Page 104 of The Danger of Desire

He did nothing more to stop her.

Thank heaven. She needed to be away from him right now, to decide how she felt about what Hart had revealed. She needed to learn the truth about Reynold without seeing it through the eyes of either Warren or Hart.

Because in her heart, she feared that her brother had lied to her about more than the gambling. That Brilliana had hidden the truth, too. That there was no one she could trust in the whole wide world except Warren, the man who couldn’t even bring himself to love her.

And the thought of that was killing her.

“You should go after her,” Hart said.

Warren stared out the window as his wife rode off in his carriage without him. “She doesn’t want me there.”

“I know, but if she really means to accuse me of being a card cheat publicly, when neither of us is there to defend what I did—”

“That’swhat you’re worried about?” Warren asked. “My wife is riding away with her heart breaking because I stood up for you, and that’s all you can say?”

“You’re the one who said it, not me,” he said defensively. “She’syourwife. You ought to know what she’s capable of.”

A direct hit. Hehadsaid those unfair words about what she might do. He couldn’t blame Hart for taking them at face value.

Hart didn’t know Delia. And yes, Warren ought to. If he was truthful with himself, he alreadydid. He certainly knew she wasn’t capable of running off half-cocked to ruin his family.

She might be reckless of her own safety, but he’d never seen her expose herfamilyto scandal, never seen her try deliberately to hurthim. Yet he had behaved as if she couldn’t handle her own affairs.

Meanwhile, he’d done things to putherat risk—by showing up repeatedly at Dickson’s, bullying her servant into not going... putting her in a situation where she had to marry him.

Well, that last, he hadn’t done on purpose. But the result had been the same. The end of her freedom. So she was right about his methods not working any better than hers.

“So you don’t think she’d expose me as a card cheat,” Hart said.

He sighed. “No. Not under the circumstances. If anyone understands doing stupid things to protect family, it’s my wife.”

“I figured as much, but you never know. Some people surprise you.”

“Yes.” Like his brother, and his wife, who’d taken his nightmares in stride even as he pushed her away. The thought of it lodged a lump firmly in his throat.

“I’m going to pay back every penny of the money I won from Reynold Trevor.”

“You certainly are.” Warren glanced at his brother. “Do you evenhaveit anymore?”

“Well... not all of it. But—”

“Then I’ll pay it.”

“You will not!” Hart glared at him. “She’s right about you, you know. You’re so busy ‘protecting’ us from everything, you forget we’re perfectly able to handle our own lives. I’ll get the money and repay every penny, even if I have to borrow it for now. You can be sure of that.”

Warren choked down a hot retort. Time to learn from his mistakes. “Would you consider... accepting a loan from me, then?”

Hart looked embarrassed. “I might. I don’t know. I think I can get the money together, but it would take time. How... um... bad is it with her family? Trevor’s wife, I mean?”

“Bad. I’ve spoken to the bank about stopping the foreclosure on the estate, and I’ve offered to pay the mortgage until things can improve. But Reynold’s son—”

“Oh, God, he had achild, too?” Hart dropped into a chair, looking like someone had just smacked him. “I really mucked things up, didn’t I?”

“You couldn’t have known. And to be fair, Reynold Trevor had no business making such a wager since he knew what was at stake.”

“I wishI’dknown what was really at stake. I would have refused to play him.”

Warren threaded his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know if it would have made a difference. He was clearly bent on... settling a score of some kind. He would have found someone else to take the wager.”