She lifted her eyes to him. Through the black mask he saw they were an intriguing green. Her hair, a walnut-brown laced with gold, was loosely piled on her head.
Who was she?
‘Mr Rhysdale.’ She nodded and her voice was surprisingly soft and reticent. ‘I would like to play whist, but I do not have a partner.’
How he would relish partnering her himself, but he did not play in his own gaming house. He would have to find a gentleman willing to be her partner, but he’d find no enjoyment in the task. His friend Xavier would play cards with her if Rhys asked, but women much too easily succumbed to Xavier’s handsome features. No, Rhys would not pass her on to Xavier.
Rhys wanted her for himself.
Chapter One
London—May 1819, one month earlier
Rhys and his friend Xavier sat at a table in the dining room of Stephen’s Hotel. They had just been served their food when Rhys glanced towards the doorway.
Two men stood there, scanning the dining room.
Rhys knew them. Had known them since childhood. Viscount Neddington, né William Westleigh, and his brother Hugh, the legitimate sons of Earl Westleigh.
His brothers.
Rhys turned back to his food.
Xavier put down his fork with a clatter. ‘What the devil?’ He inclined his head towards the doorway. ‘Look who is here.’
Rhys glanced up. ‘They are looking for someone.’
Stephen’s Hotel catered to military men, or former military men like Rhys and Xavier. Not the usual stamping ground of the Westleighs.
Rhys waited for the inevitable moment one of the Westleighs would notice him and slip his gaze away as if Rhys had never existed. Over the years when their paths had crossed, Neddington and Hugh always tried to act as if he’d never existed. Certainly that was their wish.
Ned, the elder, taller brother, turned his head in Rhys’s direction. Their eyes locked, but this time Ned did not look away. This time he nudged his brother and the two walked straight for Rhys’s table.
‘They are headed here,’ Rhys told Xavier.
His friend blew out a breath. ‘I’ll be damned …’
Rhys continued to hold Ned’s gaze. Rhys always stood his ground with the Westleighs.
They stopped at the table.
‘Rhys.’ Ned inclined his head in an effort, Rhys supposed, to appear cordial.
‘Gentlemen.’ Rhys would be damned if he’d greet them by name and pretend an intimacy that had never existed. He gestured towards Xavier. ‘My friend, Mr Campion.’
‘We are acquainted.’ Ned bowed in acknowledgement.
‘We are indeed.’ Xavier’s tone was sarcastic.
Rhys cut another piece of meat. ‘Are you merely paying your respects, or do you seek me out?’
‘We seek you out,’ Hugh replied, his voice taut and anxious.
Xavier glanced from one man to the other, obviously curious as to the purpose of this unusual visit.
Rhys made his expression neutral. Years of card-playing taught him to conceal his thoughts and emotions. He certainly had no intention of revealing anything to a Westleigh. He lifted a piece of beef into his mouth.
‘Forgive us for interrupting your dinner.’ Ned’s tone was conciliatory, if somewhat stiff. ‘We need a word with you.’
They needed a word with him? Now this was unique.
Rhys deliberately kept his attention to his plate, but he gestured to the empty chairs at the table. ‘Have a seat.’
Hugh, shorter and always more hot-headed, emitted an indignant sound.
‘We would prefer to speak in private.’ Ned seemed anxious to avoid offending Rhys in any way.
Xavier straightened. If his friend were carrying a sword, Rhys suspected he’d have drawn it.
Rhys gazed at the two men, seeing only the boys they once were. The bitter memory of their first encounter, when Rhys was nine, flashed through his mind. He’d confronted them with what he’d just learned—that they shared a father.
That moment, like countless others from their childhoods, had resulted in flying fists and bloody noses.
Rhys stared into eyes identical to his. Dark brown, framed by thick eyebrows. Like his, Ned’s and Hugh’s hair was close-cut and near-black. Rhys might be taller and thicker-muscled, but if he stood side by side with these two men, who could ever deny they were brothers?
He exchanged a glance with Xavier, whose lips thinned in suspicion.
Rhys shrugged. ‘Wait for me in the parlour off the hall. I’ll come to you as soon as I’ve finished eating.’
Ned bowed curtly and Hugh glowered, but both turned and walked away.
Xavier watched their retreat. ‘I do not trust them. Do you wish me to come with you?’
Rhys shook his head. ‘There never was a time I could not take on both Westleighs.’
‘Just the same, I dislike the sound of this,’ Xavier countered. ‘They are up to something.’
Rhys took another bite of his food. ‘Oh, they are up to something. On that we agree. But I will see them alone.’
Xavier shot him a sceptical look.
Rhys took his time finishing his meal, although he possessed no more appetite for it. In all likelihood this would be an unpleasant interview. All encounters with Ned and Hugh were unpleasant.
Xavier clapped him on his shoulder before parting from him in the hall. ‘Take care, Rhys.’
Rhys stepped into the parlour and Ned and Hugh turned to him. They’d remained standing.
He gestured. ‘Follow me to my rooms.’
He led them up the two flights of stairs to his set of rooms. The door opened to a sitting room and as soon as Rhys led the men in, his manservant appeared.
‘Some brandy for us, MacEvoy.’
MacEvoy’s brows rose. MacEvoy, a man with an even rougher history than Rhys, had been his batman during the war. Obviously he recognised Hugh Westleigh from the battlefield.
‘Please sit.’ Rhys extended his arm to a set of chairs. It gave him a perverse pleasure that his furnishings were of fine quality, even if the items had been payment for various gambling debts. Rhys was doing well, which had not always been true.
MacEvoy served the brandy and left the room.
Rhys took a sip. ‘What is this about, that you must speak with me now? You’ve made such a point of avoiding me all these years.’
Ned glanced away as if ashamed. ‘We may not have … spoken to you, but we have kept ourselves informed of your whereabouts and actions.’
Ned was speaking false. Rhys would wager his whole fortune that these two had never bothered to discover what had happened to him after his mother had died and their father had refused any further support. The earl had left him penniless and alone, at a mere fourteen years of age.
No use to contest the lie, however. ‘I’m flattered,’ he said instead.
‘You’ve had a sterling military record,’ Ned added.
Hugh turned away this time.
‘I