The corner of Hugo’s mouth twitched slightly. The long scar on the side of his face was barely noticeable now, except where it twisted his smile. ‘And precisely how do you plan to ensure that, brother? Are you become a Captain Sharp in your time on the continent?’
Kit smiled ruefully. ‘No, though I have learned to recognise them pretty well. I have no need to cheat. All these years of play have improved my game immeasurably. You know well enough that I was always lucky with the cards and the bones. Nothing has changed there. I am just more practised than before. I have no doubt that I shall win…especially as I hear that Lady Luce seems to have lost her own knack for the cards. Did I not hear that she is called “Lady Lose” nowadays?’
Hugo nodded, somewhat unwillingly.
‘Good. That improves the odds even more. Lady Luce tried to ruin me then. Would have done it, too, if you had not paid my debts. I owe you. And I owe her. With Stratton Magna at my back, I shall see her in the gutter. And I shall rejoice at her downfall.’
Hugo was shaking his head despairingly, as if he did not understand how Kit could harbour such hatred for another human being. And for so many years. But if Hugo had spent years exiled on the continent, he too might have just such a ruthless attitude to Society. Kit had long ago concluded that people were there to be used for his own advantage. It did not pay to become close to anyone. That way lay disaster.
The third Earl Luce was pacing his mother’s opulent drawing room. ‘Mama,’ he said at last, ‘you cannot continue like this.’
The Dowager Countess took a generous mouthful of best madeira, savouring it as she swallowed. ‘For God’s sake, William, stop behaving like a caged elephant.’
The Earl stopped abruptly. He glanced at his reflection in the ornate, gilt-framed mirror—he was nothing like as large as an elephant. How dare she suggest anything so offensive?
She raised her lorgnette and peered at him. That piercing stare had unnerved him since he was five years old. Now, more than forty years later, it still did.
‘Continue like what, precisely?’ asked Lady Luce acidly.
Her son cleared his throat, ready to do battle on the one subject where he knew he had the whip hand. He was intending to enjoy this. ‘You cannot continue to gamble with money you do not have, Mama,’ he began. ‘You—’
Lady Luce used the arms of her chair to push herself into a standing position. Even then, she was considerably shorter than her son, and looked more than twice as wide in her old-fashioned hooped skirts. ‘And who, pray, is going to stop me?’ she said in an awful voice.
‘I am,’ he said, as stoutly as he could, but avoiding her gimlet eye. ‘I cannot afford to continue to pay your debts, Mama. You seem to forget that I have a family of my own to keep.’
His mother snorted. ‘How could I forget? Never seen so many confounded brats. You’re as bad as Clarence.’
‘Mama! How can you say such a thing? It is highly improper for a lady to mention illegitimate children, even if their father is a royal duke. And you know very well that I have never been unfaithful to Charlotte.’
‘No, because no other woman would look twice at you,’ snapped his mother, ‘even if you did have the money to dangle after them. It’s quite your own fault that you have sired ten children. And I do not see why my style of living should be curtailed to pay for them, just because you cannot keep your—’
‘Mama! Please!’
His mother looked hard at him and smiled nastily. She was clearly enjoying his embarrassment. One day, he would…
He turned his back on her and went to the window. If he did not have to look at her, it would be easier to tell her what she was to do. ‘My children are not in question here,’ he said, trying to keep his temper under control. ‘My father provided you with a very generous jointure. You do not even have to pay for the upkeep of this house. You have the means to live in considerable comfort, but you choose to gamble instead, relying on the assumption that I will always stand behind your debts.’
‘Balderdash,’ said his mother roundly. ‘You left me hanging in the wind when—’
Lord Luce spun round furiously. ‘That was five years ago, Mama, and it only happened once. You knew that I could not raise such a huge sum just then.’ He raised his hand to stop her from speaking. ‘Besides,’ he went on rapidly, ‘you came about soon enough, when you won all that money from Kit Stratton, did you not? You had no need of my backing.’
‘Did I not? I’ll have you know, you miserable apology for a whelp, that—’
‘No, Mama, you will not. You will listen to me. You will learn to live within your means. If you come to me just once more to pay your gambling debts, it will be the last time, I promise you. I shall let it be known that I will not pay in future. And who would accept your vowels then?’
‘You would not dare,’ she spat. ‘Your name would—’
‘Balderdash,’ he said, enjoying the feel of the word on his lips. Let her have a taste of her own medicine. ‘Society will agree that I have been too indulgent for too long. You may be an “original,” Mama, but Society tires of such entertainments in the end. I am the head of the family and I mean what I say.’
His mother stamped over to him and poked him in the chest. ‘Do you, William? Do you, indeed? Then understand this. I shall behave exactly as I please. If I choose to gamble, I shall do so, and nothing you can say shall prevent me. I shall stake my jointure and leave all my other bills unpaid. And I shall make a point of telling all of London that the Luce estate stands behind me, since otherwise I should end up in the Fleet. How would that please your sense of propriety, eh? The Dowager Countess Luce in debtors’ prison because her son would not pay her debts. What would all your fine friends think to that? And your sons, too. I am sure it would make for splendid sport at Eton.’
The Earl’s shoulders slumped. She had won again. She was not a woman, she was a witch.
‘Well?’ she said.
‘Mama, you must understand that I cannot afford it,’ he said, adopting a pleading voice. ‘The income from the estate has been poor ever since the end of the war. If there are any more major calls on me, I shall have to start selling the unentailed properties. Surely you cannot wish me to do that? It is all I have to leave to the younger boys.’
Lady Luce grunted. ‘I might think about it,’ she said grudgingly.
His tactics had worked. That was as near to a concession as he had ever won from her. ‘Perhaps if you had another interest, something to divert your mind—’ he began.
‘There’s nothing wrong with my mind,’ she snapped.
‘No, of course not,’ he said, trying to grapple with the brilliant idea that had just struck him, ‘but…a young companion might be just the thing.’
She fixed him with a steely gaze.
He quailed a little but continued. He could not refuse an opportunity to bridle the Dowager, however temporarily. ‘Let me look about for someone suitable,’ he said. Then he added, as a clincher, ‘I will undertake to pay all the costs of her keep. Your jointure shall remain at your sole disposal, as in the past.’
His mother gave him a very strange look. Then, to his surprise, she nodded briefly. ‘Yes, you are right. I could do with a young thing about the place.’
Victory! The Earl bowed over his mother’s hand. His wife’s bosom friend, Lady Blaine, would be bound to know of a suitable candidate. He would enlist her aid this very day. Now, he must make a speedy exit before his mother changed her mind.
He had just reached the door when she said, airily, ‘Just