Page 9 of A Sporting Chance (The Chances #8)

“A nd you are quite certain this Lord Leopold isn’t planning on ravishing you?”

Kathleen almost dropped her parasol. “ Angela !” She looked to either side of them, but no one seemed to have heard her sister’s scandalous words.

“Well, I’m just saying—it is not typically for a gentleman of any standing to wish to teach random young ladies how to play around with a bow and arrow,” said her sister calmly, as though she accused gentlemen of such things on a daily basis. “I mean, what does he want with you?”

It was a very good question, and not one Kathleen wished to consider on a Saturday afternoon as they walked genially down a London street.

Mostly because the thought was unlikely to lead to a positive outcome.

Either Lord Leopold did wish to ravish her, which was most objectionable and utterly scandalous…or he didn’t. Somehow, the latter option was far worse.

“I do not believe Lord Leopold is using the archery lessons as a pretense to ravish me,” Kathleen said firmly—or at least, as firmly as she could while attempting to keep her words quiet.

The last thing the Andilet sisters needed was more gossip…

“I still do not understand why he is offering to teach you in the first place,” fretted her sister as they turned a corner. “Really, Kathleen, I am most suspicious.”

Of course she was. Kathleen knew her sister was only speaking from the pain of her own scandal, but it was most irritating to be denied any sort of excitement merely because her sister had not managed to escape the gossipmongers.

Besides, Lord Leopold was not that kind of gentleman. Kathleen did not know how she knew, but she knew. She’d believed him when he’d said he was not a cheat, whatever rumors said.

“I just don’t know if I should permit you to go alone,” Angela said, chewing her lip. “It’s bad enough Mother and Father sent us to London without a proper chaperone, but it’s not too late for you. I am the elder sister. I may be ruined, but I am still supposed to keep you safe.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me,” Kathleen said decidedly, as though she did not wish it to. “All Lord Leopold wishes to do is…is teach me to shoot with a bow and arrow.”

Because I mentioned a bet , she thought wistfully, and I wish I had been circumspect. I wish I had created some sort of penalty, something delicious. If one’s reputation was already ruined, why not enjoy it?

She swallowed hard as they turned another corner and the London Archery Club came into view.

The two sisters halted and Angela glanced at her. “You are determined?”

Determined . It was one of the words their father had used for both of them as children—first as an encouragement, and then as a reprimand.

A shiver of uncertainty flowed up Kathleen’s spine, but the mere promise of Lord Leopold’s company was enough to decide her.

“We will be out in the open, where anyone can see us,” she said with a brief smile. “Nothing untoward will happen, I can assure you.”

“You can assure me of naught but that you have no intentions for anything untoward,” said Angela darkly.

“And what does even that matter, if people notice you are unaccompanied by a chaperone? Perhaps I should have attended Mrs. Burton’s card party.

Perhaps I would rest easier if I had been introduced to the gentleman. ”

The unsaid words between them—that Mrs. Burton’s invitation had clearly not included the elder Miss Andilet, and though Kathleen had declared she would not go due to the slight, Angela had encouraged her to go regardless—hung in the air, heavy with discomfort.

Kathleen cleared her throat. “I shall not be long. You… You may accompany me, if you wish.”

She certainly did not wish. Not that she had any indecorous intentions toward Lord Leopold, definitely not…

but still. There was something delightful about being in his presence.

Encountering him at Mrs. Burton’s had been a shock, and her mouth had run away from her, and she had sorely embarrassed herself.

“I have even heard that the great card sharp, one of the Chance family, is in attendance tonight.”

“Sadly, I have an appointment.”

Kathleen blinked. “You do?”

“Do not sound so surprised,” said her older sister with what she evidently thought was a smile. “Yes, I need to see a solicitor.”

“A solicitor?” Kathleen tilted her head. “Did Father ask you to see his man in Town? Is he still making the payments to our landlady?”

“Yes, yes, that’s all fine. Don’t you worry about it. But I must go, I must meet… I would not leave you alone otherwise, but as you say, you will be in company.”

She had not said that. In fact, Kathleen had been very clear to be vague on such a matter—but she was hardly going to correct Angela on that score.

“Keep your hem out of mud and yourself out of mischief. If you can,” added her sister with a wry smile. “And do not have too much fun.”

Kathleen swallowed the retort that Angela had not followed such sage advice. It was not kind, and she could hardly blame her sister for what had happened. It was not Angela’s fault that the man had not married her.

Then her mind caught up with her. “Solicitor? Why do you need to speak to a solicitor?”

“Nothing for you to worry about,” her sister said breezily. “You go and enjoy yourself.”

Kathleen frowned. It was just like being at home again, in the country. Never you mind, Kathleen. Just grown-ups sorting something out. Go and play.

But she was a woman now, an adult, one and twenty years of age. Should she not be worried, if there was something to worry about?

Angela squeezed her hand. “I mean it. You did not have to come here due to your own disgrace; you should enjoy some merriment. Perhaps conversation with a gentleman, the son of a lord, no less, and fresh air will do you the world of good. I will see you at home later.”

Before Kathleen could say a word, or remark on the fact that Angela herself was scandalously navigating around Town unaccompanied, her sister had bustled off in a completely different direction.

So. That left her…late, for her archery lesson.

“You are late,” said Lord Leopold brightly as Kathleen stepped out of the back of the London Archery Club and toward the butts.

Easy as it would have been to blame the footman, she resigned herself to the truth. “I am, and I have no excuse for it.”

Lord Leopold raised an eyebrow just as he lifted the bow and pulled back the string. “No excuse whatsoever?”

Kathleen thought back to the five and twenty minutes she had spent sitting before the small square of a looking glass, turning her head this way and that as she attempted to do something more interesting with her hair.

She thought about the three gowns currently strewn on her bed after being tried on and discounted.

She thought of the earbobs she had put on, taken off, put on again, taken off…

and now could not remember whether she was wearing them or not.

“No excuse whatsoever,” she said aloud, attempting to surreptitiously lift a hand to her ears. Ah, right, I am wearing them. Good . “You… You have started without me.”

His jacket was shed, his shirt sleeves were once again most agreeably visible. Better, Kathleen watched as his muscles knotted, strained, as the bow pulled taut against him. The arrow did not shudder, remaining unbelievably still as it was held in the balance.

Kathleen found she was not breathing. It was even more difficult to take a breath when Lord Leopold suddenly let loose the bow, the arrow soaring through the air straight and true. The satisfying thunk of it hitting the target—the butt, as Kathleen reminded herself—was the only sound.

Lord Leopold gave out a laugh and turned back to her. “I was not sure if you would come.”

“Come?” For some reason, the innocent word sounded most unruly in her mouth.

Perhaps Lord Leopold heard it too, for he colored. Or perhaps his flush was more to do with his next speech. “After the card party at Mrs. Burton’s. Discovering that I am the one Society is talking about, and none too complimentarily.”

Ah. Well. He did not seem to know that she had her fair share of scandal in her family and had weathered that storm relatively well.

“I… I am sorry I was the one to bring it up in our conversation,” Kathleen said awkwardly.

He had not approached her, but he hardly forbidden her to come close—and she wanted to step forward, wanted to feel the warmth of his presence.

Kathleen’s feet held her to the lawn. They were alone, yes, but anyone could come across them at any time. She had to remember decorum. She had to remember what happened to ladies who were found in awkward situations.

“It was only natural of you to wonder,” Lord Leopold said quietly, pulling another arrow into the bow and pulling it back, facing the butts once again.

The movement afforded Kathleen another opportunity to look at him, which was always welcome, but this time, she saw something she had never seen before.

Discomfort. True discomfort, a twitch of his jaw, a pulse in his neck—his very fine neck. A tension in his shoulders.

Lord Leopold let the arrow fly. It did not even reach the butt.

“It is not up to me to decide whether or not the gossip about you is true,” Kathleen said quietly. “I know what it is to hear gossip and know it not to be true, so I would not wish to believe anything and everything I hear.”

He turned to her, his eyes aglow. “You have? Known things not to be true, I mean?”

If he’d had any idea what she had overheard in the village about her own sister, he would not have asked such a thing. As, however, he clearly had not heard the scandal that had thankfully not followed them from the country to Town, Kathleen was hardly going to be the one to illuminate him.

Angela would not thank her if she were.

“I… I am afraid I panicked. At Mrs. Burton’s card party,” she found herself confessing instead, twisting her hands together before her. “I was… I was so embarrassed.”