Whisper To Me of Love by Shirlee Busbee Page B

anything about yourself?”
    A hostile stare was his only answer, and sighing, Royce let his gaze travel over the glowering, unimposing figure cluttering up his usually immaculate foyer. The boy looked to be far too small and delicate for his age, but Royce assumed that several weeks of decent food and sleep would help alleviate that fact. Having felt the force of the boy’s teeth, fist, and feet, he knew, despite the puny size, that the child was strong and healthy—if undernourished. Food, clothing, and quarters were no problem, but what the hell was he to do with the vicious little monster once it had been fed, bathed, and put to bed?
    Oblivious to Zachary standing to his left and his butler staring with astonishment from him to the boy, half-angrily, half-ruefully, Royce stared back at the dirty, shabby figure before him. His gaze eventually alighted on the boy’s sullen face, and he was suddenly conscious of what a very pretty boy he had captured. Almost an exotically beautiful boy, he thought to himself, his eyes slowly moving over the startling aristocratic features. Those damned Devlin eyes, he mused silently, they are unmistakable! And yet it wasn’t just the memorable gray eyes that bespoke good breeding; it was also glaringly apparent in the haughtily tilted little nose, the sculpted cheeks, and the full, enchantingly curved mouth. Aware his thoughts were wandering, he snapped to no one in particular, “Well, what the hell are we going to do with this surprising addition to our household? Make him my damned page?”
    There was a choking sound from the direction of his butler, and since Zachary, a grin upon his mouth, remained mute, Royce rounded on that poor individual. “Ah, Chambers, you have a suggestion?”
    Chambers, like all of the other servants, had not been in Royce’s employment long—just as George Ponteby had procured the house for his cousin, so had he seen to the hiring of an exemplary staff.
    The sight of his employer dumping a dirty little street boy onto the gleaming floor of the foyer had given Chambers pause, but rising to the occasion, he said calmly, “Perhaps, after the boy has been, er, cleaned and fed, you shall have come up with a better idea, sir.”
    â€œDon’t like that one?” Royce asked, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
    Chambers bowed slightly. “I believe, sir, that after you have enjoyed the light luncheon that is waiting for you in the sun-room and have had some time for reflection, you will be thinking more clearly. In the meantime, if I have your permission, I shall take the boy away and see to it that he is fed and garbed more appropriately for a gentleman’s household.”
    Relieved that for the moment, the boy’s welfare was being taken care of, Royce nodded and said happily, “Very good, Chambers. I shall leave the boy in your capable hands.” Royce started to turn away, but conscious that his unwanted dependent might make a break for it, he looked back at Chambers. “See to it that someone is with the little beggar at all times, and take precautions that he can’t escape—I have no doubt that if you turn your back on him, he will be out the door before you can say, Jack be quick!”
    Royce clapped a hand on Zachary’s shoulder. “Shall we eat? This morning’s events have left me, for one, famished.”
    Zachary agreed with alacrity, and leaving Pip staring with mistrustful eyes at Chambers, Royce and Zachary disappeared in the direction of the sun-room.

C HAPTER 5
    U pon entering the sun-room, Royce and Zachary discovered a delicious repast laid out on the long buffet that graced one windowed wall. Within moments they had heaped their plates high and were sitting at a filigreed black iron table enjoying the mouth-watering efforts of Ivy Chambers.
    It was some time later, as Royce was leaning back in his chair, having just finished eating a particularly