~~~~
It didn't take long for the notorious Den of Debauchery — which had managed, through every fault of its own, to become the bane of the Lambourn Downs — to get up to its usual devilment.
The Den members had gone to the cockfight after all; then to Pemberley's, and finally, after three bottles of Chilcot's Irish whiskey, to the Speckled Hen opposite the village green, which was where the trouble began. Jon Cokeham had started a fight with one of the locals. Tom Audlett had refused to pay for an ale whose taste he found inferior. And the rest of them had chatted up and then fondled Tess and Lorna, the two serving wenches. The girls were all too willing to drape themselves across the laps of these well-bred, badly-behaved lads in favor of doing the work for which they were paid; it was Fred Crawley, the landlord, who finally got fed up.
He threw out the lot of them, including the two women.
"Bloody 'ell, Gareth ... what're we going to do now, eh?"
They stood in the road outside, grumbling and cursing, all so foxed that not a soul amongst them could walk a straight line. The two barmaids, giggling and flirting, were partaking quite freely of Chilcot's Irish whiskey. One of them, already tipsy, sidled up to Gareth and put her hand on his bottom; the other ingratiated herself beneath his arm, slid her hand beneath his waistcoat, and began rubbing his chest.
"Yes, Lord Gareth — what are we going to do, hmmmm?"
He grinned down at them. Two weeks ago he would've taken the invitation and run with it; after all, spending an erotic night with two women at once was every man's dream — and one he had frequently lived out in reality. Tonight, however, he just wanted to go home.
To Juliet Paige.
"I don't know," he said, slightly baffled by this rather strange reaction in himself.
Cokeham declared, "I have an idea how we can get back at that cheeky bastard for throwing us out. We can alter the scenery from his dining room window. You know, shock his guests so they go somewhere else."
"Oh?"
Cokeham took a long swig of the whiskey; then he pointed the bottle toward the village green and leaned toward the girl beneath Gareth's arm. "Tess? Got any idea where we can get some of that purple paint Crawley used on his front door?"