Beauty Tempts the Beast (Sins for All Seasons #6) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,71

other hand, are a bastard by choice.”

Chadbourne fairly quivered with indignation. “How dare you!”

“Would you rather I call you an arse?”

“I am an earl. You will give me the respect I deserve.”

“I give no one respect unless he’s earned it, and you’ve not.”

“I. Am. A. Lord.”

“You’re not in Mayfair, mate,” Danny said cheerily as though he was accustomed to breaking up squabbles at the tables before they broke out into fisticuffs. “You’re in Whitechapel. Here the Trewloves are royalty. Ask anyone.” He tossed his chips onto the pile and looked at her. “Miss Stanwick, do you wish to bet or fold?”

It seemed he was growing impatient for the game to end. Chadbourne had only four tokens left. He might win the chips in the center of the table, but it wouldn’t be because he’d beaten her. She laid down her cards. “I fold.”

Danny looked at the earl. “Lord Chadbourne, do you wish to see my cards?”

“You’re bloody right I do.” He gathered up his four remaining chips because to see an opponent’s cards, he had to pay double what the individual players had been betting. One by one he dropped them on top of the pile.

Danny turned over his cards. Three jacks. Hearts, clubs, diamonds.

People walking outside the club no doubt heard Chadbourne’s deep groans of dismay. He had the option of showing his cards, but his reaction made it unnecessary. He couldn’t best the dealer’s hand.

Danny scooped up the wooden disks. “It’s been a pleasure. Hope you’ll join us another evening.”

“Not Lord Chadbourne,” a deep voice stated with authority. “He won’t be returning.”

Althea glanced to her left to see Aiden standing there with his arms crossed over his chest in a familiar stance, and she wondered if it was a habit shared by all the Trewlove men. She also wondered how long he’d been there. As he’d wanted to be entertained, he’d no doubt been around for a good bit of what had transpired, although he’d been discreet about it. Another thing the brothers seemed to share: they preferred the shadows.

“My lord, you’re no longer welcome at the Cerberus Club. My brother has always been more tolerant of those who disparage bastards than I. And lest you think otherwise, I can assure you that within these walls, you will never again win. Not so much as a farthing.”

Chadbourne squeezed his eyes shut and, with his thumb and forefinger, pinched the bridge of his nose. She’d forgotten how he always did that when he was disappointed or frustrated. Once she’d found it to be a charming little quirk. Now she found it somewhat irritating.

He opened his eyes, and she suspected he’d been using that time to try to soften his glare. “Congratulations, Althea. Not only have you seen me lose all the money I allotted for the evening as you claimed I would, but you have seen to it that I have lost access to my favorite club. I suppose now we are even.”

“You are an arse, Chadbourne, to think for one single second that the loss of access to a gaming hell can even begin to compare to the loss of everything, to the extent that I no longer even knew who I was.”

Chapter 17

Until she’d spoken the words, she hadn’t recognized the truth of them. When her father had been arrested, she’d become unmoored, had difficulty thinking of herself as his daughter. But she’d had Chadbourne, was betrothed, would become a wife and mother. When he’d turned his back on her, another thread that had comprised the fabric of her being had unraveled, and she’d stood on those stairs no longer certain of who she was. Then the Crown had taken everything, and she was no longer a lady, had no home. She had known and understood every aspect of Lady Althea Stanwick. But who the devil was Althea Stanwick?

It was half two when she and Benedict walked out of the Cerberus Club to find the carriage waiting for them.

“I know it’s frightfully cold and the air is scented with fresh rain, but could we just drive around for a while?”

“Anywhere in particular?” Benedict asked as though her request at this time of night wasn’t absurd, inconvenient, and an imposition.

“No, I just want the darkness and the absence of anyone about save you.”

Even when she was alone in her bedchamber, she could sense the presence of the residents and the strangers who called upon them, could often hear the odd little bumps scrapes, and cries that accompanied their