Invitation by Burke, Darcy (hot novels to read txt) 📕

“Please, sit.” Lucien gestured to the seating area as he took a chair.

“I’ll let you talk,” Ruark said. He gave Lawler a meaningful look before turning and leaving, closing the door behind him.

Lawler shifted nervously before perching on the edge of a chair. “Thank you for seeing me, my lord.”

“Wexford mentioned you have a…matter.”

“Yes. It’s, ah, rather delicate.”

“You think I can help?”

Lawler nodded, his wide blue eyes glossy with hope. “My valet has a sister who works as a maid in a…prominent Mayfair household. She is uncomfortable in her current position because of inappropriate behavior by a member of the household.”

“I take it this is not another servant exhibiting the behavior?”

“No.” Lawler’s shoulders relaxed, and he exhaled. “I’m glad you understand.”

“Not entirely, but I can imagine. Can this maid leave her employment?”

Lawler shook his head. “My valet says she cannot. I understand some of the people who work here are those who needed help…” He let his question hang in the air. At least, Lucien believed there was a question there.

“You’d like me to offer this maid a job?”

“Or perhaps help her find one? I thought you might do that too.”

He had, in fact. He’d given jobs at the club to people in need of employment and lodgings. The lived on the uppermost floor. In one case, he’d secured a position for a woman who did not want to work there. She was quite happy now as a clerk in Cheapside. “How did you hear I would do that?” he asked Lawler.

“People talk.”

“Which people?” Lucien wanted to know how this information was getting out—not because he cared that people knew what he’d done. On the contrary, if he could help someone, he would do so.

Rubbing his palms along his thighs, Lawler looked as if a bit of his anxiety was returning. “I can’t rightly recall.”

“It’s all right, Lawler, I’d be happy to help this maid.” Just as he’d been eager to invite Lawler to join the club. With an overbearing father, and a dearth of confidence, Lawler was in need of a boost. Lucien hoped the club would provide the young man with an opportunity to build his strength and character in a place where he would feel welcome and included. “Will you have her come see me when she next has time off?”

Lawler’s face brightened. “Of course. Thank you, my lord. You are incredibly kind. Not at all the devil I’ve heard you called.”

Lucien had begun to hear that moniker as well. He chuckled. “Perhaps it’s meant in fun instead of as an insult.” In all likelihood, it was borne of envy because he wouldn’t invite everyone to join his club. If that were the case, he’d embrace the description wholeheartedly.

“Thank you for approaching me about this,” Lucien said. Perhaps the club was already having a positive effect on the lad.

Lawler stood. “Thank you. Truly. The invitation to join this club has been the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”

“I daresay what you’ve just done to help someone else might end up being even greater.” Lucien went to open the door. “Now, go and enjoy some port.”

As Lucien watched Lawler turn the corner to go back downstairs, Evie emerged from the shadows of the antechamber outside his sitting room.

“What did you do?” she asked with a half smile.

“Nothing we haven’t already.”

“We’re going to be known for fixing things,” she said, moving into his sitting room. “On second thought, you will be known for that. I can’t effect even a fraction of what you can do. At least not without your help.”

“Not true. You’ve become a woman of power in your own right. Surely you can see that.”

“Perhaps there’s a glimpse. Time will tell.” She sat down and leaned against the tall back of the chair. “Pour me a brandy, please?”

“Yes, and then you can tell me how we might employ a young maid in need of a job.”

* * *

January, 1815

The familiar smell of the Phoenix Club, of pine and some spice he couldn’t name—a scent Lucien had commissioned and used to give the place a distinctive air, lifted Tobias’s sagging spirts as he stepped into the entrance hall.

“Good afternoon, Lord Overton,” the footman said crisply, taking Tobias’s hat and gloves. And using his new title.

“Thank you, Dexter. I trust Lord Lucien is in his office at this hour?”

Dexter inclined his prematurely gray head. The footmen at the Phoenix Club did not wear wigs as they did in so many others. “Indeed he is.”

Tobias thanked him again before going up to the second floor to Lucien’s office. The door to his outer sitting room was open, so Tobias strode inside only to stop short at seeing Lucien in quiet conversation with a young just outside his open office door.

Lucien’s gaze lifted as he looked over the woman’s shoulder and acknowledged Tobias. “I’ll see you soon,” he said to her.

She turned, and, keeping her head down, darted by Tobias on her way out.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Tobias said, thinking the woman seemed in an exceptional hurry to leave—and not be noticed by Tobias. “Helping another soul in need?”

“Yes.” Lucien beckoned him to his office.

“Good, then you’re already in the mood.”

Lucien closed the door and arched a brow at Tobias. “You need help?”

“So much.” Tobias dropped into a chair. “My father has left me…a mess.”

“Brandy?” Lucien offered.

Tobias nodded.

Moving to pour their drinks, Lucien said, “I would have thought your father would have left things in an exceedingly orderly manner.”

“Orderly for him, yes. For me?” Tobias shook his head, the familiar frustration and anger he’d felt since his father’s death swelling in his chest. “He had a ward.”

“That is a surprise.” Lucien handed him a glass and sat in a nearby chair. “Is that why you need help?”

“She’ll be here in a fortnight for her Season. I’m to keep my father’s promise to her father and see her wed. She will need a chaperone and a sponsor. I have neither, nor do