My thoughts, cloudy with drink, were slow to understand. When comprehension dawned, the haze cleared in a rush, too quick with urgency and blinding with import. Juliet—had her reputation been tarnished by my association? Had Rosehill thrown her over? Fuck!
My hands were around his collar, no thought necessary, interrupting the game and dragging him to face me. “What do you mean?” The words were little more than a growl through clenched teeth, but my rough handling seemed to have had a sobering effect on him as well, and he took my meaning.
“There is not going to be a wedding,” he spoke slowly, enunciating each word. It only served to further enrage me.
“Not that,” I spit out before continuing. “Why won’t there be a wedding?”
He struggled to free himself. “Not sure why you care; you’re not getting your funds regardless. My ungrateful, disobedient, urchin of a daughter is refusing to marry the man. Somehow learned of my arrangement with Rosehill. Claims she won’t be sold. She’s my daughter, and I can do what I want with her. But she’s run off and she’s of age. Solicitor says there is nothing I can do.”
I released him as abruptly as I had grabbed him. His words echoed in my ears, my heart pounding with the beginnings of something like hope. She was free. She had ended it. For the first time in our acquaintance, there was no other man with a claim on her. She could be mine. A match between us would still be imprudent, of course. But perhaps, just this once, if I loved her with everything I had, it would be enough.Iwould be enough.
Without warning I stood, clinking my glass against his where it rested on the table before knocking mine back. I tossed an obscenely large pile of bank notes on the table without consideration before pressing my way through the crowd that had thickened at the promise of fisticuffs. Finally, I stepped into the day, hope blooming with every step.
* * *
The club was still standing,at least. Everything appeared to be in order on the main gaming floor. Augie was more than capable of managing Wayland’s without my input, and the evidence was plain in the clean, organized tables. It was all set for tonight. I asked a passing maid to bring coffee to the office at her convenience, and she scurried off with a nod. I knocked on the frame of the open door, and could see that Augie had made himself comfortable in my absence. Numerous files were piled high on the desk in front of him while he perused some document.
Glancing up, he startled. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Piccadilly.”
The response was met with only a tired palm wiping over his equally tired eyes.
“Should have known. How bad is it?”
“I managed to avoid losing the club, at least.”
“I suppose that’s better than I expected. Tom and I have been trying to reach you.”
“I saw. Does it have anything to do with Juliet leaving her father’s home?”
“So, you’ve heard?”
“Ran into Dalton at the gaming table.”
“What did you say?” his tone had abruptly shifted to concern.
Fear and confusion rushed through me in equal measure. “Just that I knew he wouldn’t have my funds until the wedding, and he informed me that no wedding will take place. The details are a bit fuzzy, we’d both had more than enough to drink.”
He sank back in my chair, more relaxed. “Your Lady Juliet and I have been working together. Her father cannot know.”
“What do you mean you’ve been working with Juliet?”
“Rosehill won’t release her from the engagement. Left it up to her to jilt him at the altar or go through with the marriage.”
“Why on earth not?”
“She won’t say.” His look was significant, further confirming my previous suspicions.
I felt for the man, but I wouldn’t allow him to solve his own problems at the expense of my Juliet.
“She came here looking for you last week. Since the obvious solution wasn’t available in your absence, we had to choose another option.”
Joy, worry, and self-loathing warred for supremacy inside me. She came to find me, risking injury to travel here, alone. And all the while I was trying and failing to drink and game away thoughts of her.
I forced myself back to the present. “Obvious solution?”
“If you had been here, you could have married her. Gotten a special license or skipped off to Gretna Green. Can’t jilt a groom when you’ve already found one, and Rosehill would be all but forgotten in the scandal of your marriage.”
