Page 75 of Lady Gambit
“I don’t need your approval, but I’ll do what’s necessary to earn it.” He would fight all four Chance brothers if need be. “I’m in love with Delphine, and I’m damn sure she’s in love with me. You should have woken her. She’s not a child and deserves the right to speak for herself.”
Theo might have hurled more insults, but the carriage stopped outside Fortune’s Den in Aldgate Street. It was the early hours of the morning, but candlelight flickered in a downstairs window.
Moments later, Aaron Chance appeared at the front door, his shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows, revealing the muscular forearms that made men quiver. He looked at Dorian’s lack of respectable attire and knew why Theo had dragged him across town.
“You’d better come in.” Aaron’s gaze moved beyond Dorian to the building across the street. A blonde woman stood watching from an upper window. “I’ll not have all and sundry knowing my business.”
Dorian stopped to stroke the lucky horseshoe above the gaming hell door, then followed Aaron into his study. Much like the man himself, it was a dark, domineering space.
“Sit down, Flynn.” Aaron spoke with a measure of calm as he drew out a chair near his desk. He waited for Dorian to sit before settling into his black throne and turning his attention to Theo. “I trust you left Delphine asleep in bed?”
Theo nodded. “I did as you asked and waited an hour after Flynn climbed the stairs before checking both chambers. I found them in Flynn’s bed.”
Aaron’s nostrils flared. His fiery gaze could sear a man’s soul. “I assume this isn’t the first time you’ve had intimate relations with my sister.”
Dorian was careful not to use arrogance as a crutch. “No. It might pain you to hear this, but I doubt it will be the last.”
Aaron slammed his clenched fist on his desk. “You’ve got a damn nerve. Most men would scramble to save their sorry necks, not look for ways to provoke me.”
“Those men are not in love with Delphine.”
Aaron’s dark eyes narrowed. “How do you know you are?”
He did not need to search his heart for the answer. “Life is perfect when we’re together. She understands me like no one else. She’s my friend, lover, the person I trust most.” The reasons he loved her were endless. “She’s kind, loyal, so beautiful inside she steals my breath. I know I’m in love with her because I would fight every one of you for the right to claim her hand.”
They would have to kill him to prevent him from pursuing her.
Aaron was not swayed by his rhetoric. “Your fight is with me, no one else. If you last one round, I’ll be impressed.”
“Do what you must.”
When a boy lay trembling in bed at night, waiting for his enemies to strike with a torrent of abuse and a hailstorm of punches, he did not fear fighting one man. Even if it was the indomitable Aaron Chance.
“Have you no thought for Miss Montague?” Aaron said.
Dorian squared his shoulders. “I’m not in love with Miss Montague. Any comments about a match stem from my father’s ambitions, not mine.”
He had not dishonoured the lady.
He had made his intentions clear.
A glimmer of curiosity lit Aaron’s eyes. “You’d forsake a chance to join the upper ranks? The King might grant you a title. Your father wants to leave you his legacy. You need never work again.”
The list of privileges would be endless.
“It means nothing without Delphine.”
A mocking chuckle burst from Aaron Chance’s lips. He relaxed back in his throne and steepled his fingers. “Did you hear that, Theo? Flynn would rather be related to you than the Marquess of Bexley.”
“If only we’d made a wager to that effect,” Theo replied. “Though I must say, you’re taking the fact Flynn ruined our sister quite well.”
“I admire any man willing to die for his cause,” Aaron countered. “And I anticipated the chime of wedding bells when Daventry persuaded me to let Delphine remain at Mile End. Either Daventry is London’s best necromancer, and he receives predictions from beyond the grave, or he’s a mesmerist who has us all in a damned trance.”
For the first time since he’d opened his eyes and found Theo lurking in the doorway, Dorian breathed a little easier. “Then I have your permission to ask for her hand?”
“I need to see the evidence of this love for myself.” Aaron’s provoking tone said Dorian had just sat through the preliminary interrogation. The real test was about to begin. “Delphine has suffered a great deal. Let us pray she sees you as more than a distraction, or there’ll be the devil to pay.”
Dorian realised he had walked into a trap.
