An Inadvisable Wager (The Curse of the Weatherby Ball Book 2) by Eliza Lloyd (the best novels to read txt) 📕

“Not shy—wary. Your father did have a reputation, as you know, with which my mother was familiar.” Gabriel took her hand and helped her to her feet. “Lady Carlow, will you promise you will not pilfer any tempting baubles you might see? Or shock anyone with stories of your past? Or divulge any of your perceived wrongs against my family?”

“Oh, it’s not just your family who did my father wrong.” She smiled wide, but her gaze reflected the defiance that must have been a staple in her life.

“Just promise. For this day,” he suggested.

“I promise to try.”

He leaned to kiss her cheek. To her credit, she didn’t pull away. “Come, it is time to meet my mother.”

“Gabriel?” she asked. He could already decipher the tone of her voice; he steeled himself for whatever request she was about to wheedle from him. “I have a lady’s maid at the hotel where Timothy and I are staying. I need to see to her welfare.”

“I’ll have a coach collect her. Is there anything else I can do for you, my dear?”

She whispered, “Have your solicitor prepare the documents for our divorce and a title deed for Henbury Hall.”

* * * * *

The others would be dealt with in short order, Nora thought, making her way across the room in the direction Ellis Rawden and Nash Hildebrande had taken. For all her plotting and scheming, she hadn’t thought how she would get the rest of the family’s property back. However, being the rightful mistress of Henbury Hall and now the Countess of Carlow, she would get the tin mines that went to Hildebrande’s family and as many of the Henbury stallions that Rawden still had in his possession. Alone, the breeding rights could have supported Timothy and Nora until their dotage.

She would! She would! She would! Somehow. With or without Carlow’s help.

Was that the prayer of her life? Telling herself it would happen with no realistic way to make it true? Or was it the great delusion? Still, she found herself married with at least a small hope of obtaining Henbury Hall.

While planning what to do with Carlow, she hadn’t thought of the long-term advantages to being his countess. Well, long-term meaning three months. It was a new kind of power, one a weak person couldn’t imagine having in their possession.

Nora spoke quietly and quickly with Carlow’s mother, putting on her most sincere and content expression, while Carlow went to make arrangements for her lady’s maid. Nora took one last glance at Rawden and Hildebrande to see they were heading toward one of the libraries.

Knowing people was a key to her father’s ability to thieve. And during the conversation, Nora realized that Carlow’s mother knew the story of how or why they had gotten Henbury Hall at Papa’s death. Maybe not all of it, but a portion of the story that would clear up some of the mystery.

“Carlow tells me you will be spending a few days with us prior to your departure for Henbury Hall.”

“You must know how grateful I am and what it means to me that Carlow is being so generous to take me home. I will be forever in his debt.”

“Forever, or three months?” his mother asked.

“Gabriel is such a tease. Three months, three years or thirty won’t ever diminish what your family has done to mine. Oh, I must see some of the others.” Nora smiled sweetly and curtsied, then started after Rawden and Hildebrande again. The three of them were peas in a pod. Where one went the others followed. Carlow being the usual leader.

Toward the end of her diaries, her mother had hinted at the involvement of the three families. Or at least what she suspected. Mother may not have known everything, but she wouldn’t lie about what she knew.

The hallway led back to the library that had been set up with card tables last night. She opened the door slowly and listened. They had their heads together, whispering.

Nora tiptoed in, leaving the door open a crack so she didn’t make a sound. They faced a cold fireplace mantel, drinks in hand.

“Gentlemen,” she said. They jumped to their feet.

“Lady Carlow,” they said in unison, and both gave her a stiff bow.

“Carlow isn’t here,” Ellis Rawden said, “if you are looking for him.”

“I know.”

“What can we do for you?”

“You know why I am here. You know why I married Carlow. It is time the scales are balanced, and you are going to do that for our family.  What you took from us, you are going to give back. And I swear on my life you will.”

They glanced at each other with a guilty side-eye but remained mute.

“Let me refresh your memory. Andover, do you remember when your father stole our mines? And you, Mr. Rawden, I challenge you to prove your family’s ownership of the Henbury stallions in the General Stud Book, which you cannot. None of them passed to your family. They were stolen by your father. I know he’s on his deathbed, but if you don’t already know, you should ask him what they did. But I suspect you do know while you nod and wink your way through life.”

“Whatever you’ve been told, Lady Carlow, you are under a misconception. Your father—” Andover said.

“Don’t you dare mention my father. His faults were a trifle compared to your great sin. You’ve deprived me and my brother of any sort of life. We must rely on the help of others. You are the liars and thieves. Go home. Find a way to return our property.”

“Nora!” She jumped at the sound of her name. Carlow had come in behind her, wearing a stern expression. “You will apologize to my friends.”

“I am your wife.”

“That’s right, but even my wife does not