A Baron for Becky by Jude Knight

instructed.
    Lady
Ballingcroft, who had dropped the sheet and was shimmying into the
shift Aldridge handed her, stopped in mid-shimmy at the thought,
then resumed and emerged, clothed and beaming.
    “And as long as
I say nothing more, he will be left to imagine it all!”
    Mrs Barlow
nodded. “And if he insists you tell him where you went, you will
say that you and I shared a delightful evening together.” She
waggled her eyebrows at Aldridge. “Which is no lie. Aldridge,
darling, will you do me up?”
    Aldridge
performed the office, and Hugh assisted Lady Ballingcroft.
    “We can do our
hair back at my apartment, darling,” Mrs Barlow said to her friend,
“and then I will send you home in my carriage. And let Bally make
what he will of that.”
    Lady
Ballingcroft was now quite happy and, with a kiss for Hugh and
another for Aldridge, left the room on Mrs Barlow’s arm. “And Bally
will never know he has been Aldridged?”
    “He will
suspect, my dear, when you start practicing the new tricks you have
learned. Did I not tell you?”
    “I had no
idea.” Lady Ballingcroft’s awe made Hugh smile long after they
descended the stairs and moved out of earshot.
    Aldridge came
back shaking his head. “What a fool Ballingcroft is, Overton. And
what a surprise he will have when next he approaches his wife, and
she expects to participate in the act.”
    “The man should
be thanking us for his Aldridging,” Hugh observed. “I take it that
means being cuckolded by Aldridge.”
    “‘Aldridging,’
indeed. When did I become a verb, Overton? How Rose will laugh when
I tell her. Although I imagine she has already heard.”
    “You tell your
mistress about your amorous adventures?” Hugh asked. He hadn’t kept
a mistress in years, in part, because the opera dancer he’d spent a
small fortune on before he joined the army would have hurled every
vase and ornament in the place at his head, if he’d done such a
thing. Yes, and then demanded he replace them.
    Aldridge just
laughed. “Speaking of which, we must be up and about, my lad. I’ve
arranged to encounter today’s two ladies in Green Park.”
    Hugh groaned.
“Mercy, Aldridge. Can’t you just leave me to sleep? I’ll play my
part tonight, but...”
    Aldridge shook
his head. “Can’t be done, Overton. I have another engagement
tonight.”
    “Well, take me
on this other engagement then. Surely we can find a couple of
light-heeled ladies...”
    “This is not
that kind of an engagement, Overton. I’m taking a little girl and
her friends to Astley’s Amphitheatre. It’s her 10th birthday, and I
promised. Ah. Martin, thank you.” Aldridge took the mug his valet
handed him. “Here, Overton, it set you right yesterday.”
    “It’s noxious,”
Hugh complained, but downed the evil liquid, because Aldridge was
correct. It had cured his hangover yesterday.
    “It was
thinking of Astley’s that gave me the idea, actually. Have you ever
done it on horseback, Overton?”
    Hugh’s head was
suddenly full of erotic images. “Never. Is it even possible?”
    “Oh, yes. With
co-operation. We did agree to two different ladies and two
different positions a day, and no repeats.”
    “Yes. For a
week. I think Hackenburg intended us to find four different ladies
between the two of us.”
    Aldridge’s lazy
smile showed his supreme indifference to Hackenburg’s intentions.
“He didn’t specify.”
    “Twenty-eight
conquests would better prove the morals of the ladies of the ton are no better than the morals of the gentleman,” Overton
suggested.
    “Fourteen in
pairs, each willing to take on two comers, proves it better. And
only four more to go. Thank you, Martin. Leave it to me, now. I’ll
get the baron cleaned up.” The servant had set up a bath, filled
it, and laid out linen towels and a new bar of soap.
    “I’ll do my
best not to let you down, Aldridge. Only one more day to go?”
     
     

     
    Later that
afternoon, Aldridge waited on the edge of one of the riding