Page 6 of A Gamble on the Duke (The Gambling Dukes #4)

“Better?” She grinned. “What, do your other hired lady friends have a greater interest in the right sort of gown to wear to the opera—and how on earth is that any different from the ballet?”

“If you’d been listening, you’d know,” I said blandly, hardly knowing what to do with myself. She was laughing? Not at me, it didn’t feel cruel. Just…laughing. “Were you listening?”

Miss Shenton grinned. “Honestly? No.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Hell, when was the last time someone had spoken so honestly to me? I couldn’t remember. It had to be months—years.

That was the trouble with only interacting with people that you employed. You didn’t get an honest response from anyone.

“Well, that was honest,” I said wryly.

“I'm afraid that’s the only way I know how to be,” Miss Shenton said. She’d pulled her feet under her, curled up on the sofa as though she belonged there.

Truthfully, she looked like she belonged. Oh, the clothes were a little too frayed to look like she lived here, and those shoes would have to go. How could she walk around in them with those huge holes?

But there was an elegance to her look, that sparkle in her eye, the teasing in her air.

As though she’d worked her way up, like I had been forced to through the Gambling Dukes, and could laugh at the world from the top of it.

“You’re rich, aren’t you?”

The question wasn’t odd, considering she somehow had never heard of me or the Gambling Dukes before. It was refreshing. In a way, I didn’t want to open up the door to that world.

The longer I could keep her from realizing…but hell, she knew my name. A simple conversation with almost anyone on the street would give her everything she wanted.

“Yes,” I said quietly.

“Very rich? ”

“Very.”

Well, it was true. I was hardly going to deny it.

Catherine’s eyes sparkled. “How rich?”

Richer than she could ever imagine. A shop girl in a small shop, clearly not earning enough to keep her feet dry? More money than she would ever see in her life.

Still. That didn’t mean that I was going to tell her.

“Rich.”

“Five thousand a year?”

“Try twelve thousand,” I found myself saying, then hated myself. God, what sort of idiot would boast about their income?

But Miss Shenton didn’t seem put off. She didn’t seem impressed, either.

Which didn’t matter, I tried to tell myself. This wasn’t a seduction, or true courting. This was convenient. That was all.

“Twelve thousand?” Miss Shenton raised an eyebrow. “Goodness, and you couldn’t find an actual woman to court? What’s wrong with you?”

And that was when I stood up and returned to the one thing I could count on: business.

“Nothing is wrong with me, it’s just?—”

“Have you tried a matchmaker?” Miss Shenton said, leaning forward. “One of my friends had an incredible experience, she?—”

“I don’t want to be married,” I said curtly.

I had to head this topic of conversation away before it got too…personal.

There was a reason I didn’t court, wasn’t on the marriage mart. It always got complicated. They always wanted more than I could offer. Always wanted more than I had.

Always wanted money.

At least Miss Shenton knew precisely what she was getting.

My lawyer had rushed up a quick contract with some blanks in there for me, and thankfully hadn’t asked too many questions.

The amount of money was agreed. Miss Shenton would get her hundreds, and I would get the approval of the Earl of Tuxford.

“I could introduce you to someone, you know,” Miss Shenton said softly. “You don’t have to be alone.

Alone?

I liked being alone. It was the safest way.

I rose to my feet, moving to leave the room. “I’ll ensure you have all that you will need in the way of clothing?—”

“I might not have an income of twelve thousand a year but I have clothes, you dolt,” Miss Shenton said behind me. From the sound of it, she hadn’t moved from the sofa. “Just give me instructions on what to wear, and as long as you give me five minutes warning?—”

“You’re going to need a lot more time to get prepared for the sort of events we’re going to,” I said, turning in the doorway and leaning against the frame. “Hair, make up, that sort of thing.”

Miss Shenton grinned. “It might surprise you, oh duke, but I do know how to brush my hair.”

Unwillingly my gaze flickered to her blonde hair, woven with golden threads. Goodness, she was delectable.

“I just didn’t have time this morning to do much with my hair, I wanted to open up the shop early.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Your employer works you hard.”

“You know, I don’t know where you go this idea from that I have an employer,” she said lightly, tilting her head to one side. “Did I say that?”

“Of…of course. ”

Though now she came to say it, I couldn’t think of when she’d said it. I’d just assumed.

She was laughing now. “You’d think you’d spot a shop owner when you see one.”

My jaw dropped in a very unflattering way. “You—you own that place?”

“Well, I rent the shop,” Miss Shenton said with a shrug. “But the business itself, yes, it’s mine. I'm…well, I'm having some cashflow issues at the moment.”

Well, that was hardly a surprise. Thank God I hadn’t voiced my true opinion of the odd clay things in the windows. The last thing I need is to offend the woman who was going to have to pretend to be the woman I was courting for the next week.

“Is it going to be problem? Closing up for a few days?”

She snorted, and I grinned at how relaxed she was. Any other woman I know, my friends included, would never snort in front of anyone.

“I don’t think I'm going to have customers banging the door down,” she said ruefully. “No, a bit of cash wouldn’t go amiss.”

Ah, well, that would explain it. I had been a little surprised at how quickly she’d accepted.

So why did my ego feel a little bruised?

“I’ll leave my card here, you can order anything you want from the butler, and I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said hastily.

I had to get out of here. Staying here with her, with Miss Shenton…I couldn’t explain it. She was warm, warm in a way that women just weren’t. She didn’t want anything from me—at least, nothing except the money I was already offering her.

That was right. Keep it businesslike.

“And what happens if you meet someone and fall in love with them in that time?” Miss Shenton called after me with a laugh. “Will you put aside your false woman for a real one?”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said curtly. “I don’t have time for emotions, or caring about people that way. The Gambling Dukes, that’s all that matters.”

And I shut the door behind me before leaning against it.

Hell. This woman.