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Determined not to let my disappointment show, I ensured my head didn’t fall. “I see.”

And I did. And it was crushing .

I knew our Gambling Club was legitimate; yes, we won more often than we lost, but that was because we understood people so well, understood the odds, knew how to select our targets.

Our income depended on bets with the rich, but in truth we were running out of sufficiently rich people within London.

Just one more wager. Kineallen was confident that one last, large wager would be sufficient to purchase the competencies, land, and investments we needed to secure all of our financial futures.

My friends, my three closest friends. Kineallen was still a broken man after the loss of his wife and their babe in childbed—Georgiana’s sister, so she’d had two people to mourn when her own husband had died, though admittedly the man was in his eighties.

Markham had hardly known his bride, my own sister, an arranged marriage for the betterment of all our families…

a marriage which had ended in an accident and death for my sister just months later.

And so we’d clung together. Of course we had. We were all we had.

Until the Gambling Dukes.

And if it was going to survive, thrive, purchase for us the investments needed to provide us with incomes for life, we needed more members.

So we needed more willing people to make the bet.

We needed the Count of Guadalencia.

And I had failed. My friends depended on me to get his agreement, and he was going to walk out here with all his money, all his connections, everything we wanted.

It was difficult not to feel crushed. I’d been certain, as we had talked about this wager and the potential it could bring to the Gambling Dukes, that I could secure the money. Out of all my friends, I thought I could do it .

And here I was, watching a third potential wagerer walk away.

“I am sorry, Lady Rotherwick,” said one of the gentlemen as the five of his retinue started rising and smoothing down their breeches. “I can see that you are…saddened. About our decision.”

I swallowed. I was not going to allow my voice to quaver. “I think you will all be the ones disappointed when?—”

“The meeting is over,” he said, and there was a kindness in his voice now that I hadn’t heard when he’d been questioning me on the probabilities of our wager. “You don’t have to try to impress me anymore.”

Before I could stop them, my shoulders slumped. “I’ve failed.”

“You haven’t succeeded, not yet,” he said with a tilt of her head. “And I can imagine there is a great deal of pressure on you right now.”

There were always rumors, about every club or lady in Society—but for us, it was almost true. If we didn’t find someone willing to accept our wager in the next few months, The Gambling Dukes simply would not be able to keep going. We were running on borrowed time as it was.

“I would suggest, if you do not mind me saying so, that you need someone in who specializes in?—”

“Restoring reputations,” I said wearily. “I know.”

The man raised an eyebrow as his four fellows waited for him by the door. “Well if you knew that, Lady Rotherwick, what on earth is stopping you?”

He strode away and I stood there by the table, heart sinking into my chest.

Because she was right. And I knew precisely why I had absolutely no desire to go anywhere near the restoration of reputations .

William Parry.

William

There were only three ways that a person could enter the Norfolk Club in London.

Firstly, you could have an income of ten thousand pounds or more. But honestly, how many gentlemen with incomes that high have you heard of? Not many. Maybe fewer, with investments failing left, right, and center.

Secondly, you could be given membership by a member of the royal family. Difficult, when Prinny had already rewarded all his friends and did not appear minded to make any more.

Or thirdly, you could be sponsored in by a current member.

That was how I was standing at the smoking room in the prestigious Norfolk Club, smiling at the gentleman who had nominated me and who had gained me provisional membership only a few weeks ago.

“As I said, I owe you, Anderley,” I said, clicking a glass of definitely illegally imported brandy with him. “Thank you.”

Anderley grinned. “Anything to get a bit of young blood in the Norfolk.”

I nodded, returning his smile.

Because I could see what he meant. This was my first official Norfolk attendance, a monthly occasion held in the clubhouse in London.

The idea, according to the brochure that had been given to me after my acceptance, was to exchange ideas with the best in Society. Constantly be sharpening our skills.

And if we were fortunate, gain greater connections .

And tonight was a most unusual occurrence, at least when it came to gentlemen’s clubs; ladies were present. Oh, they had to be connected most closely to at least two members, to be sure…but still. Ladies. In the Norfolk.

My blood hummed.

My gaze flickered across women in diamonds, men with signet rings larger than a guinea, and a general sense of excited chatter in the room.

Yes, I could do great things here. Gain connections, be invited to house parties—really start to make a name for myself.

Soon William Parry was going to be on everyone’s lips.

“Don’t get too predatory too fast,” came Anderley’s voice with a warning tone.

I looked back at my friend and laughed. “Am I that obvious?”

“You never were one for holding back when it came to what you wanted,” he admitted with a wry shake of the head. “Your father was the same, and I like that trait in both of you. But I warn you, don’t underestimate the people here.”

I snorted. “Have a little more faith in me, Anderley. You don’t think I can impress them?”

“I didn’t say that,” said Anderley, taking a swig of his brandy. “I just said not to move too fast. You have just entered the Norfolk?—”

“You make it sound like White’s,” I said with a grin.

A pair of ladies accepted glasses of white wine from a footman in the Norfolk livery, and I tried not to cast my eye over them too closely.

Both were pretty. One was a little taller, a little more curvaceous, which I adored. The other had eyes to die for, warming up to me immediately .

I shifted on my feet. Well, it was good to see that?—

Snap!

I jerked my head back in shock as my heart skipped a beat. Anderley was laughing. Apparently snapping his fingers right in front of my eyes when I wasn’t expecting it was genuinely hilarious.

“Focus, man!” he said with a chuckle as the two pretty ladies meandered over to converse with a trio of gentlemen. “This isn’t White’s—it’s far more prestigious, and far more difficult to get into. And you can get out just as fast.”

That sharpened my mind.

It had taken all my persuasion to get Anderley to sponsor me.

One of the Anderley brothers; a pair of twins, the grandsons of a duke.

The elder would inherit, their father already gone, and that would make the younger a marquess.

People to know, particularly once their grandfather had died.

A harsh man in business, he was one of my most loyal friends.

The idea of getting thrown out, after all this hard work, before I’d managed to achieve anything?

Now that would be a real disappointment.

Especially as I was carefully ignoring letters from my landlord about that dammed rent increase. How was anyone supposed to live in London with rents like that?

“Look, I’ve got to head over and converse with a few people,” said Anderley with a knowing look. “Can I trust you enough to leave you alone for ten minutes?”

My smile only flickered for a moment. “Of course.”

I tried to speak more like Anderley. Son of a marquess, grandson of a duke; there was an effortless flow to his words that someone like me had never managed to learn. It would have been easy to be envious, and at times, I was. But most of the time, I was grateful. Grateful for his friendship.

“I’ll see you in a bit,” Anderley said, clasping me on the shoulder for a moment before he wove his way through the crowd.

And it was getting crowded. Evidently there were more people in this Norfolk Club than I had anticipated—which just meant more opportunities for me to meet them, get to know them, and benefit from their reputations. It should be as easy as that.

But though the whole reason I was here was to climb up the social ladder, I couldn’t help but get distracted, and it was by my one weakness.

Raven curls.

My stomach lurched as I spotted a lady over on the other side of the room. She had her back to me so I couldn’t see her face, but the hair was enough to spike my interest.

I could try to lie to myself, tell myself it was just a coincidence I was always attracted to dark, raven hair. Particularly dark hair with curls.

But I wasn’t an idiot. It was because of Lilah. Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

How it had all gone so terribly wrong, I didn’t know. I wasn’t entirely sure which of us had ended it. It had all got so tangled by the end, I think we were both just relieved that it had ended.

Ever since then, I hadn’t seriously pursued another woman. The only women I’d even considered…had been raven haired.

Making sure not to quite catch the eye of anyone else in the place, I smiled and nodded at people as I started to walk through the room. Not directly at her, whoever she was. The last thing I needed was Anderley thinking I was here just to find a mistress to bed.

But, if I could? Why not enjoy the bonus?

I settled myself just a few feet away from the raven haired woman. I sipped my brandy. And I listened.

“—would you do in that situation?” the woman was saying to her companion eagerly.

Something prickled around my heart. There was something familiar about that voice.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to hear it again. The person she was standing with, a gentleman with a brilliantly white smile and eyes that were too close together, grinned at her.

“Why, don’t end up in that position in the first place, obviously!” he said loudly, as though that was an actual response to the lady’s question. “I mean, you would have to be really stupid to do that!”

I winced. Not a great conversationalist, then.

“Only a real idiot would end up there!” the gentleman continued, evidently oblivious that he was directly insulting the lady in front of him. “I can’t think of anyone who’d be so?—”

“That’s one way to look at it, I suppose,” I said aloud.

My voice carried, just as I intended it to. Well, I wanted to put the gentleman out of his misery and rescue the poor lady who was being insulted right to her face. No one deserved that, even if the fool didn’t realize it.

The lady with raven curls turned around to look at me, and my heart stopped.

She didn’t look like Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

She was Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

A slow grin spread across my face as warmth suffused through my chest. Damn. Lilah. It had been…what, two years since I’d seen her? Almost three?

And now she was here .

It didn’t look like Lilah was as pleased to see me as I was her. To the contrary, her face immediately fell, and a furrow appeared in her brow.

Ah.

“You,” she said succinctly.

The gentleman she’d been talking to looked between us, evidently unsure what he should do next. “I…uh…”

“Why don’t you grab another drink, my good man?” I said, stepping toward them and not taking my eyes off Lilah. “Lady Rotherwick and I have business to discuss.”

“Drop dead,” Lilah said conversationally.

“Can’t die when I’ve got so much to live for,” I returned without missing a beat.

“Living as you do isn’t what I’d call living at all,” Lilah said, her frown deepening.

“I…I think I’ll just go,” said the gentleman, glancing at me with an unsure expression.

I grinned. “Great idea. I’ll deal with Lilah for you?—”

“I don’t need anyone to—” Lilah glared at me as the gentleman slipped into the crowd, and she folded her arms in that irritated expression I knew so well. “Go away, Parry.”

“I think you’ll find this is a drinks evening at the Norfolk Club, something I am in but you are not,” I said delicately, sipping my brandy as nonchalantly as I could.

Which was difficult.

I couldn’t believe it. Lilah, here? After years of being in London, waiting for us to run into each other, it seemed almost ridiculous that it was here of all places. A club I had only just managed to get into, and where she by rights shouldn’t be.

Lilah was still glaring. “I'm here for the Gambling Dukes, Parry. Not for socializing, and certainly not reminiscing about the past.”

I watched her wince as she brought it up at all, and my heart contracted painfully. Was it truly that bad to see me? Had I been really that awful a lover that she couldn’t even bring herself to look at me?

Damn. Perhaps it didn’t end quite as smoothly as I remembered.

“You’re here for gambling advice, right?” I said in a quieter voice, stepping closer.

Lilah immediately took a step back. “Go away.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Is this how you do all your business dealings? No wonder you’re looking for help with that club of yours, Lilah. Though you always knew how to present yourself, I’ll give you that. You look…good.”

She looked better than good. Lilah had always been beautiful, and it had been a delight to have her on my arm all those years ago when we had…well, not been courting. She’d been a recent widow and I’d known I would be staying a bachelor. Nonetheless, heads had always turned.

She was even more beautiful now. Wealth had brought her to a modiste who really understood her shape, the complexion of her skin, the warmth of her eyes.

Admittedly, Lilah was glaring at me coldly right at this moment.

She snorted. “And you look terrible. Same as ever.”

But I could see the dilation of her eyes, the way her gaze had widened then looked me up and down. Lilah may not like it, but she couldn’t fight the fact she found me attractive.

It had been our mutual attraction that had got us together in the first place. And our complete inability to compromise that had driven us apart.

“Now, Lilah,” I said quietly, allowing my voice to drop below the thrumming noise of conversation around us. “Let’s just be honest, shall we? You want me. My position in Society, my witty banter…perhaps even more.”

For a moment, just a moment, I thought she was going to say yes. My heart leapt, my lungs tightened with shock, and I was already planning how to get her back to my place when?—

“You could not be more wrong,” said Lilah sweetly as she looked daggers at me. “I would rather the Gambling Dukes fall apart than be helped by you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find someone who actually knows what they’re talking about in this place.”

And she strode away from me without a second glance.

I blinked. Ah. That, I hadn’t expected.