He rolled his eyes and pushed her in front of him so he could swat her backside playfully. “No more of that. Christoph will most definitely do.”

She giggled. “If you insist.”

Chapter 18

IT WAS TOO MUCH TO HOPE, REALLY, THAT THEY would continue to get along perfectly, yet a few days or weeks wouldn’t have been too much to expect—rather than the time it took them to walk downstairs that morning.

Thinking back on it, Christopher allowed that he could have been more tactful. But guarding his words was simply not his habit, especially among his friends. Who else, after all, would he feel like bragging to about his splendid acquisition than his closest friends?

Walter and David were that, but he could have wished they hadn’t appeared in the hallway below just as he was coming down the stairs, Anastasia’s hand in his, though she was a few steps behind him. And both men couldn’t help but notice them, of course, when that flashy gold skirt of hers was like a beacon in the dark.

“What’s this?” David asked, eyeing Anastasia, though his question was for Christopher. “So that’s where you went off to last night?”

“Taking her back to her camp?” Walter surmised, then with a grin, “We’ll come along.”

“Not exactly,” Christopher corrected. “I’ll take her later to collect her belongings, but she’ll be staying with me from now on. She’s agreed to let me keep her.”

“Oh, I say, d’you think that’s wise, Kit?” David asked. “She’s not exactly typical mistress material.”

Anastasia yanked her hand out of Christopher’s at that point, but with David’s remark in his mind, he barely noticed. “What has typical got to do with it?” he asked. “I’ve had ‘typical,’ David, and lose interest in it in a matter of days, same as you do. Which certainly won’t be the case with my Anna here. Besides, I didn’t ask her to be my mistress to introduce her to society, so it hardly matters whether she’s typical or unique, now does it?”

“Er, not to be the bearer of dire tidings, old chum,” Walter remarked. “But I’d say your Anna is about to take your head off—metaphorically speaking.”

Christopher spun around just in time to receive a resounding slap across his cheek and watch Anastasia hike her skirt and run back up the stairs. “What the devil was that for?” he called after her.

But she didn’t stop, and a moment later he heard the door slam shut to his room. The entire house likely heard it, actually.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered.

Behind him, David was tactfully coughing into his hand, but Walter was outright chuckling. “No, indeed, nothing typical about that a’tall. Though it might help you to know, Kit, that she began frowning as soon as David introduced the subject of mistresses.”

“Sure, blame it on me,” David grumbled.

Christopher ignored his friends and marched back to his room. The door wasn’t locked against him. He found Anastasia stuffing a few things that had been left out of her satchel back into it.