His enraged shout shook the chandelier above her head. “Damned if you aren’t!”
She sat down once more, hoping to hide her sudden urge to flee the room. She hadn’t realized he knew her that well. “Papa, please …”
“You’re mine, aren’t you? You couldn’t help but lie whenever it suited you. Only good thing about you, other than your worth in the marketplace.”
Regina felt a spurt of resentment. “I also have tolerably good teeth,” she said quietly. But he’d heard her.
He downed the remainder of his gin and deposited the empty glass on a nearby table before spreading his arms wide as if in apology, one he certainly didn’t mean. “You need a thicker skin, that’s what you need, girl. I’m only stating facts. All right, all right, never mind. We’ll put your sad tale of brigands to bed, shall we? You were up to mischief tonight, the pair of you, but you escaped by the skin of those tolerably good teeth while your cousin didn’t. Next time, you might not be so lucky. But there’s not going to be a next time, is there?”
Her shoulders visibly slumped. He knew. How did he know? “No, sir.”
“So your cousin did not involve you in some elopement? She truly was taken. Seth knows?”
Regina nodded. “He’s going to hire some Bow Street Runners in the morning.”
“Another dip in my purse,” Reginald grumbled. “She hardly seems worth it, except to accompany you in the evenings.”
Regina grabbed on to that most important fact. “I can’t depend on Mama to accompany me all the places you wish me to go, no. And if Miranda isn’t recovered, Aunt Claire will be too devastated to chaperone me. No one is to know she’s gone, and once she’s safely recovered, it will be as if nothing has happened.”
“Ha! Believe that, girl, and you’ll believe anything.” He walked over to the chair she sat in and stood directly in front of her. Hovered over her menacingly. “She’s probably on her back in some low tavern even now, being held down, her legs spread wide for her while every last man Jack in the place takes his turn every which way. They’re having her in ways even the devil himself never thought of, and the more she screams, the more they’ll like it. Don’t you go clapping your hands over your ears, girl! You listen to me! I know. Better off dead by morning, that’s how I see the thing, and even your idiot uncle Seth will know it, too, see if he doesn’t. He won’t be looking for her all that long. Dead or a twopenny whore, that’s all your fine cousin has left to her. And you’ll consider twice now before you even think to take another step off the path I’ve put you on, stupid girl, won’t you? Won’t you!”
The image that had formed in Regina’s mind at her father’s crude description tore painfully at her heart, even as she unconsciously squeezed her thighs together. If she hadn’t been lucky enough to have met Puck at the masquerade when she was feeling so adventuresome, rather than someone like her father, where would she be now?
Her father was right. She was stupid. Stupid, and foolhardy and very, very lucky.
“Yes, Papa,” she said quietly.
“Good. Now give me his name.”
She looked up at him in surprise that swiftly turned to horror.
“And don’t lie to me again. Brigands,” he spat. “In Mayfair? I wondered what you’d come up with, and it’s pitiful. Only a brains-to-let looby like my brother-in-law would swallow such a clunker. Then again, he didn’t see you tonight, did he?”
Regina thought she might faint. This was worse than anything she could have imagined. “You knew? You let me go on and on—and you knew?”
“Got yourself a grand eyeful, didn’t you? Yes, I saw you. You and that man you were with, but you were already climbing into his coach and driving off by the time I could locate you again. Followed the pair of you all the way to Cavendish Square, though, figuring the least Seth could do was to see you home safely from there. Now, who is he?”
She ignored his questions because she had questions of her own. “You knew Miranda had gone missing at the ball?”
“You left without her, remember? You two weren’t at a tea party, girl. Things happen. And her disappearance could have been of her own planning. But to answer your question, no, I didn’t know for certain. Not until I returned to the ball and asked a few questions. Now you answer mine. Give me his name. He saw you safe to your uncle. I want to thank him.”
“No,” Regina said, knowing she was visibly trembling now and deathly afraid. Her father had never hit her, never laid a hand on her. He’d always found other ways to control her.
“I’ll have your mother put away. For her own good.”
And that was one of them. But just this one time she’d say to him what she’d always wanted to say, but had never dared. “You won’t do that. It’s bad enough you want to foist the tradesman’s daughter on the ton, Papa. It’s quite another to sell the daughter of a Bedlamite to a title.”
She flinched as he raised his hand, but then he stopped and smiled, which was worse. “Very well, we’ll not bother about the Good Samaritan. Go to bed.”
“Yes, Papa. I’m sorry, Papa.” Regina scrambled to her feet and fled the room, knowing he hadn’t meant what he’d said. Puck had been masked, and apparently no one had recognized him. Still, she couldn’t see him again, for his own safety.
Except that she’d have to see him again, to warn him. Otherwise, she felt certain he was foolhardy enough to come knocking on her door. Or worse.
CHAPTER FOUR
“M’SIEUR PUCK. IF you were to do me the kindness to lift your chin so that I might button your collar,” the valet, Gaston, crooned in that way he had about him, a politeness of expression far from the rough gutter French he’d spoken when Puck first found him, rescuing the slim, slight fellow from a gang of rough men who had been demonstrating their displeasure with what they believed to be his perversion of nature.
Puck liked his servants loyal, and in saving Gaston, he had found a treasure beyond price. He also held an affection for other misfits in this world. With Gaston, he could say what he liked, show what he felt, without fear of being misunderstood, without worrying about possible betrayal.
“She’s magnificent, Gaston. You’ve never seen eyes like that. A mouth so impossible to resist. And spirit! And intelligence!”
“As you’ve said, m’sieur. Repeatedly. I am so happy for you I am beyond words. The chin if you please, m’sieur.”
“I should walk away,” Puck said, at last doing as his valet asked. “That would be the decent thing to do. There’s no reason I can’t conduct my search for her cousin without ever seeing Regina again. None. In fact, it would be pure selfishness for me to involve her at all. I’ll tell her that.”
“When you meet her in the park, having taken such an unconscionable time dressing for this meeting,” Gaston said without expression—which was as good as tapping his employer over the head with a strong mallet.
Puck waved Gaston away and took a step toward the mirror to inspect the man’s handiwork. As usual, the valet’s effort was perfection itself. “Sending a note around to her residence could be risky for her. Anything put to paper can be risky.”
“And I am risky, as well, m’sieur? You could send me in your place, to repeat your words of farewell to her, without need for a note. I can remain committed to my purpose when exposed to magnificent female eyes and mouths.”
Puck eyed Gaston as he was reflected in the mirror. “You make a valid point. I believe I shall ignore it.”
At last Gaston allowed himself a small smile. “I have