Page 31 of One Night with a Prince

She shook her head. “After.”

“Then you don’t know if it’s true. You can’t even ask him, and you only have that other person’s word for it.”

“What possible reason could the…person have for lying?”

“You’d be surprised by the reasons people have for lying.”

She sighed. “After tonight, I don’t think anything would surprise me.”

She was such an innocent, despite her marriage, despite her travels abroad, and despite her recent disillusionment about Haversham. She had no clue how dark a place the world could be. She’d never seen a man gutted for not paying the blacklegs, or women whose love of gin so consumed them that they allowed their children to starve, or—

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlBloody hell, what had brought all that to mind? He’d put those days well behind him. “I did warn you what to expect of Stokely’s friends.”

“I know.” She stared over at the newly rising half-moon. “And that’s more than I did for you.”

He made the turn onto her street. “What do you mean?”

“I should have warnedyou that I can’t…that I’m not…” She clasped her hands tightly in her lap. “I lied to you about being good at whist.”

“Did you?” he said dryly. “I hadn’t guessed.”

He heard her snort even over the horses’ hooves beating the cobblestones. “I couldn’t have played worse if I’d tried.”

“Ah, but you did try. Didn’t you hear Lady Hungate?”

A reluctant smile touched her lips. “I can’t believe she thought I was doing it on purpose. Your friends have very devious minds, all of them.”

“Yes, they do.” He didn’t bother to enlighten her about Lady Hungate’s true motives, especially since he wasn’t quite sure what they were.

A long silence fell. Finally, she said in a low voice, “The thing is…I’ll need money to gamble with, and as you probably know—”

“Haversham left you with little.”

“Exactly. He paid you with what he got from Lord Stokely, but he had so many other debts…” She trailed off with a sigh.

He clenched his jaw. The fact that she’d been left struggling because of her heedless husband’s gambling gnawed at him. “It was my idea to have you go as my partner, so I’ll take care of your part of the stakes.”

He could feel her eyes riveted on him. “What if I lose too much?” she asked. “I’m not the player that you are. Perhaps you shouldn’t partner me in whist after all. I could just pretend to be your mistress—”

“That might not ensure that Stokely invites you to his party. But if you’re my partner, he’ll almost certainly do so. So it’s best to hedge our bets and have you be both.” Drawing the cabriolet up in front of her town house, he brought it to a halt, then leaped down. “Besides, I thought you wanted to eviscerate Eleanor.”

A fierce light sparked in her eyes as he helped her down. “I do.”

“Then I’ll simply have to teach you to be an expert at whist.” He offered her his arm. “Beginning tonight.”

Her gaze shot to his. “But…but I thought you had to go to your club.”

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“Not for a couple of hours. That’s plenty of time for a lesson.”

“Here?” she said uncertainly.

“Not on the street,” he quipped, “but your parlor would be suitable. Of course, it has been a long day for you, so if you don’t have the energy to play well into the night like Eleanor and the others—”

“No, no, I can do it.” The door at the top of the entrance stairs opened, and she let him lead her inside, where the footman took her pelisse and her bonnet. “Just let me get the cards from Philip’s old study.”

“Certainly,” he said, handing his overcoat and hat to the footman. Trying not to grin, he headed for the parlor. So Eleanor and her silly taunts about Haversham had touched a sore spot, had they? He would make good use of the widow’s competitive streak. Because one way or another, he meant to have Christabel. And every single one of her secrets.