Page 21 of The Scot’s Seduction (Heirs & Spares #2)

Miss Joey merely laughed. “Oh, Dru will drive you to drink at any hour of the day, my lord. I’ll ask Bertha to send a tray in for you. You’re going to need coffee, at least.”

“Yes, thank you,” Murdoch said, nodding to her before striding down the hall to the room. The room they’d been in less than twelve hours’ earlier, the room where—

Hell. He could not walk in with thoughts of what they’d done the night before in his mind. Emily was there, for God’s sake.

The reminder of what he was here to do, that Emily was depending on him to help her launch into Society, was enough of a damper on his...enthusiasm.

At least he could walk in without an obvious cockstand.

He tapped on the door, then opened it and stepped inside.

Lady Drusilla and Emily were seated on the couch, Lady Drusilla in the same spot as the previous night, while Emily was sitting where Murdoch had sat.

Both women looked up as he entered, and he was both relieved and nonplussed that Lady Drusilla regarded him as usual, not as someone who’d had his tongue down her throat the night before.

Did it mean that little to her? Or had it not been as memorable to her as it was to him?

“Good morning, Uncle,” Emily said, a wide smile on her face. “Lady Dru has all sorts of wonderful ideas for my party.”

“All of which will cost a lot of money,” Lady Drusilla said, with a mischievous glance toward Murdoch. “But I think Miss Emily’s debut should be the talk of the Season, don’t you?”

Two pairs of eyes regarded him questioningly, as though there was more than one possible answer.

“Uh...yes?” he said, feeling vaguely foolish.

“Do come sit, my lord, in case we need your advice.”

“I cannot imagine we will,” Emily said, turning her gaze back toward Lady Drusilla. “He lives all the way up there, and he never goes to parties. He told me so himself when he was explaining how he couldn’t do all of this alone.”

“That isn’t—” Murdoch began, but he had to stop speaking because yes, it was true.

“Do you find parties frivolous, my lord?” Lady Drusilla asked. “And do sit down, you’re just over there looming like an overly large coatrack.”

Murdoch felt even more foolish and did as she said.

“You don’t have to answer the question, my lord,” Lady Drusilla continued. “I imagine you do, since it seems London Society is much different from what you prefer at home.”

She sounded so reasonable, as though it was perfectly acceptable for him not to like the things she seemed to enjoy. Or, rather, the things she was part of—he had the impression she didn’t necessarily enjoy Society, but she tolerated it, and more important, was able to navigate it.

The door opened, and they all turned to see Miss Joey carrying in a tray with, presumably, coffee for Murdoch.

“I took this from Bertha. She and Priscilla are playing with the kittens,” Miss Joey said, placing the tray down. “Coffee for the earl there, tea for you two, and a few scones, in case anyone gets hungry.” She gave Murdoch a significant look.

“You might as well join us,” Lady Drusilla said, indicating the chair next to Murdoch. “You’re going to have to work on this with us.”

“The party?” Miss Joey said, sitting down. She reached forward and snagged a scone, putting half of it in her mouth right away.

Murdoch got his coffee and took a sip, which was a mistake, because it was scalding hot.

“Coffee got your tongue, my lord?” Miss Joey said before inhaling the second half of the scone.

“Don’t tease him, Joey,” Lady Drusilla said absentmindedly.

She looked down at her lap, where she held a pad of paper and a pencil.

“Let’s see. We want to serve plenty of food and drink, hire musicians for the dancing, and make certain the staff knows what they have to do.

We’ll have to ask some of the older Greens if they can help also—do you think that will be a problem? ” she said, addressing Miss Joey.

“Shouldn’t be,” Miss Joey replied. “Mrs. Green has been very interested in what Bertha does. I imagine she can help set things up. And her oldest boy could serve as a footman, now that the stink is gone.”

Murdoch didn’t want to ask what that was about.

“And we’ll be presenting tableaux before we start the dancing.

That will be an excellent way to introduce Miss Emily to all the other debutantes.

I figured we’d do the Twelve Dancing Princesses for them, and then— Oh, my lord,” Lady Drusilla said with a dangerous gleam in her eye, “you’ll be able to do one of the tableaux, won’t you? ”

“A tableau?” Murdoch asked. “What—?”

“It’s where you pose in a famous position like a statue and people look at you.”

That sounded like Murdoch’s worst nightmare.

“I know!” Lady Drusilla exclaimed. “We can do one of Sir Walter Scott’s works. It makes sense, what with you being Scottish and all.”

“And all,” Murdoch echoed.

“Let me see,” Lady Drusilla said, getting up to stride over to one of the bookcases against the wall. “I’ve got Rob Roy , Ivanhoe , and The Bride of Lammermoor .”

“That last one, I think,” Miss Joey said in a mischievous tone.

Lady Drusilla slid the book from the shelf and returned to sit, furrowing her brow as she began to leaf through the pages.

“Oh, I remember this one,” she said. “It was really very messy, but definitely entertaining.” She looked up at him.

“You can be Edgar and I’ll be Lucy. This will be so fun! ” she enthused.

Murdoch couldn’t very well decline, not when it was Emily’s party and their hostess was so clearly excited. “Yes, it does sound fun,” he said, trying to sound eager.

Miss Joey snorted next to him, and he gave her a pointed look, which she returned with an innocent expression.

“Well, it’s all settled, then,” Lady Drusilla said, offering a smile to Emily, who looked as though she was going to bounce out of her seat. “Now all we need to do is do all of it.”

“You mean I’ll be doing it,” Miss Joey said.

Lady Drusilla glared at her. “You will not. Do not give the earl and Miss Emily the wrong impression. I am very capable of doing things as well, and I will be doing things.” Then she stuck her tongue out at Miss Joey, which made Murdoch’s mouth drop open. He didn’t know ladies did such things.

But then again, Lady Drusilla was no ordinary lady.

“I am so glad we are here with you, Lady Dru,” Emily said. “I know my debut will be wonderful, and I will meet my very own prince.”

The other three people in the room glanced at one another, each look clearly saying, How are we going to make certain Emily doesn’t make a huge mistake?

Murdoch hoped he wasn’t about to make a huge mistake as well.