Page 11 of A Cinderella to Redeem the Earl
Quick-witted, then. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, even if it wasn’t the truth. But then he hadn’t expected the truth from her father’s daughter. Deceit ran in her blood.
‘There will be plenty left over for them once my guests depart, should they feel the need.’
‘Oh, I see. Thank you.’
She made to move around him. He cut her off. She frowned.
‘What was your real purpose for being in this wing of the house?’ he asked.
She lifted her chin in a little show of defiance, but pink stained her cheeks. Guilt at being caught in a lie? ‘I was curious.’
‘You know what curiosity did?’
She looked him right in the eyes. ‘I am not a cat, My Lord.’
And not a meek little mouse either. But then she hadn’t been raised to be meek, unless she was dealing with someone she considered her better, or a good marriage prospect. ‘I see. Is your curiosity now satisfied?’
She hesitated.
What would she say next?
‘Why would members of thetondrive all the way out here to gamble when there are plenty of hells and whatnot close to hand in London?’
Interesting that she instantly saw right to the hub of the matter. ‘Why indeed?’
She shot him a piercing stare. ‘That is hardly an answer.’
‘I don’t answer to you, Mrs Lamb,’ he said in bored tones. ‘I fail to see how it is any of your business, to be honest.’
She flinched slightly, but, to his surprise, held her ground. ‘It is my business if you are engaged in some sort of nefarious activity.’
Devil take it, did she think to cause trouble? He closed the gap between them once more. She held her ground, but her hands tightened convulsively at her waist.
‘As far as I know, house parties are not outlawed in England,’ he said evenly.
‘I—no. It is rather reprehensible for a nobleman to be setting up a gaming establishment, however. Relieving people of their money.’
And it wasn’t reprehensible to defraud a gentleman of his fortune as her father had done? ‘This is not a gaming establishment. Everyone here is a guest, invited to spend an evening among their peers, enjoying each other’s company and playing cards or die to while away the time.’
Her expression said she did not believe a word of it. ‘At every one of the tables a member of your staff holds the bank. How is that different from a gaming establishment? Everyone knows that the bank almost always wins.’
‘Unlike most gaming establishments, this house plays fair. While the odds are naturally stacked in favour of those who hold the bank, those who gamble here have a fair chance of winning large sums of money.’
Her lips thinned. ‘Only to lose it all again the next time.’
How dare she look down on him? ‘Do you think they would not be gaming elsewhere under much less favourable circumstances, if they were not gambling here?’
Her shoulders slumped. ‘I suppose not.’
Surprised that she acquiesced so readily to his logic, he stepped back and gestured for her to leave. ‘Now you have satisfied your curiosity, I would prefer it that you return to your domain and leave my domain to me. Is that clear?’
‘Very clear, My Lord.’ She looked as though she wanted to say more, inhaled a deep breath and marched out.
He watched her go. Felt the tug of his heart again. Pity? Regret that she would eventually receive her comeuppance at his hands?
How was it possible?
Had her father felt any regret about what had happened to him and his mother? It was only right that the daughter suffer a similar fate.
