The Countess Page 0,71

first time you never would have been forced to make the decision at al ."

"But - "

"And then while talking to Grace, you tried to take responsibility for our night together when it was whol y my fault."

"I was a party to it," she said blushing and lowering her head with embarrassment. It was the first time they'd spoken of that passionate night. "I am the one who started stripping you and set the whole thing in motion."

"And you thought I was your legal husband while I knew we weren't legal y wed,"

he pointed out quietly. "That night was my fault. As a gentleman I should have brought a halt to things."

"Yes, wel . . ." She sighed, terribly uncomfortable with the conversation and not sure what to say.

"I bet you have spent a good deal of this last year trying to figure out what was wrong with you or what you had done to make George treat you the way he did,"

Richard murmured.

Christiana turned to peer unhappily out the window. She had spent the last year trying to work that out and trying to figure a way to fix things and bring back the sweet, complimentary man who had courted her.

"I hope you realize now it wasn't you," he said gently. "George would have treated you poorly no matter who you were. He treated everyone that way."

"I suppose," she murmured, peering down at her embroidery again.

Richard sighed, a sound that struck her as slightly exasperated, but he let that subject go and instead said, "While I understand why you and Suzette would be angry with your father, I think it may be undeserved."

She raised her eyebrows in question. "Oh?"

"Do you know how the first losses happened?" he asked.

Christiana shook her head. "Al I know is Father went to town to meet with his solicitor about estate business and came back several days late, terribly upset. It took some effort to get him to tel us what was wrong, and then he final y confessed he'd somehow wound up at a gaming hel and gambled us into debt and that the owner of the gaming hel was demanding payment and while he'd managed to pay some of it, he just didn't have the money to pay the rest. We were al upset and trying to work out a way to get the money when Dicky showed up to save the day."

"How did he know to save the day?"

Christiana blinked at the question. "What?"

"You said Dicky showed up to save the day," Richard pointed out. "How did he know the day needed saving?"

"Oh." She frowned. "Wel , I didn't mean that he knew about it when he arrived. It was just a grand coincidence, or at least I think it was. I'm not sure about anything now, but at the time it seemed coincidence, and I just assumed that Father told him of his troubles while they talked and Dicky offered to pay his remaining debt to sweeten his offer of marriage."

"Hmm," Richard's mouth thinned out, and then he said, "Wel , Daniel and I suspect Dicky had something to do with getting your father to the gaming hel in the first place that time too."

"You do?" she asked with surprise. "Why?"

"Because there are rumors in town that the Earl of Radnor has become friendly with a certain owner of a gaming hel where it's suspected the players are drugged and fleeced. I believe it's the same gaming hel where your father lost his money. And it wouldn't surprise me to learn that George had taken your father there both times."

He frowned and added, "I shal ask your father about that on our return. If I'd been thinking clearly I would have done it yesterday."

Christiana stared at Richard blankly, and then blurted, "But why? Why would he do such a thing?"

"Wel , if he did it the first time, it was probably to force an opportunity to marry you and get his hands on your dower," he said apologetical y.

"But no one knows about it."

"Langley does," he pointed out.

"He's like family. Robert wouldn't tel anyone," she assured him firmly.

"While I knew him as a child, I don't know him as a man yet, so I wil trust your judgment on that," he said and then asked, "Who else knows?"

She frowned. "No one. Robert only knows because we were playing in the attic when the lawyers visited and there is a spot where you can hear what is said in Father's office."

Richard