My Lord Hercules by Ava Stone Page B

staring at
Hercules?” Penny whispered in Miranda’s ear.
    She didn’t have time to deal with her
sister at the moment, not when Harry, Woodsworth, and Lord Gifford
all slipped back into the corridor. She needed to hear what the
marquess had to say, no matter what Devlin or Harry thought about
the situation. “I need to find the retiring room.”
    “ Oh, me too,” Penny said.
“I’ll go with you.”
    Was there a more infernal creature
than little sisters on the Earth? Miranda didn’t have time to
dissuade Penny. If she did, she’d never know which direction Harry
had gone with the fiend. So without another word, she quickly made
her way through the crush toward the entrance, hoping Penny would
lose her somewhere in the crowd or perhaps get snatched up by some
suitor.
    Alas, that was not to be.
    As soon as she reached the corridor,
Penny linked her arm with Miranda’s. “It’s this way.” Her sister
pointed to the left.
    But Harry was just rounding a corner
to the right. “Penny,” Miranda said quietly, hating to confide
anything to her little sister but not really having a choice, “I’m
following Lord Harrison. So go on to the retiring room and I’ll
meet up with you later.”
    Penny’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Following him? Why?”
    “ Never mind why. He’s
getting away.” She retrieved her arm from Penny’s and started in
the direction Harry’d gone. “And don’t tell Devlin where I’m going
or I’ll never speak to you again.”
    Penny shook her head. “I’m going with
you.”
    Oh! Miranda didn’t have time to argue
with her sister. “Go on,” she urged, shooing Penny toward the left.
“You said you needed the retiring room.” Without a look back, she
rounded the corner Harry had turned down and scanned the corridor
for some evidence of the three men.
    At the end of the corridor, a door
shut. Taking a deep breath, Miranda lifted up her skirts and
started for the door.
    A patter of footsteps sounded behind
her, then Penny’s not terribly hushed whisper reached Miranda’s
ears. “What is he doing?”
    Miranda stopped in her tracks, glanced
over her shoulder at her sister, and sent her a scathing glare. “If
you’re coming, you can’t say a word, Penny! They can’t find us. Do
you understand?”
    “ Yes.” Penny
nodded.
    “ Not a word!” Miranda
hissed, then she lifted her skirts again and hastened toward the
closed door.
    “ Here it is,” Harry’s voice
boomed from inside.
    Miranda took a deep breath, thankful
she’d found the right room. Then she pressed her ear against the
door to hear better. A half-second later, Penny did the
same.

    Harry splashed some of his
brother-in-law’s favorite whisky into a trio of glasses. Then he
offered one to Woodsworth and one to Gifford before leaning his hip
against St. Austell’s desk. Harry quirked a smile at the other men.
“The only way to truly endure one of these events.” He lifted his
own glass into the air in a mock toast.
    Woodsworth agreed with an incline of
his head. “Especially when you’d rather be anywhere else.” Then he
shot his brother-in-law an annoyed glare. “But I got dragged here
anyway.”
    Gifford shrugged. “Attending Pippa’s
ball was important to Alice.”
    “ Which shouldn’t affect my
plans one way or the other.” Woodsworth lifted the whisky to his
lips and took a deep swallow. “But I’m here now, whether I wanted
to be or not.”
    “ The things we do for the
women in our lives, be they sisters or wives or ladies one cannot
stop thinking about.” Harry took a gulp of his own whisky, hoping
to put Woodsworth at ease before he launched into his
questions.
    “ Ladies we can’t stop
thinking about?” The marquess snorted. “I’ll never be henpecked
like Giff.”
    Harry was fairly certain Giff didn’t
feel henpecked. One only had to watch him with his wife to see how
devoted he was to her, how very much in love.
    “ What about that girl from
the Season?” Giff asked. “What was