“That bay, Steadfast, should do me nicely,” Vale went on, ignoring the protest. “He’s out of Sullivan Waring’s stable. And his other brother is owned by Wellington.”
“Do you expect that makes you a relation to Wellington?That damned hunter is going to go for four hundred quid, at the least.”
“And you owe me twelve thousand quid.”
“By my reckoning, I owe you two thousand now, taking into consideration your living at my home, meals, parties, clothes, sundry expenses, and all the introductions I’ve made for you—in addition to a probationary membership at Boodle’s.”
“And yet not one for White’s.”
“Yet.”
“Our bargain is not yet completed, George. I am not a married man.” He shifted, making room for his second drudge. “Good morning, Matthew. Any news?”
That put a frown, quickly stifled, on Mr. Harris’s face. “Just my usual request that you leave Miranda out of this and allow me to work off the debt I’ve incurred.”
“As I’ve said, Miranda isthereason for all this. Did you discuss Aden MacTaggert with your dear sister?”
A nervous twitch of Matthew’s mouth. “She likes him.”
“Yes, he’s quite large and muscular and pretty, I suppose, as if any of that signifies. George, do buy me that horse, cousin.”
Muttering beneath his breath, Lord George waved his paper in the air, placing a bid for Steadfast. Good. A proper man should have a proper mount for a proper hunting of small, skittish beasts.
“He’s also Eloise’s brother, Robert. Neither she nor I can simply tell him to go away.”
Vale dug his nails into the wood beneath his fingers. Yes, MacTaggert had slipped through the only crack in his entire plan—one that hadn’t even existed when he’d begun this two months ago. Yes, Matthew had just become engaged to Eloise, but that young lady had been the doted-upon only child of Lady Aldriss. The damnedtrio of giant Scottish brothers hadn’t made an appearance until well after he’d seen Miranda Harris and begun putting a rope around her brother’s neck.
“A woman may only marry one man, Matthew. That’s the law in England, anyway. She’s marrying me. What’s so difficult about making him understand that?”
“Scotsmen are stubborn,” George put in, flicking his paper again as the bidding continued.
“They are that,” Matthew agreed.
Good God, it was like standing between two parrots, both mindlessly repeating everything they’d heard while understanding none of it. “I don’t want commentary. I want him gone. Is that clear?”
Matthew shifted his stance to focus on a very small mouse hiding beneath a very small weed at the base of the paddock railing. Not even a place with the reputation of Tattersall’s could entirely eliminate its vermin. But Matthew wasn’t sharing that thought, Vale knew. Matthew was attempting to conjure an excuse, or a lie—neither of which was acceptable.
“I am growing tired of reminding you that I didn’t force you to make any of those wagers, Matthew,” Vale pointed out, even if he had coerced the majority of them. Encouraging a sin in someone else didn’t make him guilty of sinning, himself. “Presenting a single one of the notes you owe me would see you cut off from your family, and you would still be in debt to me for the remainder of your life.”
“Damn it all,” Matthew swore, and kicked at the mouse. The thing scurried toward one of the stable buildings and dove out of sight. “She’ll never forgive me, you know.”
“Very likely. Not my concern. What is it you’re hesitating to tell me?”
“Aden knows. About my debt, and about you. She toldhim everything, while… while they chatted last night.” He moved closer, lowering his voice. “I went into her room this morning to tell her what you’d said, and he was in there.With her.”
Vale clenched his jaw, his fists, every part of him that could still feel fury. He wanted to think he’d heard wrong, to demand a repeat of Matthew’s statement, but that would have been both pointless and a useless waste of time. That damned Highlander thought he’d won, then. MacTaggert thought that by taking Miranda’s virginity, he’d saved her from some villain’s clutches. “And no doubt he calledmea blackguard,” he said aloud, keeping his voice level and cool.
“I don’t know what they called you, Rob—”
“And I don’t care. It doesn’t signify.Ididn’t despoil her. I will make her a greater paragon of Society than she could possibly have dreamed. The grandest of the grand will beg for invitations to our soirees, and our dinners will be the most exclusive in Mayfair. No one else will know that some Highlander once led her astray, and she will be grateful to me for that fact. George, buy me that damned horse!”
He took a breath, pulling his temper back in again. Yes, he’d indulged in fantasies of taking Miranda Harris’s virginity. Yes, in them she’d been initially resistant and her eyes had widened in surprise when he’d shoved his cock into her and rammed her again and again until he filled her high Society cunt with his dirty common seed. Well, he could still do that. Because he still owned her. And now every time he fucked her, he could remind her that pretty Highlanders with aristocratic families might turnherhead, but they would never beathim.
“I’ll go collect your damned horse for you then, shallI, cousin?” George commented, stepping back from the railing. “Five hundred fifty bloody pounds.”
There. Everything remained on the path he’d carved. A few pebbles were easily kicked aside, once they had been identified. “MacTaggert has a plan to take your sister back from me, I presume?”
Matthew flinched like a puppet whose string had been pulled. “I don’t—I mean, we didn’t actually discuss anything in particular.”
