Miss Pymbroke's Rules (24 page)

The tension and strain caught up to her, and Verity leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes.

When next she opened them, she saw they were driving through the Mayfair streets. Verity sat up and adjusted her skirt.

“Are you feeling better?” the marquess inquired as he pulled his team to a stop at the curb in South Audley Street. He made as if to get down, but she stayed him by placing a hand tentatively on his arm.

Once she had his attention, Verity glanced away nervously. What if he did not want her after all? “My lord, I have been thinking, and I have come to the conclusion that it makes no difference to me what our parents did or if Society discovers their secret.”

He remained silent, and Verity looked up to see him gazing at her with an expression so filled with love it quite took her breath away. Pulled by her own passion, she leaned closer to him and placed a hand on his cheek.

The Marquess of Carrisworth’s voice was ragged. “I have given you my promise that I would not kiss you.”

“Break it,” Miss Verity Pymbroke commanded.

His lordship was more than happy to oblige her, holding her in his arms and lowering his lips to hers in a kiss that left no question as to his feelings for her.

After a few drugging minutes, he set her away from him. His deep voice teased her. “Really, Miss Pymbroke, this public display of affection will make us a subject for the lampoons.”

“I care not a snap of my fingers,” Verity declared. She proved this point by placing a hand around the marquess’s neck and allowing him to kiss her again.

When he could not take any more, Lord Carrisworth raised his head and looked deeply into her eyes. “I love you, Verity, with all my heart. The rules of proper behavior for a gentleman state that he is to drop to one knee when he asks a lady to marry him, but since we are in this cursed curricle with a cat at our feet...”

Verity’s face broke into an expression of pure joy. “Oh, Perry, I do love you so. There is nothing I want more than to be your wife.”

The couple embraced yet again, oblivious to the feline who jumped out of the curricle and ran a bit unsteadily up the steps, to Lady Iris’s townhouse. “Miaow!” she cried, bringing Lady Iris and Lady Hyacinth to the door. The two older ladies looked beyond the cat at the couple locked in each other’s arms in the curricle.

Lady Hyacinth whispered, “Well, Iris, did I not tell you they would get together?”

Lady Iris glared at her sister, “You? It was my plan for him to rent her townhouse that brought them together.”

“Do not be silly, Iris. That was the merest coincidence and you know it.”

Lady Iris scowled and looked down at her pet.

Empress dropped one eyelid in an unmistakable wink. Then she let out a delicate hiccough.

Next door, Mr. Wetherall was passing by a window and chanced to look outside and see his master and Miss Pymbroke. He dropped the entire stack of newly starched cravats he was carrying and performed a mad jig.

Down in the street, Verity was saying, “Perry, I must make it a rule that you kiss me that way every day of our lives.”

The marquess smiled at his love. “You know, my sweet landlady that is one rule I daresay I shall follow.”

 Dear Reader,

Two of my favorite things are the Regency era of British history and cats! So, it was only natural for me to combine them for my series, The Cats of Mayfair.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the adventures of Knight in Masked Armour in A Crime of Manners. Please rest assured that Knight has grown even rounder than when we last saw him. You remember how Colonel Colchester keeps him content by supplying culinary delights. And speaking of being happy, I have it on the best authority that Giles and Henrietta are still deeply in love and are expecting their first child.

In this book, please meet another Mayfair cat, Empress. Unlike Knight, Empress is careful to maintain her svelte figure, although she does indulge in a dish of cream now and then. She gets a lot of exercise bringing together Perry and Verity in Miss Pymbroke’s Rules—and ends up drinking something stronger than cream!

Please do look for Lord and Master. I’ll be introducing you to Mihos, a cat that is being paraded around Astley’s Royal Amphitheatre billed as the world’s smallest tiger! Daphne and Anthony rescue him only to become embroiled in an intrigue involving their growing feelings for each other, a stolen Egyptian treasure, and Anthony’s unique manservant.

Rosemary Stevens

With love for my family—Tommy, Rachel and Alana

and

With thanks to Melissa Lynn Jones

Copyright © 1997 by Rosemary Stevens

Originally published by Fawcett Crest

Electronically published in 2011 by Belgrave House/Regency Reads

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more information, contact Belgrave House, 190 Belgrave Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117-4228

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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.