Page 4

“In the fringes? Yes,” Kineallen pointed out. “But you don’t know the first thing about restoring our reputation with Spanish nobility, and right now, that’s all that matters.”

I swallowed, biting my lip. It certainly wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I was no idiot. It was hard to argue with Kineallen, and that was because what he was saying was, though I hated to admit it, true.

William Parry was good at keeping his reputation spotless, no matter how many hearts he broke.

I looked at Markham. “You agree with Kineallen?”

“Never, on point of principle,” quipped Markham with a grin. Only when Kineallen snorted did our friend add, “But in this case? Yes. Sorry, Lilah. I know he was a bit of a rogue?—”

My breath caught in my throat. They couldn’t know.

“—but you have to gamble at this point in the game, and I think he’s our best bet,” Markham finished. “You’ve got to call on him.”

I looked between my friends for a moment, willing an alternative to come to mind. A great idea. One that wouldn’t have me calling up my ex-lover and groveling for his help.

My stupid brain supplied absolutely nothing.

I groaned, my head dropping and my heart hammering as I said the words I knew I would regret. “Fine. Fine! I’ll call on him. Though if you ask me, this is a bad idea.”

William

It had been a long day.

Rubbing my eyes, I let the last of my servants head downstairs to the kitchens for the day. “No, Jude. I mean it, enough. ”

My valet, Jude, looked at me nervously. “Honestly, I don’t mind staying a little longer if?—”

“I think all the good ideas left us about…oh, half an hour ago,” I said with a wry smile.

“Come on, you know we’re not going to think of any additional ways to gain invitations to the very best balls until we’ve slept.

Go downstairs, eat good food, play with the kitchen cat, and come back tomorrow fresh. ”

He scowled as he bowed low. “We don’t have a kitchen cat.”

“We don’t?” I blinked.

Oh. Well, that showed me, I guess. Jude just struck me as a cat person, though now I came to think about it, he was right. He’d never actually mentioned a cat.

“My mistake?—”

“We don’t have a cat, we have four,” Jude said, a wicked grin creasing his lips. “Never underestimate me, sir. See you in the morning.”

I laughed as he stepped through the door and downstairs to the kitchens.

I sighed and leaned back in the chair in my study.

Well. I called it my study. It was no more than a storage cupboard with a window really, but I felt far more refined by calling it a study. I didn’t own a townhouse large enough to justify a study.

Not yet, I told myself. Not yet.

Connecting with the Anderley brothers wasn’t my first choice—their morals didn’t always align with mine, and the elder Anderley was sometimes a complete cad. But they were a stepping stone to better things.

Stifling a yawn, I glanced at my pocket watch and groaned. Another ten minutes before this mysterious D wanted to meet with me.

If the month was anywhere close to April, I would have said it was an April Fools. The letter was vague, slightly nonsensical, and demanded to meet me while sounding like the person had absolutely no wish to.

Pulling it out of my pocket again, I rose and walked next door into my drawing room before giving the letter another quick look.

Mr. Parry.

I must consult with you on an opportunity. Relatively small, yet financially lucrative. 8pm at your residence, or let me know that you don’t want the job. It’s not yours. But it could be. Just don’t screw this up.

D

The letter had no return address, so how I was supposed to inform the man I didn’t want the job I was unsure. It was also impossible to know who had really sent it.

Which meant even if I’d wanted to cancel, tell this D I wasn’t interested, I couldn’t.

And I was.

What sort of person ended a letter with the phrase ‘don’t screw this up’? I mean, I wasn’t the most formal person in the world, but I didn’t start introductions with language like that.

Although I couldn’t admit it to anyone else, I was intrigued.

Thankfully, all my servants had headed downstairs before I’d had to ask them to go, save Jude who was gone now. Somehow I was certain this D, whoever he was, didn’t want an audience.

I spent a few minutes pottering about the drawing room, picking up a few books which I had scattered about the place without really noticing. What sort of a man wished to visit me at this hour?

When it came to my friends, I was picky.

That’s what a previous connection had said. Picky.

And they were right. I didn’t just associate with anyone.

I had a strong moral compass, not that I showed it often, and the idea of spending time with nobility with no morals, or those whose ethical systems were just there to impress, didn’t appeal.

Except for the Anderley brothers, of course.

But they were all right underneath, even if they spoke a little too often about their coming inheritance.

The door behind me opened just as my longcase clock chimed the hour. Interesting. This D gentleman was on time.

I finished placing a book back on a bookshelf and didn’t turn the door opened behind me. “Be right with you.”

“Well, I never thought I’d see the day,” said a voice I knew all too well. “William Parry, cleaning up after his own mess.”

I almost dropped the book.

Thankfully I managed to grab a hold of it, but I put it on the bookcase swiftly to prevent another accident. My heart was thundering as I slowly turned round, folding my hands behind my back.

Well, damn.

It was Lilah.

Delilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick. Of course—I was a fool indeed not to think of it. There she stood, bundled up in a pelisse that looked wildly expensive and a reticule edged in gold ribbon.

Her eyes were glaring. But that expression didn’t take away from her beauty .

Though my stomach lurched, I tried to pull myself together before my manhood could start to harden. Whatever reason Lilah was here, it couldn’t be good. She’d made herself perfectly clear at the Norfolk Club.

She was not interested in associating with me. Or doing anything else with me, worse luck.

“I'm interested in associating with you,” said Lilah coldly.

My eyes widened. “What?”

She couldn’t have said what I thought she’d said—could she? Hadn’t Lilah made it perfectly clear what she thought of me—or rather, how little she thought of me?

But that didn’t explain what on earth she was doing here. Why she had written to me, why she would even deign to spend more than five minutes in my presence.

Lilah pulled off her leather gloves and stuffed them in her reticule as she looked around curiously. “This your drawing room?”

“I…yes,” I said, far more firmly. “Yes, my drawing room. My house. Mine.”

What on earth was I doing? No one ever made me speak like this, babbling like a fool.

No one except her. Oh, damn.

“Nice place,” she said quietly with a raised eyebrow.

A prickle of defensiveness rose in my chest. “It’s something I’ve earned all on my own. Something you wouldn’t know much about.”

The instant that I’d said the words, I knew they were the wrong thing to say. What, I was going to insult her the minute she walked in? Not just someone I had once truly cared about, but someone I actually had a chance of spending time with again ?

By the look on Lilah’s face, however, she had expected nothing less. It made me feel, if possible, even worse. “Nice. Thank you, Mr. Parry.”

“I didn’t mean—look, what is this all about?” I said, trying to become businesslike.

That was it: this wasn’t about me losing my heart all over again. This wasn’t about our fights, our arguments, that time Lilah had left me and I was certain it was over, only to cling to her when she came back.

This wasn’t about that. This was about business.

Perhaps that’s what she was thinking as she straightened up. “I think you know the Gambling Dukes have a bit of a reputation issue.”

I nodded. “Markham.”

She winced. “Markham.”

No more needed to be said.

There had been enough speculation, gossip, then news about it all.

I couldn’t imagine that the Duke of Markham would do anything like that, but he’d always been the wildest of Lilah’s friends.

That was the way she’d described them—I’d never met them.

Just based on her description alone, there wasn’t much I would put past him.

Lilah stepped slowly around the room, looking curiously at the desks around the place. “I…I went to the Norfolk Club looking for someone who could help me with it. Our potential wagerers—our future clients…they don’t like the image.”

I grinned. “What, that one of the founders of the club was a thief?”

“He wasn’t a—the details are complicated,” Lilah said curtly.

Complicated? How complicated could it be? Markham stole money from the club, and he was eventually found out. It didn’t sound that complicated to me.

Then I realized I was still holding onto a book.

Placing it on the bookshelf, I took a step closer to Lilah who immediately halted. Right, fine. So it was going to be like that. “So you’ve come to me for help.”

I’d meant it as a compliment, but Lilah glared. “I didn’t want to come.”

“Then why did you?” I shot back, temper flaring.

Well, why not just offend me straight to my face? If she thought I wasn’t up to the task of improving her reputation, why bother coming here at all?

Lilah’s glare only grew. “Kineallen made me.”

“Kineallen—the Duke of Kineallen made you?” I repeated.

Now that didn’t make any sense. Kineallen was an impressive gentleman, from the little I knew of him, but he was no Lilah.

He didn’t have a smile that could light up a room, a laugh that could convince people of the complete opposite idea they had in the first place.

He didn’t have the presence of someone who made everyone want to warm to him.

“You have a problem with that?”

I shrugged. “Just did not have you down as someone who could be so easily swayed, Lilah. You’ve changed. And you know, I'm not sure if it’s for the better.”

And then Lilah said the words I knew had been coming, even if I didn’t want them to. “This was a mistake.”

“Lilah, wait?—”

“No, this was a mistake,” she said firmly, ignoring me as I stepped forward, heart hammering. “I should have known you couldn’t be serious about this—I told Kineallen, he?— ”

“Your friend knows you’re here? I mean, coming to see me?”

It didn’t seem possible. When the…well, the affair between Lilah and I had ended, I’d received…well, a rather sharp letter from the Duke of Kineallen. Or rather, Georgiana and Kineallen. Nothing like having your two closest friends threaten your ex-lover.

The letter had made it perfectly clear how uninterested they all were in me having any contact with Lilah again. In fact, it had a few choice phrases that made me a little unsure whether I would be culpable for some sort of fine if I did.

And yet Kineallen had sent Lilah to me? Despite how he felt, knowing how Lilah felt?

I shifted on my feet. “Look, Lilah, I can be serious?—”

“You’re serious about one thing, and one thing only,” said Lilah quietly, pulling on her gloves and glaring up at me. “And that’s breaking hearts. Well, you’ve broken mine already, Mr. Parry, you don’t need to break it again.”

“Lilah—”

“I should never have come here,” she mumbled under her breath, turning from me.

“Lilah, wait!”

If I had moved a bit faster, I might have been closer when she reached the door. I might have been able to grab her arm, turn her around and tell her, show her how serious I was about her.

About assisting her with improving her reputation, I thought hurriedly. Not anything else. That was over, gone. It could never happen again.

But I was too far away. By the time I reached the door, Lilah had already walked through it and through my hallway and out of the front door. She’d disappeared into the London crowds, the late night workers heading home and the early night revelers heading out for a good time.

Try as I might, I couldn’t spot her in the myriad of people.

“Damn,” I muttered under my breath, self-loathing rising up my chest.

My one chance, and I’d blown it.