Page 30 of One Night with a Prince

“Why he was always leaving his wife at home to run to town. I see now that he was only searching for more—” Eleanor paused to fluff her long blond hair with one hand “—stimulating company.”

Damn the bitch for her petty vindictiveness. Lady Hungate might have succeeded in covering up Christabel’s incompetence at cards, but in the process, she’d made Eleanor regard the widow as an enemy.

Gavin attempted to steer Christabel toward the door, but she wrenched free to stride right up to where Eleanor sat gloating.

“If your company is so wonderfully stimulating,” Christabel said, planting her hands on her hips, “then why did Byrne leave you forme ?”

Eleanor’s glee abruptly vanished. “Don’t be absurd, he did not—” She glanced to Gavin. “You couldn’t possibly have been dallying with this…this mouse when we were still…”

Gavin arched an eyebrow. “You’re the one who said I’m incapable of faithfulness.” Not waiting to endure more of her temper, he turned to Christabel. “Come, lass, I find myself direly in need of stimulation.”

They left Eleanor sputtering behind them.

But as soon as they were in the narrow hall, Christabel marched off toward the stairs like an officer hastening into battle.

He caught up to her at the top of the stairs. “Christabel—”

“Teach me to be an expert at whist,” she hissed.

He started to remind her that supposedly she already was, then thought better of it, considering her present mood. “All right.”

Lifting her skirts, she scurried down the stairs. “Teach me how to eviscerate that…that witch. I want her to lose so spectacularly that she can never hold her head up among you and your abominable friends again.” Tears welled in her eyes, tears she brushed away with furious swipes of her hand. “I want to humiliate her! I want…I want…”

“I’ll teach you whatever you wish.” He laid his hand in the small of her back to guide her toward the kitchen. “As soon as we’re away from here.”

That seemed to remind her that this was neither the time nor the place for such a discussion. She remained mute as he led them past the kitchen staff, and held her tongue while his tiger brought round his cabriolet.

But once he took up the reins, and they headed out into the night, she slumped in her seat and said, “I hate her! That…that horrible, wicked woman practically admitted that she’d been Philip’s mistress!”

“I seriously doubt that Eleanor ever spent one second in your husband’s bed,” he said smoothly. “SheGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlwas merely trying to provoke you.”

“Do you think so? Really?” The hope in her voice set his teeth on edge. Faithful to her or not, Haversham didn’t deserve her concern.

Not that Gavin cared how she felt about her late husband. He didn’t. Not in the least. “Come now, can you imagine Eleanorever sharing the bed of a bad whist-player? And we both know Haversham couldn’t play whist to save his life.”

“But that Lieutenant Markham—”

“—plays almost as well as I do. When he isn’t seducing Eleanor.”

Shifting her gaze to the road ahead, Christabel chewed on her lower lip for a moment. Then she uttered a heartfelt sigh. “If it wasn’t Lady Jenner my husband took up with, then who was it?”

Ah, so thatwas the “other thing” she thought Haversham had come to London for. “Are you sure he took up with anybody?”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t know.”

“If Haversham had a mistress, I never met her.”

“He must have been discreet.”

“Then how doyou know about it? It isn’t the sort of thing a man tells his wife.”

“I heard about it from…someone else.”

“Who?”

“It doesn’t matter. The point is, I know that he had one.”

“Did you learn about it before Haversham died?”