A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell, #2)

by Deanna Raybourn

I would earnestly warn you against trying to find out the reason for and explanation of everything . . . To try and find out the reason for everything is very dangerous and leads to nothing but disappointment and dissatisfaction, unsettling your mind and in the end making you miserable.

Men, I had often observed, were never happier than when they believed they were imparting wisdom.

But then, in my experience, gentlemen are champion sulkers so long as one doesn’t call the behavior by that name.

With a smile of deliberate malice, I turned and—in a single liquid motion—flung the blade, lodging it firmly between the target’s eyes. “I am off to take tea at the Curiosity Club. Mind you take good care of that dummy.”

We are educated out of common sense, curiosity, and any real merit. We are made to be decorative and worthy of display, with occasional forays into procreation and good works, but nothing more.”

Oh, it was masterfully done. Without ever acknowledging my true birth, she had drawn me into the family, appealing to my pity at the loss of an uncle I would never know. I admired and resented her for it. Suddenly, I had no stomach for the games she wanted to play.

The princess looked me over slowly. “I cannot make you out, Miss Speedwell.”

“Do not try, Your Royal Highness,” I advised.

“I understand that you believe you have something to prove to them, but you don’t. You are worth a thousand of them, Veronica. But they will never see it. If you set yourself up as their lackey because you want their approbation, it will not stop. This is a game you cannot win, so do not play it. Walk away now, before they’ve got under your skin,” he warned. “Like your family have yours?”

“A cynical view, I think,” I told her. She pulled a face. “Stoker, the child thinks me a cynic.” Stoker gave her a bland look. “The child will think worse of you when she gets to know you.”

It is the greatest advantage of getting old, you know. I can say precisely what I like and everyone excuses it because I knew Moses from his bulrush days.”

“He put a live African man in a loincloth at the end of it. In chains,” he said, fairly spitting the words.

As if I couldn’t love Stoker more

“Death is a necessary balance to life, Lady Wellingtonia.” She gave her cackling laugh again. “You needn’t tell me, Miss Speedwell. I am nearer to it than you.”

I was halfway tempted to goad him into it—few things were more arousing to me than the sight of Stoker in full froth—but

“I haven’t given anyone reason to want to kill me.” “Are you quite certain? Think carefully. I am convinced we could compile a list,” I said sweetly.

“Is it not possible to enjoy bed sport during one’s pregnancy? You mean women have to go without for the duration? Nine months without sexual congress? That’s monstrous.”

One of us has to cultivate her, and I suspect you are too modest to exert yourself to seduce her.” He blanched. “One of these days, that tongue is going to cut someone, Veronica.” “I sincerely hope so.”

“Stoker, have we engaged in any felonious activity recently? Have we robbed a bank? Kidnapped a countess?” I oughtn’t to have teased Sir Hugo; he was clearly in no mood for it. His expression immediately turned thunderous.

“Oh no, you don’t! I understand you well enough to know that meek acquiescence is never a good sign.” I shrugged. “And I understand men well enough to know that it is seldom profitable to argue with one who has made up his mind.”

“Pay no mind to Stoker. He is in a frightful temper, but I am afraid that is often his mood, so there is little point in waiting for a better one. Won’t you come in?”

“Can his lordship reconcile the competing theories of evolution proposed by Darwin and Lamarck?”

“Then he is by far the least interesting of the Templeton-Vane brothers to me. His opinion therefore matters not at all,”

“Veronica. I will speak slowly and distinctly so that even you may understand. I am not taking you out to Littledown to investigate the Elysian Grotto.”

That was the true measure of his character; even at the height of his irritation he would never let me fall.

“Good heavens! I have never seen so many penises in one place,”