own weaknesses against them.
Fools.
“Your ladyship?” came a voice from behind, and Katherine shifted her gaze in the looking glass. “Pardon me.” Miss Bunsby—Miss Bunsby!—poked her head into the room. “Lady Anne keeps asking about a gentleman named William, and I don’t know what to tell her. I cannot persuade her off the subject.”
Katherine stood abruptly.
“Your ladyship!” The motion pulled the ribbon from the maid’s hands.
“You haven’t seen William?” Phil asked.
“What
