Courting Miss Vallois. Gail Whitiker

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СКАЧАТЬ quite good,’ Sophie said, knowing her brother would always downplay his abilities. ‘Monsieur Larocque often invites him to play.’ She got up and crossed to his side. ‘Please say you will stay, Antoine. It will give you a chance to practise your game before you play Monsieur Larocque again. And I would enjoy seeing les dames anglaises swooning over you.’

      Antoine snorted. ‘They will surely have more sense than that. But, if it will make you happy, I will stay—but only for a week. Then I must go back.’

      It was good enough for Sophie. She didn’t care if it was Nicholas’s persuasiveness or her own pleas that had finally convinced her brother to change his mind. All that mattered was that he was to stay in London for a week—and that she was to stay for at least a month. After such an auspicious start, how could she look upon this as anything but the possible start of a new and memorable chapter in both their lives?

      

      Robert Silverton was not in a good mood as the carriage made its way from Portman Square to Mayfair. Not only because he had no desire to spend an evening being given the cold shoulder by a large number of the three hundred guests Lady Bruxton would have surely invited to her petite soirée, but because of what he had heard at his club just that afternoon.

      It seemed that despite having told Montague Oberon he had no intention of participating in his ridiculous wager, the man had gone ahead and set it up regardless. Now he and several of Oberon’s more disreputable friends were engaged in a race to establish the most beautiful woman in London as their mistress.

      ‘I shouldn’t worry about it,’ said his sister, Jane, from the seat opposite. ‘You need only strike your name from the book and in a few days it will all be forgotten. It seems a silly thing upon which to wager.’

      ‘It is, but Oberon lives to gamble and when the topic of—’ Robert shot her a wry glance ‘—that is, when talk veered in that direction, he couldn’t resist putting forward this preposterous wager.’

      He watched her lips compress, knew she wanted to laugh. ‘You needn’t pussyfoot around the subject with me, Robert, I am well aware that most men keep mistresses. What do you think those old tabbies talk about while they are watching their young charges pirouette about the ballrooms of society?’

      ‘How prettily they dance?’

      ‘Not for a moment. They gossip about which gentlemen are having affairs, and about which married ladies are in love with other women’s husbands. How do you think I found out about Lady Andrews and Jeremy West?’

      ‘Yes, I did wonder about that,’ Robert murmured. ‘But it is hardly the kind of information an unmarried lady should be privy to.’

      ‘Oh, my dear Robert, you have no idea how much scandalous information I am privy to. It is one of the highlights of my sad little life. But seriously, you must stop worrying about me all the time. You’ve done little else since Mama died and it really isn’t fair. You should be out there looking for a wife.’

      ‘Need I remind you that I was briefly engaged to Lady Mary Kelsey?’ Robert said. ‘And that as a result, my name has now been struck from the list of eligible bachelors.’

      ‘Then why are we going to Lady Bruxton’s tonight?’

      ‘Because you still need to be exposed to good society and Lady Bruxton was kind enough to invite us both, despite my shoddy reputation.’

      Jane wrinkled her nose. ‘I don’t care what anyone says, you were right to break off your engagement. Life would have been very unpleasant for both of us had you gone ahead and married Lady Mary. I know she didn’t like me.’ She was silent for a moment, but when she spoke again, there was a delightful wickedness in her voice. ‘I’ll wager Mr Oberon would never consider me in the running for the most beautiful ladybird in London.’

      ‘I should damn well hope not! Apart from your being a respectable young woman, I cannot imagine you married to a man like Oberon.’

      ‘Why not? When his father dies, Monty becomes a very rich young man. The list of ladies wishing to be his wife or his mistress will stretch long, of that you can be sure.’

      ‘And I pity every one of them,’ Robert said, suddenly reminded of the French girl he’d seen at the Black Swan Inn. A girl whose beautiful face lingered in the shadows of his mind. He hadn’t seen her or her brother again after taking his leave of them that night, but he hadn’t forgotten her—and neither had Oberon. He’d talked about nothing else the entire way back to London.

      ‘Well, let’s hope there will be a few new faces at Lady Bruxton’s tonight,’ Jane said. ‘Otherwise, I shall be forced to marry a blind man who falls in love with the sound of my voice and does not mind that I hobble on the way to the drawing room.’

      ‘You will marry a man who loves you despite the fact you hobble,’ Robert informed her with amusement. ‘And I have every confidence this will be the year you find him.’

      ‘Goodness, such unwavering belief in my ability.’

      ‘Do you not share it?’

      ‘I would like to, but I fear Tykhe has chosen to bestow her favours elsewhere.’

      ‘Then we shall seek our own good fortune,’ Robert said boldly. ‘Thumb our noses at the Fates.’

      ‘Oh, no, we must never do that,’ Jane said, laughing. ‘Unless we wish to bring their wrath down upon our heads.’

      ‘Nothing of the sort,’ Robert said. ‘But we have endured more than our fair share of bad luck, Jane. It is time the gods smiled favourably upon us for a change.’

      

      Sophie recognised him the moment he walked into the room. Though he was far more elegantly attired than on the occasion of their first meeting, there was no mistaking the confidence in his stride or his ruggedly handsome features. He stood tall and proud, his dark hair gleaming in the candlelight, and though several women turned to look at him as he passed, his warmest smile was reserved for the young woman at his side. A slender lady wearing green and who walked with a cane in her hand. ‘I know that gentleman,’ Sophie said.

      Lavinia’s dark brows rose in surprise. ‘Which one?’

      ‘The tall one who just came in. Silverton, I believe his name is.’

      ‘Yes. Robert Silverton. And that is his sister, Jane. Where do you know him from?’

      ‘The Black Swan Inn. He and another gentleman were there the evening we landed.’

      Sophie had purposely made no mention of the events that had taken place at the inn. Nicholas would have been furious that his arrangements had fallen through, and Lavinia would have been horrified at the thought of a lovers’ quarrel erupting into gunfire in the courtyard. But with Mr Silverton in the room and the prospect of an encounter likely, Sophie thought it best to mention that the two of them had spoken. ‘I would not have thought them brother and sister. The resemblance is not strong.’

      ‘No. Robert tends to follow his father’s side while Jane gets her fair hair and delicate colouring from her mother’s. But they come from a very good family. Their father was knighted for services to the Crown, and their mother was the youngest daughter of a baronet,’ Lavinia said. ‘Sadly, СКАЧАТЬ