Page 42 of How to Capture a Duke

Olivia knew of her other secret. The lady had significant gambling debts to the Raven Club. Her husband, Lord Ware, had yet to learn of the extent of her habit.

Olivia smiled. “Wonderful. I shall look forward to your visit.”

The trap had been set.

…

“I never thought I’d see the day that you couldn’t focus on your dreary ledgers,” Antonia said.

Tristan had been sitting behind his desk with his ledgers scattered across the blotter. Rather than working, he’d been glancing at the moon outside the window when he’d turned in surprise to find his grandmother standing in the doorway of his study. “When d…d-d you return?”

“Is that anyway to greet your grandmama?”

Tristan rose and kissed her cheeks. “Are you well?”

“I missed the Season. And truth be told, I wanted to see how you are faring.”

Rather than answer, he walked to the sideboard and poured two goblets of wine.

“Ah, that bad, is it?” Antonia asked.

He handed her a goblet and sipped his own. “If you know, why a…a-sk?”

She raised her glass with a smile. “This is good news.”

“How?”

“It means your wife has gained your attention.”

Olivia had caught his attention, for certain. But not in the way his grandmother wanted. If he couldn’t have his wife, and he had no desire to be with a willing bar maid at a coffee house, then he was in a bad way.

“If you keep ignoring her, my boy, I’m afraid others will not.”

Something in her tone made him alert, and he looked at her. “What do you mean by that?”

“Only this.” She reached into her skirt pocket to pull out a piece of foolscap and hand it to him. “I had the good fortune of finding this in your wife’s room. I hadn’t planned on spying, mind you, but it was open on her escritoire. I immediately recognized Lord Jeffries’s bold script, and my interest was piqued. It appears your cousin seems fit to take your place.”

Tristan unfolded the note and read it to himself.

Olivia,

I shall be at the Raven Club tonight, as discussed. I look forward to our games of chance. What shall we wager?

Spencer

Like hell. He’d told his cousin not to meet Olivia at the Raven Club, not to play games of chance with her, yet Spencer was ignoring his demands.

What was his cousin thinking? On second thought, he knew exactly what Spencer was thinking. Olivia was a beautiful woman, and Tristan had repeatedly told Spencer that he had no intention of bedding his wife. Worse still, his cousin had a weakness for the fair sex and had dallied with more than one married lady in the past.

Anger, combined with a sense of urgency, twisted low in Tristan’s gut.

“If you hurry,” Antonia said, “you may catch them.”

…

“I’ve been looking for you.” Spencer, Lord Jeffries, settled in the empty chair at the vingt-et-un table and leaned close to whisper in Olivia’s ear.

Olivia adjusted her half mask and gave him a sidelong glance. The faint smell of whisky and cigar smoke wafted from him.