Olivia shook her head. “I didn’t, but it occurs to me now that I should arm myself with a pair of tweezers.”
Griffin was not amused. “He might return at any time. You have to consider that. A public accusation would harm you more than him, unless, of course, it is your intention to force me to call him out.”
“Put it from your mind. I will neither confront him publicly nor have blood drawn on my account.”
Curious now, Griffin asked, “Is there some doubt in your mind as to the outcome of pistols at twenty paces?”
“There is always doubt, my lord, and you would be foolish to suppose that you could never be the loser of such a confrontation. You might slip as you turn to face him, or you might be possessed by a sneeze at the very moment you take aim. Your weapon might misfire. He might count off eight paces to your ten and shoot before you. His physician may be superior to your own. All things being equal, he may simply be luckier than you that morning. If your pride smarts because I entertain doubts that you would be the victor, then you are most desperately in need of a restraining hand.”
“A surfeit of pride makes one vulnerable, is that it?”
“Yes.”
“Very well,” he said. His pride was not engaged, but he did not tell her this. What she had described were the risks, some more probable than others, that a dispassionate gentleman weighed before issuing a challenge. “Consider that you have duly restrained me. Now, what of your pride?”
“Mine?”
“Certainly yours. Is it not pride that prompted you to disobey me? You have determined that you must settle your own debts, attend to your household staff, and rescue your brother from his folly. What is pushing you toward those ends if it is not pride?”
“A finely honed sense of responsibility.”
“That you take pride in.”
Olivia pressed her lips together, not to bite back her reply but because she had none.
Griffin pushed his point home gently. “Can you not admit that you might benefit from a restraining hand?”
She had no liking for her own words being turned on her. “Your hand, my lord? I think not. It is not my best interests you have in mind, but your own.”
“You think I’m influenced only by the debt that’s owed me?”
“I think it cannot be discounted. I am nothing to you beyond it.”
But you could be. He did not say it aloud nor give any indication that the thought had been occurring to him with irritating frequency. “Then let us speak of my interests, shall we?”
“If you like.”
“At the risk of encouraging such action as you took this evening, I can still allow that you have demonstrated an error in my thinking. None among my patrons this evening doubted that you were dealing a fair game. There are likely those who would not have cared and considered it a reasonable price for the time spent close to you.”
Griffin’s mouth twitched as Olivia snorted in a most unladylike fashion. “I doubt even a sound like that would have cleared the table.”
“You are being ridiculous.”
“No, unfortunately I am not. You skillfully fended their questions this evening and remained wholly professional in your attention to the game. Still, if you are to continue dealing faro, there will be more inquiries and you will have to say something more than ‘place your wagers’ and ‘all bets are down.’ Even your rather appealing smile will wear on their nerves if you do not throw them a bone from time to time.”
“Not my bones,” she said stiffly.
“A figure of speech, nothing more.”
“What are you proposing? That you will allow me to deal at the table again?”
“In the event that we can arrive at certain satisfactory arrangements, yes.”
Olivia was immediately suspicious. “What sort of arrangements?”
“You are far too transparent in the leanings of your mind. Truly, is the thought of bedding me so distasteful that you would abandon that finely honed sense of responsibility you say you possess to avoid just that end? I can tell you, it is not at all flattering to my person.”
“Yet you persist in your belief that your attentions should be flattering to mine.”
