Page 102 of Second Duke's the Charm

“I have to do that?”

“I think so. What’s something you would never normally do?”

“Make a bad investment,” Justin said immediately. “Put money into a venture that’s guaranteed to fail.”

“Well, there you have it. That’s what you have to do.”

“I have tolosemoney towin backmy wife? That’s ridiculous.”

Edward shrugged. “It makes a funny sort of sense. If love makes fools of us all, then you have to prove that you’re a fool for her. You have to do something humiliating and foolish that shows the world that nothing matters as much as her. That you would gladly lose your fortune, your reason, and your wits, if only you can have her.”

“Bloody Hell. You’ve been reading those opium-soaked poets again, haven’t you?” Justin accused. “Shelley and Byron and Keats. It’s addled your brain.”

Edward shrugged. “I’m not the one sitting here in a drunken despair because he’s married to the woman he loves.”

“Fair point.” Justin frowned. “Wait. Did you say fool for love? Ha! Edward, you’re a genius!”

“I am?”

“You are. I know the perfect way to prove to Tess that I love her.”

“How?”

“I’m going to buy her a horse.”

“A horse.”

Justin nodded, suddenly animated. “A racehorse. Called Fool For Love. The prince regent’s been trying to sell it for months, and I’ve never seen a more miserable creature in my entire life.”

“I’m not sure you’ve really grasped the concept of—”

“It’s perfect. It hasn’t won a race for the last two seasons and it’s hideously overpriced. If she enters it into a race it is guaranteed to lose.”

“How is this going to prove your love, exactly?”

“In several ways. Firstly, it will physically pain me to pay such an exorbitant sum for such a flea-ridden nag. People who hear about it will think I’ve gone mad. They’ll think I only bought it because of the name. Because I’m besotted with my wife.”

“They might. Or they might think you’re just saddling her with a flea-ridden nag as a present. She might think you’re mocking her with a literal gift horse, like that one the Greeks gave the Trojans.”

“There’s more,” Justin said. “I’ll tell Tess to enter it into a race. Somewhere like Newmarket or Stamford. The odds against it winning will be astronomical. I’ll place an enormous bet on the thing to win, and when it doesn’t, she’ll see I care for her more than I care about money or winning or my reputation as an infallible businessman.”

“Humph,” Edward said, clearly unconvinced.

“I will lose. Deliberately. Publicly. For her. She’ll understand the significance of it. If that’s not a big enough declaration of love, I don’t know what is.”

Justin poured another finger of brandy into his glass and took a triumphant swallow. It felt good to have a plan,a way forward. For the first time since he’d returned from Wansford Hall, he felt optimistic about the future.

Against all the odds, against his own wishes, he was in love with his wife.

Now he just had to make her believe it.

Chapter Forty-Two

Tess put a hand to her bonnet to stop it from blowing away in the wind.

The racecourse near Stamford was set on a hill a little way to the south of the town, between the villages of Collyweston and Easton-on-the-Hill, and while it commanded a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside, it was a little breezy.

Hundreds of spectators milled around. A two-level grandstand had been erected some years before, with the top level reserved for the gentry and aristocracy. Rows of carriages had been lined up behind the fence that delineated the oval track, for those who didn’t wish to pay the five shillings for a seat in the grandstand.