Page 30 of The Trouble with True Love

He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“It isn’t! Rex, I swear to you, I have not gambled since then. Not once. It’s understandable if you don’t believe me,” she added as he made a scoffing sound, “but it’s the truth.”

With Mama, the truth was a malleable thing, but there was no point in arguing about it. “What are you spending your money on, if it’s not gambling?”

“You remember how I paid those gambling debts?”

“Yes. You sold your jewels.”

“That’s just it. I didn’t.”

He stiffened. “So that was another lie? Why am I not surprised?”

“I couldn’t sell them. When I took them to sell, the jeweler told me they were paste.”

“What? How?”

“Your father, of course! Well, who else could have done it?” she asked when he made a sound of exasperation at this mention of his other parent. “He must have taken the jewels out at some point before we officially separated and had them replaced with replicas.”

Or she had done so and was lying straight to his face. Either scenario was possible. “So how did you pay the gambling salon?”

She sighed. “I borrowed from moneylenders. The seven hundred pounds you gave me was to pay interest on the debt.”

“Interest? Not all of it, surely?”

“Yes, all of it. The rate is quite high, you see.”

“High? It’s exorbitant! Your gambling debt was only... what... five hundred pounds?”

“I didn’t have much of a choice, Rex. Given my circumstances, the only moneylender who would grant me a loan was... somewhat unsavory.”

He thought of her a few moments ago, pale and faint, and he straightened in alarm, unfolding his arms. “How unsavory?”

“Enough to send one of his toughs to pass some very explicit threats to me via my maid. She was terrified enough to depart my employ.”

“Good God, Mama!”

“I know, I know. But what else could I do? Anyway, I thought the money you gave me would pay the principal amount owed as well as the interest, but then, I was told no, that because I hadn’t paid in a timely manner, more interest had accrued and a punitive fee added, so I still owe more money.”

The greedy bastard. Rex pressed his tongue against his teeth, working to contain the anger rising inside him. “How much more?”

“The total is now one thousand pounds. If I don’t pay it by Saturday, it rises again to fourteen hundred.”

“But a thousand in this man’s hands by Saturday clears your debt in full?”

“I have been told so, yes. But what does it matter? If you don’t have it to give me—”

The door opened, interrupting her, and his butler came in. “My lord, your father is here.”

Rex groaned. Could his day get any worse?

“He insists upon seeing you at once,” Whistler went on.

“I’ll bet he does,” Rex muttered, thinking of the newspaper article Clara Deverill had shown him. “He’s heard Auntie Pet has cut me off, and he sees a vulnerability to exploit.”

“That sounds like something he’d do,” his mother put in, causing Rex to round on her at once.

“Pipe down, Countess,” he ordered. “You’ve no moral high ground with me.”