Page 62 of How to Ruin a Rake

“That is hardly a topic for the dinner table, Lady Allegra.”

“Then when will you be at liberty to talk to me?”

He set his jaw. “You are drawing attention to us.”

Allegra noticed the duke was looking at them both, his expression impossible to read.

“Fine,” she said. “Be like that.”

She ate two desserts she barely tasted, and finally, Allegra’s mother rose to her feet and gestured to her daughters. “Shall we leave the men to their port?”

Allegra pulled back her chair and left the dining room with a mixture of relief and apprehension. She still had no idea what the duke had told her parents, and she was terrified of admitting to something that no one except Max knew about.

“What on earth is going on?” Carenza said as soon as she shut the drawing room door. “Why is the Duke of Barfleur here?”

“Your father says that they have been corresponding for years. I suppose he finally decided it was time to visit.”

“Mama, you are a terrible liar,” Carenza said. “And why would he bring his awful son with him, who has spent the entire evening being too high and mighty to speak to anyone?”

Her mother cast Allegra a guilty look.

“It might have something to do with me,” Allegra said. “I bumped into Max Devereux when I was staying at the inn.”

“In Suffolk?”

“Yes.”

“That still doesn’t explain anything,” Carenza said. “And now you look as guilty as Mama.”

The door opened, and the earl came in. “May I speak to Allegra, please?”

Allegra rose to her feet and followed her father out of the room without a word. He paused in the hall.

“The duke wishes to speak to you in private.”

Allegra swallowed hard.

“Normally, I would want someone from your family to be present, but I believe in this case you would be better off speaking to him by yourself.” He patted her shoulder. “Come along, he’s not that bad when you get to know him.”

He ushered her through the door of his study, where the duke sat contemplating the fire. He got to his feet and bowed when Allegra approached him.

“Lady Allegra, thank you for joining me.” He gestured at the seat opposite his with all the assurance of a man who commanded his surroundings. “Will you sit down?”

Allegra was quite glad to do so, because her knees were beginning to shake.

“I understand from my son that he inadvertently involved you in a wager. Is that correct?”

Allegra nodded.

“A wager that went terribly wrong, as his so-called friend abandoned him to an amateur coachman who was incapable of managing the horses and caused an accident.”

“Yes.” Allegra realized she had no choice but to be honest, at least, about the accident. “I believe your son, the marquess, was attempting to persuade my sister out in public and inadvertently got me. I was expecting the family carriage to arrive to take me home and, in the rain and darkness, I mistook your son’s carriage for my own and allowed him to hand me in.”

“If I might ask, why didn’t you immediately demand he take you back?”

“I did, but he was convinced I was my sister, Carenza. He believed he could accompany me on a walk in the park and win his wager.”

“Was he drunk?”