“I made an error in judgment—”
“Amistake,” I corrected him. Something my family was markedly good at.
“I drank too much at White’s. We were playing cards.”
My temper surged as the pieces fell into place. Devil take him. “Yougambledaway our grandmother’s ring?”
Gabriel did not flinch. He shrugged. “I was foxed, Marlow, if you can possibly understand what it is to go out and chum about. And I had a dashed good hand. It was a sound play.”
Clearly not! I’d have to move fast. Swoop in before the new owner discovered what that ring was worth. Play to his weakness, whatever it was.
“Who has my ring, Gabriel?”
He hiccupped. “Don’t know him. I wrote his information on this paper, and I’ll write him today and have the ring returned. I hear he’s a reasonable man, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
I snatched the strip of paper from Gabriel’s outstretched hand, anger and frustration burning in my chest.
His brows furrowed, and with that subtle change in his demeanor, I remembered with acute clarity the eight-year-old boy who’d followed me around the estate whenever his mother visited my father. Those big brown eyes that had watched meshoot my first deer, then he’d hugged me tight around the neck and told everyone he knew how his older cousin, the future Duke of Marlow, had made a perfect shot from fifty meters away. He was still that boy in many ways.
I was not.
“I am sorry, Marlow,” he said. “I made a mistake, but I shall see it made right.”
“Iwill set it right.” I rubbed my temples, feeling annoyed and guilty that I felt that way toward Gabriel, who nevertrulymeant any harm. Gabriel had strength in ways I did not. Indeed, I often envied how unaffected he always seemed to be. Then again, he did not understand the weight of a dukedom. The success of one was the success of an entire generation, as were the failures. I held that burden. I did it, so he did not have to. “I shall see myself out.”
“Oh, me? I am well enough, thank you.” Gabriel pretended to straighten his crooked cravat. “So kind of you to ask.”
“You need a long bath,” I said, glancing at the strip of paper I’d confiscated.
Milton House, Northwest Hampshire.
“This is it? How the devil am I supposed to find this man? You don’t even know his name?”
Gabriel shrugged again. “My butler seemed to think it possible.”
“You have abutler? For this small of a house? Am I paying for him?”
He frowned, looking around the room in thought. “Why, yes, I believe so. Thank you for that.”
“He’s fired,” I enunciated. “You can have a man-of-all-work and a valet.”
Gabriel’s eyes went wide. “Then who would get the door?”
I folded the paper strip in half and tucked it away in an inner coat pocket. All I had was the man’s address. But, in truth, it mattered little who he was. I’d learned in the past four years of truly stepping into my father’s shoes that everyone and everything had a price.
At least the journey would not be too far, and perhaps I could leave for London straightaway after. I hadn’t planned to stay for the whole Season. Just long enough to show face in Parliament, vote on the important matters, and find a wife.
So ... a fortnight at most.
I could make a few quick return trips if duty required.
I turned from the room, calling over my shoulder, “Will I see you in London?”
“As soon as my new racehorse is settled.” Gabriel followed me, and I could hear the grin in his voice. “After that fellow—whatwashis name?—left, I sobered up. Won a few hands. I may never ascend to the dukedom, but I am quite good at cards.”
“Deuces, how are we even related?” I muttered, eyeing the overlarge portrait Gabriel had commissioned of himself now hanging proudly in his sitting room.
“I shall look forward to meeting your new intended, whoever she may be. You ought to secure a private license this time around. Make it so she must marry you straightaway, no time to fall in love with her mysterious neighbor like the last one.”
