Page 29 of A Deal with the Devil

“He’s simply misunderstood,” Cecilia insisted stubbornly.

“He stabbed a man.”

“One time.”

“Twice!”

“But he did that…bare chested.” Cecilia dropped her voice reverently. “And because that other chap disrespected his love.”

“But she does not love him back.”

“Of course she does,” Miss Peridot said. “She’s not an idiot. Merely a little slow.”

Kitty exchanged a grin with Victoria. This was her favorite part—when everyone grew heated, forgetting these characters only existed in a book. But that wasn’t strictly true, was it? They existed here, in this moment, in their imaginations. They became a part of their lives and of the stories they told themselves.

“That heroine is a cabbagehead,” Victoria declared, mostly because she enjoyed the way Lady Susanna turned faintly purple when she disagreed.

“She is young,” Lady Susanna said. “She’ll find her courage.”

“Let us hope she does so before Lord Buchanan razes a village to the ground. I do love a grumpy laird.”

“I prefer the stable lad, at any rate,” Miss Peridot announced. “He has burly thighs.”

Miss Hastings blinked. She was not accustomed to literary salons mentioning thighs, burly or otherwise.

“I hope someone writes about a Viking hero soon.” Victoria winked. “Because I also prefer burly thighs.”

Miss Hastings made a strangled sound that may or may not have been a giggle.

“Still not as delicious as Lord Drake,” Victoria continued.

“Not the vampire again,” Miss Sutcliffe said. “I don’t care for heroes who cannot have a picnic in the sunshine.”

“It’s England.” Lady Susanna shrugged. “There’s never any sunshine anyway.”

“Perfect for a vampire,” Kitty agreed. The Vampire and His Lady was not nearly as racy as the chapbooks that it had inspired. But it was so popular, it paid her shop assistant’s salary. It was so popular, in fact, that even a year after it was first published, Kitty regularly gave sold-out walking tours of the places in London featured in the story.

“But imagine all the history he has seen!” Lady Susanna replied. “The stories he would have.”

“I’m more interested in his thighs,” Victoria said. “Miss Peridot?”

“Definitely.” Miss Peridot grinned. “And think of the many years he has had to practice.”

That strangled sound from Miss Hastings again.

“Have we shocked you?” Kitty asked quietly. Invitations were required for this particular salon, but Kitty did not remember her. She must have been recommended by another member.

Miss Hastings shook her head. “I haven’t read The Vampire and his Lady yet.”

A truly shocked silence greeted that pronouncement. The kind of shock not elicited by burly thighs or ravishing rakehells or even that one book with the sea monster.

“You haven’t?” Cecilia ceased knitting immediately, as though an emergency was occurring right under her nose. “Truly?”

Miss Hastings shook her head.

“Well, that won’t do,” Miss Peridot said. “I’ll lend you my copy.”

“Do you mean the copy you have yet to return to the circulating library?” Victoria asked smoothly. “Thereby making the circulating bit rather difficult.”