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She scowled at him. “Specs is my kitten.”

“I like your spectacles. My mother wears a monocle, except on occasions when she is compelled to use a lorgnette. But those are few and far between.”

“When does she use a lorgnette? And by the way, if you ever address me as Specs, I shall throw something at you.”

His eyes were light with laughter. “I shall keep that in mind for moments when I am asked to play the bowler in cricket. Practice is always helpful when it comes to catching.”

He adroitly guided the curricle around a corner. “As for my mother’s monocle, she never brings it to the queen’s drawing room, as Her Majesty thinks a monocle is unladylike. The queen does not mind a gold-encrusted lorgnette on a long stick.”

“I would guess that the golden lorgnette was your gift,” Stella said. “Because you knew that Britain would go to the gold standard sooner rather than later.”

“Our drawing room glints like a dragon’s hoard,” he agreed.

“That was cheating.”

“What?”

“You knew ahead of time, before the Currency Act passed. The newspaper mentioned that the price of gold had risen immediately. It’s just like this scavenger hunt. You know that your mother’s brother, the bishop, will accompany you, and only you, home for tea. I expect your sisters knew that as well, when they put him at the top of the list. The entire hunt is rigged.”

“Until I read the paper this morning, I didn’t know he was paying a visit to the archbishop,” Silvester objected.

“A shoddy excuse,” she said, scowling at him. “If you hadn’t read that article, we’d be tooling off to the bishop’s residence, wherever that is. Even if others read the article, you are the only person who can talk your uncle into a carriage.”

Their vehicle had become mired in a crossing, surrounded by a mess of vehicles. With a glance backward and a jerk of his head, Silvester sent Binder into the middle of the street to direct traffic.

“I won’t disagree.” Then he said, “You are wearing your hair differently, as Miss Boodle mentioned. You usually pull it back, but you’ve left curls around your face.”

Stella gave him a cool look. “I am as uninterested by ladies’ hair as you are in tassels. To return to our former subject, I am curious about why you want to win the scavenger hunt so much that you would cheat.”

He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand. “In essence. I admit there are no rules against it.”

“You are harsh,” Silvester said, frowning at her.

“You were harsh about me, and yet you don’t care to hear an evaluation of yourself?”

“I apologize—”

She shook her head. “You already apologized, and I shouldn’t have brought it up again. So why do you want to win the wooden box your mother is offering?”

“In truth?”

She nodded. “You have everything that a man could wish to buy, from this extravagant vehicle to a tasseled cane that likely cost as much as a month’s rent. Why the contents of that wooden box?”

Silvester was surprised to discover that Stella was pricking his conscience by insisting that he shouldn’t try to win the scavenger hunt. Damn it. And why the hell had he told her so much? He had never told Yasmin of his involvement in the currency markets.

“It’s because I don’t know what it is,” he confessed. “It’s likely something absurd. But I cannot resist a mystery.”

“And your mother knows that,” Stella exclaimed, a smile in her eyes. “That’s why the prize for the lady is visible to all, but that for the gentleman is a secret. She wanted to make certain you enjoy the game.”

“Yes. My mother actually cares very little for polite society. She likes to put on her entertainments, sometimes for many and sometimes for a few. But she really does them to amuse herself and her children.”

“I suppose that’s acceptable,” Stella conceded.

Having cleared the crosswalk, Binder leaped onto the back of the curricle. Silvester raised the reins and his pair sprang forward. “Why do you want the vulture crown?”

“I don’t.”

He caught her eyes. “Yes, you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in this carriage, not with your finely tuned ethical sense.”