Page 6 of A Game with the Rakish Duke
Oh, dear Lord. She is truly exquisite.
“I will start,” he whispered, trying to ignore the pulsing in his loins. “I am Thomas Riverton, the Duke of Newden.” He bowed in a mocking way. “At your service.”
“The Duke of Newden?” she squeaked. “I have heard about you! You are an impossible rake, are you not?”
Thomas’s jaw dropped again. The girl’s voice had suddenly changed. She wasn’t mumbling any longer, trying to make her voice deeper and rougher. In fact, she spoke with the perfectly enunciated vowels of the ton.
The boy had turned into a girl… and now, just as suddenly, she had transformed into a lady.
What the deuce was a lady doing in one of the roughest gambling dens in London disguised like a lower-class boy?
“Some call me that,” he admitted, trying to hide his shock. “But you should not listen to Society gossip.” He shook his head incredulously. “Really. Enough is enough. Who the deuce are you?”
She suppressed a smile, before bobbing a curtsey, holding out an imaginary skirt with her hands. It looked ludicrous in her working man’s coarse attire. He stifled a laugh.
“Miss Catherine Audley, Your Grace,” she replied. Her lips twitched. “At your service.”
Thomas blinked rapidly. Audley… he had heard the name. There was a gentleman at his club who went by the name of Audley. A viscount with hair very similar to that of the young lady…
Suddenly, he laughed, tilting his head back. “You are the sister of the Viscount Whitley,” he whispered, admiring her more with every passing second. “Are you not?”
She tilted her head to the side, studying his face carefully.
“I am,” she confirmed. Her bright green eyes held challenge within them. “Are you going to leave now and tattle to a scandal sheet?”
He took a step closer to her, gazing down at her intently. This close, he caught a whiff of her evocative rose-scented perfume. Clearly, the lady had forgotten that she shouldn’t be wearing perfume in order to pass as a lower-class lad. She was lucky that none of the ruffians in here had gotten close enough to her to discern it. Or were too deep in their cups to notice.
“What are you doing in here?” he growled. “You are a high-born lady! You should not even know that this gambling hell exists!”
Her eyes flashed. “Well, Idoknow, and it is my business entirely…”
He shook his head, gripping her arm again. “If you do not tell me why you are in here, dressed that way, I will take you home to your brother and tell him everything.” He lowered his voice, hislips twitching. “That is after I teach you a lesson or two for your insolence.”
Miss Audley gasped, taking a step back. “You are audacious, Your Grace!”
“Not nearly as audacious as you,” he shot back, frowning. “Do you know how dangerous these places are? They are filled with low lives who will rob you blind quicker than looking at you. It is no place for a lady!”
She bit her lip again. It took all his willpower not to place a finger there and trace the line of those delectable lips to feel their soft plumpness.
“I… I will tell you,” she whispered, visibly paling. “If you promise that it will go no further. That you will not tell another living soul.”
“Does not unmasking you in front of everyone in there not suffice?” he asked, nodding towards the gambling hell.
Catherine crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”
He rolled his eyes and sighed. That price for knowledge seemed fair enough.
“I do so swear,” he declared softly, leaning closer to her. “Go on. I am all ears.”
She sighed deeply. “I… I needed to win tonight,” she stammered, gazing down at the bag that she clutched in her hand. “We are in financial trouble, you see. My brother gambles, but alas, he does not have a winning streak.” Her blush deepened. “I was trying to save us from ruin. I am deft at cards. The only way I could do it was in this disguise.”
Thomas felt another jolt of shock. He had thought he was done being surprised by this lady, but it seemed that he was wrong. Clearly, she was full of surprises.
But alongside the shock, he felt admiration for her. She really was fearless. He didn’t know any young ladies who would have the audacity to do this, never mind pulling it off so spectacularly. If he hadn’t challenged her, she would have walked away with her winnings with a clear conscience. The ruse would have worked.
She gaped at him. “You do not want it back now, do you?” she asked in a hesitant voice. “You have not changed your mind?”
He opened his mouth to assure her he had not then abruptly shut it again. He stared at her. An odd idea was forming in his mind, so shocking and outrageous that he immediately dismissed it. But then, he kept staring at her beautiful, fearless face with those amazing emerald-green eyes, the way her hair fell in unruly waves around her face.
