Page 12 of Miss Ellis Unleashed

“I think we need some company to go with the meal,” Abelton said with a sly smile. “We could always call on your girl, you know. She could be home from that ball by now, in that empty house and feeling lonely.”

Max sighed. Abelton loved nothing more than needling him about his former ward. Moving into her home had caused eyebrows to rise among his acquaintances, but he’d had good reason for that decision. He knew how painful it was when someone tried to rip you away from everything you’d ever known. He could not have kept her here in a strange house. The minx might have run away and something dreadful might have happened to her.

“Let’s head to the club.”

“Not to the club. Everyone there is so tedious these days. I’ve something special in mind for the pair of carefree bachelors we are tonight.”

Max nodded slowly, curious for what Abelton intended but calling for his carriage to be readied and brought round front. Abelton needed everything to be exciting lately, and that was becoming exhausting, too.

The guardianship had mellowed Max more than he cared to admit, and he feared the change might just be fixed in stone. A nice night by the fire at the club with old friends, however tedious, or at home alone held greater appeal. But he didn’t say so out loud. That’s how he’d spent most of his evenings until very recently, and he missed that.

They loitered by his front windows, watching the carriages roll by, coming back from social events. As ever, Max’s eyes were drawn in the direction of the Ellis town house, though he couldn’t possibly see it from so far away.

He also missed Miss Ellis, much to his surprise.

He’d not spoken to her in weeks, and it still felt strange not to squabble with her every day. He shook off the worry thinking of her always inspired, lest Abelton notice and tease him about his continued concern for the woman who did not want him around.

But worrying about Daisy had unfortunately become second nature to Max, and he feared the trouble she could get herself into without him around to protect her from scoundrels and scandals. He only hoped her friends and servants watched out for her just as well as he’d tried to do.

Max yawned suddenly, and Abelton caught him at it.

His friend laughed. “Your girl has done irreparable damage to your ability to keep up with me,” Abelton teased. “No stamina anymore.”

Max shook his head, forcing himself to alertness by sheer stubborn will. “You’ll be keeping up with me tonight, I’m sure.”

“Where we’re going, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Abelton said, eyes alight with mischief. All he would tell Max as they climbed into the carriage was that it was a long-overdue treat.

“Close your eyes now,” Abelton demanded of him.

Max raised a brow. “Why would I do that around anyone?”

“I want this to be a surprise for you, of course,” Abelton promised. “Trust me. All will be revealed in due course.”

Max reluctantly closed his eyes and hoped for the best.

Abelton banged on the walls of the carriage to signal the driver, and they made a hard turn and then several more, until Max was thoroughly lost, but he suspected they were not headed for any of their usual drinking haunts.

The carriage stopped abruptly and lurched as the groomsmen jumped down to open the door for them.

“Open your eyes, my friend, and behold the wonder in store for us tonight.”

He did, and raised a brow as he recognized the establishment. “Madam Bradshaw’s?”

Abelton appeared crestfallen. “You’ve been here before? I thought you’d given up chasing skirts during the guardianship?”

“I received an invitation at the start of the season but was too busy to visit,” he said carefully, lest Abelton tease him about the guardianship again.

“To think, I bribed a footman a hefty sum to gain admittance for both of us at short notice, and you had an invitation all this time. You had better pay me back for my lost funds,” Abelton grumbled, brightening when Max agreed. “Let’s go. The ladies are waiting.”

Abelton bounded out onto the pavement, leaving Max to follow at a slower pace. He’d declined to visit this pleasure house for many reasons. Mostly because he’d thought it would be hypocritical to denounce sin to Miss Ellis while fornicating in such a place.

Since the end of the guardianship, though, he still hadn’t lain with a woman. It was probably time. Time to shed the shackles of propriety entirely and be himself completely once more. Drinking, gambling, and debauchery were the staple occupations of any dissolute scoundrel, after all. Max had earned something of a reputation in his younger days—well before the guardianship and Daisy had come into his life.

He scowled for thinking of her again as he strode up the stairs after his friend, announced himself to the majordomo, and they were admitted to the surprisingly elegant drawing room. He had to stop thinking of that blasted woman. He was better off without her, surely.

Inside, there wasn’t proper attire to be seen on anyone. The women were in various states of undress, and the men making love to them did not seem to care about their clothing, either, or even that others watched what they did to their lovers.

Surprisingly, Max discovered he cared not to see such things anymore, and he looked around desperately for somewhere safer to rest his eyes. He spotted what appeared to be a dining room and headed there immediately, to see what he could find to satisfy his appetite.