Isabelle Goddard - A Regency Earl's Pleasure - The Earl Plays With Fire / Society's Most Scandalous Rake

‘That was exciting, wasn’t it, but can we return to my problem? I need to win back the money that I lost to Lord Moncaster. Will you help me do that?’

‘You want me to win it?’

‘Of course not, I want to win it. It’s my debt. But I need you to introduce me to a place where I can do that.’

‘You’re asking me to take you to a gambling den?’

‘Yes.’

‘I won’t,’ he said flatly.

‘Why not? If you’re scared we might be recognised, I could go in disguise.’

‘It gets worse.’

‘No, it doesn’t, I can disguise myself very well as a boy and go as your friend.’

He looked at her slim figure appraisingly. ‘I’m sure you can, but I’m not taking you to any gaming hell.’

‘I don’t want to go to a hell, just a place where I can win back the money.’

‘That’s a gaming hell.’

‘Please, Benedict.’

‘No, no and definitely no.’

‘Then you won’t help me.’

‘I’ve told you what to do. Go to your aunt and confess. The worst she can do is to pack you off to Spain. Would that matter so much now?’

She flushed at the implication, but knew that he was right. She supposed that she must find the right opportunity to tell Lady Blythe what had happened. But then her aunt would be sure to tell her Spanish relatives of her disgrace and from the moment she arrived in Madrid, they would be watching her every movement. She wished she’d never left Argentina.

In the distance Richard had ridden up to the small group standing beneath the trees. Sophia had joined her sister and Sir Julian near the carriage, as anxious now to leave as she had been earlier to find him. She scowled even more ferociously as she recognised the man seated astride the glossy black horse picking its way towards them.

Richard Veryan slid from the saddle as Christabel turned. He came forward and bowed just a little too deeply.

‘I understand from your brother that felicitations are in order.’ His voice was harsh, slightly disdainful. ‘May I take the opportunity, Miss Tallis, to congratulate you and Sir Julian, on your forthcoming marriage,’ and here he bowed extravagantly towards the other man. ‘I wish you both all the happiness you are capable of.’

Christabel flushed, knowing the double edge of those words, but executed a dignified bow in response. Her fiancé smiled happily and without guile.

‘Thank you, Lord Veryan. Your good wishes are most welcome. I consider myself to be blessed indeed to have won this remarkable lady for my future wife, a gift beyond anything I deserve.’

Richard’s expression was sardonic. ‘You must not sell yourself short, Sir Julian. I’m sure Miss Tallis would be the first to agree that your honesty and loyalty are qualities to aspire to.’

Sir Julian blinked at this sentiment, but his smile broadened even further. He felt supremely happy and nothing was going to spoil this wonderful day for him. Sophia stood close by, an interested observer. Richard’s comments appeared to be coming from between gritted teeth and offered a small hope. She might yet salvage something from the plans that had gone so badly awry.

Pinning on her most enticing smile, she turned to the happy lover. ‘I believe, Sir Julian, that you were involved in plans for the canal which has been constructed to feed the lake. I would love to see it and understand exactly how it works. Would you be good enough to take me?’

If Sir Julian felt this was a strange request coming at the very moment of his betrothal and from a girl who had hitherto not shown the slightest interest in engineering, he was far too polite to show it. Willing to do anything for anybody on this glorious morning, particularly a close relative of his beloved, he immediately agreed.

‘It appears we must leave you, sir,’ and he bowed his farewell. ‘Thank you again for your good wishes.’

He began to walk towards the Chinese bridge with Sophia in tow, already beginning a complicated discourse on his understanding of the water-management system. Equally bewildered by her sister’s request, Christabel turned to follow them, but was stopped in her tracks by Richard roughly grabbing her arm. He hardly waited for the others to be out of earshot before grinding out, ‘You can’t really mean to marry that man!’

‘I beg your pardon!’ She was genuinely shocked.

‘I think you understand me, but, just in case, I was questioning your sanity in agreeing to marry Julian Edgerton.’

‘How dare you presume to question whom I marry!’

‘I dare to presume because I seem to know you better than you know yourself. But even you must be aware of how unsuited you are to each other.’

The red cascade of curls trembled with anger. ‘You are insulting, sir!’

‘I would call it honest rather than insulting, but it’s better to be insulting than concur in this charade.’

‘You are misinformed, my lord. There is no charade. Sir Julian and I have known each other for many months and have agreed that we will suit admirably.’

She wondered why she was defending her choice of husband to Richard of all men but she felt compelled to continue and found herself declaring, ‘Sir Julian is a man of the highest honour and integrity.’

‘I’m sure he is. He’s also a gudgeon if he thinks he can control you.’

‘No man controls me and Sir Julian is far too wise to wish to do so.’

‘But not wise enough to refrain from marrying you,’ he retaliated.

She glared furiously at the tall, elegant figure in front of her and responded in a voice crackling with ice, ‘This is mere ranting and I will listen no more. I bid you good day, sir.’

Her cream skirts swished to one side as she made to walk away. But Richard would not concede. Ignoring her cold fury and the summary nature of his dismissal, he called out, ‘If you value his happiness as much as your own, don’t do it.’

She retraced her steps and stood looking directly up into his eyes, now dark and glittering.

‘If we are to give each other marital advice, I would suggest that wedding a child fresh from the nursery is unlikely to guarantee success. I, at least, intend to marry a man of my own age and one I have known for many months.’

Brushing aside his supposed alliance with Domino, he coldly countered her logic. ‘But how much of a guarantee is that? You once agreed to marry another man of your own age and one you had known a very long time, but that alliance wasn’t too permanent, was it?’

He smiled derisively at her. ‘At the moment Sir Julian is living in his own little paradise, but how long do you give him? He would be well advised to grow steel armour in the very near future, say three weeks from his wedding day.’

‘You have been as offensive as it is possible to be, Lord Veryan, but nothing you say can touch our happiness.’

He grimaced. ‘How charming! And how strange that there was a day when I felt that too. I looked deep into your green eyes, touched your luminous skin, tangled my hands in that wild red hair—and what a premonition that was—and believed that I was as happy as it was possible to be, that nothing could ever touch that happiness. How wrongly can a man judge!’

Christabel swallowed hard. ‘Yesterday you assured me that you considered the past dead. Can you not accept that we made a mistake and forget?’

‘You made a mistake, Miss Tallis. For myself, the past is nothing. But I find it difficult to forget those others for whom the pain still lives. But then you never cared too much about them—friends, parents, all could be sacrificed. All that mattered was that you had your desire, a desire, it seems, which died almost as soon as it flickered into life.’