No. The duke was a good person. “What is it you get if you win?” I covered my mouth, but I had to know if anger had turned my kind friend into the devil.
“Not much, Miss Wilcox . . . Katherine, my dear Lady Hampton, will marry me. And you and all your sisters, especially Lydia, will be wards under my protection at Anya House.”
“Torrance, you’re betting for a wife and family.” Mark bit his lip, but his laughter wouldn’t stop. “You want to wed a woman who hates you, to have a full house. Have more science meetings, man. Don’t subject yourself to torture. We should’ve brought Livingston. He’d set you straight.”
For someone who’d just tried to convince me to marry him, this was the wrong thing to say. “My sister isn’t a torture.”
“I can speak for myself, Georgina.” Katherine took a long cleansing breath. “I am fully capable of telling these two to go to the devil.”
“Thed’yavolcan take his due now,” the duke said. “I can simply force bankruptcy of your business and foreclose on the house. Is that what you want, Katherine? That’s what others were plotting to do. The bank, the creditors have been smiling in your face and laughing at Gilroy’s cartoons.”
She gritted her teeth at him but didn’t answer.
He shrugged, slipped around her and sat in Papa’s chair. “This is comfortable. Sebastian, remind me when I sell off the assets to keep this chair. It will go in my bedchamber.”
Mark was speechless and useless.
I shook Katherine. “End this. Apologize. Don’t let him take what’s left of Papa’s legacy or you might as well have let Tavis destroy us.”
“My fault.” Her breathing became rough. “I need this bet. Give me the rest of the terms.”
“While Miss Wilcox and Sebastian were away, you berated me about not knowing your sisters or you. That’s what you claimed. I think I do. I know I do. The bankers don’t want you to use the sale of Wilcox Coal for dowries. That’s what you told them. You’ve obviously thought you could find them husbands.”
“The bankers . . . did you send them?”
“No. But I’ve made it my business to know yours. I will give your sisters dowries and find each of them a good and proper husband. I can do this for Georgina and Scarlett before you can.”
“That’s a stupid bet,” she said, and I agreed.
“Stupid maybe, but I should do something to honor Tavis. This bet will break no one’s back.”
“Katherine, apologize. No betting. This is crazy.” I grabbed her hands like she’d fallen down a dark well.
Yet, the way her black eyes raged, I didn’t think there was any turning back or finding the light.
“Jahleel, I don’t want to marry. Not you or anyone. But I’ll be your mistress for a season.”
“Mistress? Not a wife. A true mistress? Are you serious, Katherine? What about scandal? What about Mama?”
“I’m a widow. Society doesn’t notice us much. Many peers make mistresses of us, and no one cares.” She stood up tall, like she awaited punishment. “Avoiding scandal, trying to do what’s best is why we are in this horrid position. Yes. A mistress, sharing a bed. Pretending to care, making you more crazed for the memory of a girl you once loved . . . Yes, Jahleel, but only for a season.”
He rubbed his chin. “I counted on a lifetime. My lifetime. If you and the girls spend two nights a week at Anya House starting now until the next season ends, yes.”
That would be a year of shuffling across the river. A year and three months if he won.
The duke stuck out his hand.
Katherine almost took it but stopped. “Lord Mark doesn’t count. Their playacting relationship ends, no more between them. So, he doesn’t count in this bet.”
“That would mean you’re asking the duke to find me someone else, someone not Lord Mark.” My stomach hurt. I didn’t want to marry, but I truly didn’t want to marry someone who wasn’t Mark.
“Yes, but you told me yourself you’re not ready to marry. So, Lord Mark Sebastian is not the one. The duke will have to find you someone else. Or, he can give up now and say I won.”
“Nyet! Never. Sebastian counts on neither side.” He rose from the chair and clasped her hand and shook it, then kissed it. “It will be a pleasure to have a proper mistress again.”
Katherine took her hand from him and slapped him, but he caught her hand and held it to his face. “Gentle. Gentle. I like my women to be easy.”
He released her and moved to the door. “Let me know which days. The games begin this week. Lady Hampton, prepare towin.”
