Jade Star (Star Quartet 4)

y. Give us at least an hour, Brent.”

Jules was in a quandary. The major reason she’d wanted to visit Maggie was her husband’s taboo. But how could she tell the glowing Byrony Hammond that she didn’t want to stay? She gave Brent a crooked smile.

“Just so,” Brent said softly to her. “Later, ladies.”

He tracked Saint down in front of his house, Saint having just returned from the Brodericks’.

“How nice to see you, Saint,” Brent said blandly. “My, do you happen to know where your wife is?”

Saint waved a hand toward the house. He paused, seeing no lights in the windows. He frowned. “All right, Brent,” he said in a resigned voice. “Where is she? What has she done this time?”

“Why, she’s with my wife,” Brent said. He added, “Of course, when I just happened to see her, she was on her way to see Maggie. Thanks to my perfidy, she is with Byrony, her guns spiked, as it were.”

“Damn,” said Saint.

“Yes. I guess my next question is, where is Thackery? Your wife was quite alone, trying her best to ignore all the very interested men.”

“Jules very probably lied to him and told him she wasn’t going out of the house. Thackery will have a fit when he finds out.”

“And you, Saint?”

“I don’t like fits.”

“No, you don’t, do you? But marriage seems to have brought you as many confusions and complications as it brought me. I don’t know what’s going on, Saint, and you’re probably dying to tell me to go to hell—”

“Why?” Saint asked, sighing. “You did well by my wife, and I thank you. Lord knows, I can’t seem to handle her.”

Brent eyed his friend closely. “You might try thrashing her,” he said.

Saint laughed. “Yes,” he said, “yes, I just might. Well, I’m off to fetch my errant wife. Thanks again, Brent.”

Before he could leave, Thackery returned, a laughing Thomas with him.

“Hi, Saint,” Thomas said. “What’s going on? There aren’t any lights in the house.”

Thackery said very quietly, “Tell me where, Dr. Saint, and I’ll go fetch her.”

Perhaps it would be better, Saint thought, if Thackery got her. “She’s at the Hammonds’ apartment, above the Wild Star.”

Thackery nodded, touched the brim of his hat, and strode off into the growing darkness. Saint turned to his brother-in-law. “Lydia should be back soon. You hungry, Thomas?”

“Yes,” Thomas said. He laughed suddenly. “I won’t be seeing Penelope this evening. She tried to give me orders about a certain something, and I informed her . . . well, I told her she could spend some time alone to think about her woman’s modesty.”

“Good God, Thomas,” Saint said as they went into the house. “Whatever did the girl want you to do?”

Thomas looked thoughtful as the two men went into the parlor. Saint lit the lamps and took off his coat. He looks tired, Thomas thought. Damn Jules anyway. Whatever is that little twit up to?

“Drink, Thomas?”

Thomas nodded. “Sherry, please, Saint.”

The two men relaxed a moment, drinking in silence. Saint said again, “What did Penelope want you to do?”

Thomas raised twinkling eyes to Saint’s face, and Saint started. There was a good deal of similarity between that impish look and Jules’s.

“She wanted me to make love to her.”

“Penelope? Good God!”