“I have no intention of crossing you, my lord.”
“Don’t you? Again, I say, how will I know? I was looking for your sleight of hand and could not see it. You will amaze my patrons as you did me, then you will make them wary. Whether or not you cheat is almost beside the point. If they suspect you are, they will not play.”
“You’re wrong,” she said quietly, but with conviction. “Though I don’t suppose you will give me the opportunity to prove it.”
“Just so.” Griffin took another sip of his coffee. “Is your brother so skilled?”
“I believe the answer to that is he owes you £1,000.”
“You have me there,” he admitted. “Does he know about your talent?”
“We’ve never discussed it.”
“No? Why not?”
“It did not seem prudent.”
“You mean he would have wanted you to teach him.”
Olivia’s hands tightened in her lap. “I suppose that’s what I meant.”
“How is it you learned and he didn’t?”
This was the question she’d been dreading. He’d been circling around it long enough to make her dizzy from the anticipation of it. She didn’t know until the words were out of her mouth that she would tell him the truth. “Alastair and I were not raised in the same home.”
Griffin had suspected as much. “He lived with Sir Hadrien?”
“Yes. And his mother.”
So Olivia and Alastair were half siblings. He’d wondered. “And you lived…?”
“Here and there.”
“That is rather less than specific.”
“Forgive me, my lord, but you are not entitled to more.”
He was not deterred. “With your mother?”
Olivia said nothing.
“It is not the worst of all things to be a bastard,” he said.
Her eyes darkened, and before she thought better of it, she said, “You know this from experience, I collect.”
Griffin sucked in a breath. He was not accustomed to being spoken to in such a fashion, even when he deserved it, and he supposed he deserved it now. “I spoke out of turn. I am not a bastard.”
“And neither am I. The truth is more prosaic. My mother died in childbirth and my father remarried.”
There was much more, of that Griffin had no doubt, but because he could not justify his interest, most especially to himself, he asked for no other particulars. He addressed the problem of her home and staff instead. “Let us agree that you will compose a letter to your housekeeper expressing your need to be away some weeks longer. You will include sufficient funds to pay your servants and your outstanding bills.”
“I haven’t such funds.”
“I’m well aware. That is why I shall make them available to you. Your housekeeper? Is she trustworthy?”
“Yes. She will carry out my wishes.”
“Good. You will give me an accounting of what you need and I shall arrange it. I will want to see the letter, naturally.”
