Lady Charlene looked at the cider. “Is this for me?”
“I ordered for you.”
“You are giving me one last drink before you call the Watch?”
“Do you believe I’m here to call the Watch?”
“If you do, it will be the end of me and everything I hold dear. Then again, I’m ruined as it is.”
“That is an interesting statement. Would you care to enlighten me?”
“I don’t know.”
Her voice had trembled, but she held her tears at bay. Instead, she took a drink of the cider and pulled a face at the taste. She set down the tankard and pushed it away with one finger that she kept held against the pewter side as if wanting to contemplate her nail against the metal rather than the man sitting across the table from her.
However, Jack was not going anywhere. He drained half of his ale in one gulp. He leaned back in his chair, waiting.
She knew he expected her story.
The question was, would she give him one? Or the truth?
He could see the decision of whether to trust him weighed heavy in her mind. Little did she know he probably had the knowledge that would solve any and all of her problems—Gavin wanted her. She would be a duchess... depending on what she said in the next few minutes.
She raised eyes dark with worry to him. “May I trust you?”
With a lift of his hand, Jack indicated she could, if she wished.
She wasn’t completely sure. She tapped the side of the mug, then sat up and leaned across the table toward him.
“I am in a sorry plight,” she confessed.
“Obviously.”
“You’ve heard of my father?”
He shook his head, wanting to hear the tale from her.
“My father did not have a head for money. He was a very good man and the best father, except when he drank. Ale, whisky, even small beer, it all went to his head and then he lost all sense of what he could and what he couldn’t do, and people took advantage of his weakness.”
“He gambled when he drank.”
“Yes, and lost.”
“That is what happens.”
“He always believed he was going to win. Mother used to beg the gentlemen in the set my father favored to please watch out for him, to pull him away before he did something foolish, but they never could.”
“They probably ate him alive.”
“Some tried to be honest friends but I’m certain forcing him to do what was best for him was difficult. My father eventually wagered away anything of value we owned. But he was good man.”
“Well, you are lucky in that respect. My father wasn’t.”
“I know.”
“You do?” Jack frowned. “How did you know this? His reputation is sterling. He had power, prestige... the ear of the king.” He could hear the cynicism in his voice but was incapable of changing it. His bitterness toward his sire was always right beneath the surface.
“Your father took advantage of mine during a game of cards. By all accounts, Father was in no condition to be sitting at that table. Others, more honorable men left. They refused to play, but not the duke. He won a set of pearls that was the pride of my family. We called them Scots pearls. Your mother was wearing them the other night at the ball.”
