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

There were several days where Mother just inked quick little on dits. A ring Exeter had given her. To go with the missing necklace, she though. A meal she had eaten prepared by a famed French chef. Three days in Brighton. “Exeter housed her off Russell Square. She doesn’t seem happy about it.”

“Not at one of his family homes?”

“I don’t know.”

“Exeter has two fairly large homes in London. Was she his mistress? Or did she come to London thinking she would be his wife? I think he married twice, if I remember rightly. Maybe my mother would know more details of Exeter’s history during that time.”

“Hmm,” she said, and started reading again, turning one page and then another. She stopped, sat up and reread the sentence. “Oh my God! Carlow! She was with child.” He leaned closer to her, reading over her shoulder. “Listen to what she wrote. ‘I told him today. Not only was he unhappy, he was furious with me, shouting how could he know the child was his. How could he question me so cruelly? He knows how much I love him and that I chose him over George.’”

Silence came between them as the weight of those words sank deep.

“How long was your father in Newgate? That should have been a fairly easy thing to verify.”

“Again, I don’t know. And I don’t know when he died either. It always seemed like their deaths occurred very close together, at least to my young memory.” She let the book drop to her lap. “Carlow, you don’t have to do this with me. I think I am emotionally ready to face the worst of my mother’s foibles.”

“I want to know, as well. We have a future to build. I don’t think we can build it without a true foundation.”

“With each day, there is yet another mystery to solve. I have a half-sibling, maybe a full sibling, if Exeter’s doubts were realized. I wouldn’t put it past my mother to lie to either man. Think of it. Her husband is about to be hanged. She becomes a widow with my father’s reputation staining her future. At some point, Exeter offers a ray of hope. What must she have done when she realized Papa sold Henbury Hall? Her home gone? It was easier when I just believed that your families were ruthless thieves who cheated Timothy and me of our inheritance.”

“How old would that make the child, if there is one?”

“Fourteen, maybe fifteen. That just seems like such an impossibility. Why wouldn’t Lady Fortenay know? She would have heard something through the family gossip vine. Oh, what am I saying? She’s read the diary. She knows. She may not know what became of the child, though.”

“There are other possibilities. Some not-so-pleasant possibilities,” he said.

“That’s dark. It is sad to think there might be a child; heartbreaking to think the child was never born.”

“True. But when I consider she also didn’t tell you what she knows about your mother, it’s not a huge leap to think she has other secrets she isn’t sharing.”

“Like whether or not Exeter raised the child? I don’t know how I feel about having another sibling.”

“Put aside the diary, Nora. We’re both tired.”

Nora fell back on the pillows. “Oh my God! What if Cecily Sheldrick is my sister? What if Timothy is about to become entangled in the worst Blasington scandal in our family’s sordid history?”

“No fourteen-year-old girl would be allowed at the Weatherby Ball. Don’t lose sleep over that wild improbability.”

“If Exeter refused to marry my mother, there could be a child out there who’s living the life of an outcast. A bastard.”

“Your mother would have considered that. If Exeter denied the child, your mother would have told anyone who mattered the babe was her deceased husband’s.”

“Then Exeter’s accusation would have been true. How would my mother have made such a decision?”

He pried the diary from her and set it on the bedstand. “No more of this tonight. Why don’t you dream about all the beautiful clothes that arrived from the seamstress? I thought that’s what women lived for.”

“If only I hadn’t been raised by Lady Fortenay.” She moved her robe, revealing the new pristine white rail she wore beneath her robe. “But I did peek. Do you like it?”

“Madame. In dishabille? Are you trying to tempt me?”

“Is it working?”

He rolled into her, dropping his head upon her shoulder and wrapping his arm across her. “Nora, if I weren’t so bloody tired, I would admire every inch of your new bedroom attire. And then I would remove it and admire every inch of you.”

* * * * *

The next morning, Gabriel woke to the pleasant surprise of his naked wife, pressed next to him. It was a rare interlude that required no encouragement or direction from him.

Later after Gabriel, Nora and his mother had shared lunch, Ellis Rawden and Nash Hildebrande arrived, full of gossip and questions.

“You are abandoning us for the rest of the season?” Ellis asked. “That seems very unsportsmanlike.”

They sat in Gabriel’s library enjoying an early afternoon drink. Ellis had arrived from South Weald after his father’s death and he wore the appropriate armband. His sister and mother had stayed at the estate, ready to mourn as their full-time occupation for the next year. Nash was still busy at London’s parties and social events, but he sat quietly as Ellis and Gabriel discussed their new lives.

“I have a new sport to entertain me,” Gabriel answered, feeling smugly privileged to have Nora as his wife. “Marriage agrees with me in every way.”

“Why not wait before you hie off to the country? Surely Lady Carlow would enjoy making the rounds and flouting her new position amongst the elite?”

“You don’t know Nora. I made a promise I am in no hurry to keep,