How to Dazzle a Duke (27 page)

Iveston wasn’t straight to the point about anything. How could

he be when he rarely left his house? “I want to kiss you. I want

to kiss you for as long as I think necessary. I consider it a matter

of honor, a duty to my class if nothing else. I do think I should

have the opportunity to defend my class against the rigors of a

mere groom. I also should very much like to test your theory

about boundaries. I do think you may have overstated it. And I

should like to do my best for your future husband, presuming he

is of my class and not to be a groom?”

“Lord Iveston! I can—”

“Miss Prestwick, I know you can. I’ve kissed you myself. I

should like more of the same, if you please. Then, and only then,

shall I know if your innocence is true, as well as the proper depths

of your sophistication. I shall have plumbed them, you see, which

you can hardly object to as you’re quite experienced at making

calculated assignations and profiting from them.”

“Profiting?” she said, pouncing on that last bit. The bits before

were too horrible to contemplate at any length. “Hardly that.”

“Then let’s add profit to the mix, shall we? I have a wager that

I am sure to lose, the wager that I will marry you is on the book

at White’s. The very least you could do is make it all as enjoyable

as possible.”

“I wasn’t aware that losing could be made enjoyable,” she

gritted out.

How to Daz zle a Duke

191

“But you’ll do your best, shan’t you?”

She had heard, and indeed observed, that Lord Iveston was

mild mannered in the extreme and could barely tolerate being

noticed, let alone spoken to. He did not look mild in any fashion

now. He looked, which was quite annoying of him, like a man

about to go to war. And she was to be the battlefi eld.

Penelope found herself nodding, assessing Lord Iveston with

new eyes.

“You have made your intentions plain, but how does this fi t

in to our original agreement, Lord Iveston? The wager has been

made.”

“Both of them.”

“That was none of my doing.”

“No? It is not Mr. George Prestwick who made the wager that

you would marry Edenham this Season?”

She was not going to tell him about Sophia. He had absolutely

no need to know that. In fact, he had no need to know anything.

All he had to do was pretend an interest in her. Was that so

diffi cult?

If she thought too long about that question, she would fi nd

herself seriously insulted. It was for that reason she pushed it

from her thoughts.

“I cannot control my brother, as much as I would wish it,” she

said. “I’m certain you can appreciate that as it was displayed

brilliantly at my ball that you cannot control your brother Cran

leigh. He is as unmanageable as a young bull.”

“That he is,” Iveston said, “yet he did manage to marry.”

“Many manage to marry. I choose to marry well.”

“Are you implying that Cranleigh did not marry well by mar

rying Lady Amelia?”

“I’m implying no such thing. I am only stating in as many

ways as I know how that George does what he wishes and I do

not appreciate being held to account for his actions. Why, if that

192 CLAUDIA DAIN

standard is used, then I should hold you responsible for the

shameful events of the conservatory.”

“Where your roses were put to such infamous use.”

“I don’t wish to discuss my roses at present, if you will ex

cuse me.”

“Oh? When do you wish to discuss your roses?”

Penelope didn’t trust herself to answer him. She felt very close

to screaming in frustration. How could everything have fallen

into such disarray in only a few hours? Everything had appeared

so well managed in Lady Dalby’s white salon.

“By your silence,” Iveston said, staring at her in fl agrant

amusement, “I would say that not at present, and perhaps not

even in future.”

“As I said, Lord Iveston, I would know how this kissing

proposal of yours affects our previous agreement.”

“Why, I should think not at all, Miss Prestwick,” he said

smoothly. “You wanted me to appear interested in you. I hardly

think a few kisses will inhibit that impression, do you? Quite the

contrary. I should have thought that was obvious. In fact, it seems

ideal in the extreme. You shall get what you want. And I shall

most defi nitely get what I want.”

She was not comforted. Not even slightly.

Fifteen

“I’M going to wager on Iveston,” said Lord Raithby. “I’ve already

wagered five pounds on Edenham, but it’s ten on Iveston. As

soon as I can fi nd my way back to White’s.”

The drawing room, as must be expected, was fi lling rap

idly. As soon as Iveston had very nearly absconded with Miss

Prestwick, and as she made no sounds of protest, and as there

were servants in the drawing room, it was decided without a

word being spoken about it, that it would be very interest

ing, indeed essential, to see Lord Iveston and Miss Prestwick

together, interacting. And of course it was. Both interesting and

illuminating.

There was something there. Something. It wasn’t passion and

it wasn’t affection and it certainly wasn’t animosity, but it was

something.

“It should be a crush,” Lord Penrith said softly, watching Miss

Prestwick and Iveston do whatever it was they were doing. It

wasn’t exactly flirting, but it wasn’t exactly anything else either.

“I may have to amend my original wager that she would marry

Edenham. They look not entirely uncivil, do they?”

194 CLAUDIA DAIN

“You can’t bet against yourself.”

“I’m not betting against myself. I wagered that she wouldn’t

marry Edenham. ’Twas George Prestwick who wagered that she

would. I can certainly now wager that she will marry Iveston. It’s

entirely proper. And could be fi nancially sound.”

“That’s true,” Raithby said, nodding. “I’d forgotten that bit.

You really think she’ll choose Iveston over Edenham? Of course,

her children by Iveston would be the heirs. Can’t say that

about Edenham. Doesn’t he have three dribbling in the nurs

ery now?”

“Two, I believe, though it could be three.” Penrith shrugged.

Did it matter? The point was that Iveston had yet to marry and

girls seemed to like being first. As to that, so did men. “Did you

happen to see if Sophia Dalby was chatting up Iveston?”

“I saw her with the ladies Lanreath and Paignton, the Indian,

perhaps Iveston. Why?”

As Penrith had a quite cordial relationship with Sophia Dalby

that had some little bit to do with his mother being friends with

her, but more to do with the fact that he liked Sophia quite well

on his own, and as Sophia had a way with women and men and

a knack for making money on their amorous couplings, he had

aided her more than once in the past weeks in placing wagers on

White’s book about certain most unexpected matrimonial

unions.

After the marriage of her own daughter to Lord Ashdon had

been wagered on, and he watched her win a fortune, Penrith

had from that point on put his money where Sophia put hers, no

matter how unlikely the situation might seem. He had made

twenty-five pounds off the marriage of Lady Amelia and Lord

Cranleigh, and was not adverse to making more. But off whom?

Iveston or Edenham? Sophia had not asked him to place a wager

for her, but he knew someone had. It was not like her at all to

How to Daz zle a Duke

195

walk away from a profit, and this Season there was profit to be

had nearly every evening. He had never seen such a Season for

marriages. It almost made a man skittish to put on his evening

clothes. He knew that if his name appeared on White’s book, he

was a doomed man and might find himself married by morning.

By the look on Iveston’s face now, it looked as if he might have

realized the same thing.

“Edenham hasn’t arrived, has he?” Penrith asked, looking

about the room. “It would be much easier to know how to wager

if one could only get all three of them together in the same room.

Comparisons are invaluable in situations of this sort.”

“You sound rather experienced at it,” Raithby said.

“If you’d leave your stables more often, you’d be experienced

as well,” Penrith said. “It’s been a whirlwind of sudden marriages

this Season, and Sophia Dalby has been directly involved in each

one of them.”

“It’s a common female pastime,” Raithby said casually, look

ing at Iveston and Miss Prestwick with thinly veiled interest, as

was more than half the room.

“With Sophia Dalby, nothing is common.”

“You know her well?”

“Well enough. I can see by your calm in the face of what’s

certain to become a storm that you know her not at all.”

“Only slightly, that’s true. Still, she’s only a woman, no matter

the rumors of her supposed power over men and events.”

“You really don’t know her, do you?” Penrith said, grinning.

“Perhaps you’d like to make a wager?”

“Concerning?” Raithby said, his dark blue eyes narrowed in

skepticism.

“Sophia Dalby’s success in getting Miss Prestwick married, of

course. She is at the heart of this and she will see it done, I prom

ise you. Five pounds? On the book?”

196 CLAUDIA DAIN

“As long as you’re going to White’s,” Raithby said. “Five

pounds it is.”

6

“I’D wager five pounds that Sophia is involved in this somehow,”

Anne Warren said, watching Penelope Prestwick in pointed con

versation with Lord Iveston.

“In what?” Lord Staverton asked.

As Lord Staverton had been seeing to his affairs both in Town

and out, and as he had not been out in Society for nearly a month

since his proposal of marriage to Anne, and as he was a sweet,

dear man who might not have noticed the rash of sudden mar

riages even if he had been in Town, Anne smiled tolerantly at

him and slipped her arm through his.

“Miss Prestwick is very much marriage-minded, my lord,”

she answered. “I do think that Sophia is helping her make an

ideal match.”

Staverton, who was older than Sophia and a good deal older

than Anne, and who had a long and intimate history with Sophia

that was not at all lurid, smiled benevolently. “Quite nice of her,

if true, and I should think it would be true. Sophia always has

displayed the strongest interest in the welfare of young women.

Why, even as a young thing herself, she was tooth and claw for

a woman in need.”

Anne, who knew only the barest details of Sophia’s early

years in London, was all ears. Certainly she could well believe

it. Hadn’t Sophia done the same for her? Taking her in off the

streets when she was the destitute widow of a minor naval hero

and delicately arranging for Staverton to propose to her? She was

to be married in a fortnight and she couldn’t have been more

delighted, particularly as Lord Dutton was so clearly outraged

by the idea. Being outraged, and drunk, suited him completely.

How to Daz zle a Duke

197

She did hope she had a fine heir to bestow upon Staverton so that

Dutton would die of apoplexy.

“Did she help my mother?” Anne asked.

Staverton, his warm brown eyes shining in sympathy down

upon her, even if one eye did wander erratically, patted her hand.

“She did all she could, Mrs. Warren, and it was deemed quite

enough at the time.”

“Did you,” Anne said, a sudden chill rushing over her skin,

“did you know my mother?”

As Anne’s mother had been a very unsuccessful courtesan,

it was possible and highly unpleasant to contemplate. Staverton

was wonderful, but if he had known her mother, then she couldn’t

possibly marry him. Though Sophia would not have arranged

such a thing, would she?

No, assuredly not.

Still, she waited for Staverton to answer her.

“I’m afraid I did not have the pleasure,” Staverton said, which

was truly such a kind way of putting it as her mother had been

just slightly better than a common lightskirt, and his consider

ation was precisely why Anne was so happy to marry him. He

was such a kind man, and men were hardly known for being

kind, were they?

6

“THEY’RE not known for being kind, are they?” Katherine, Lady

Richard, said to her brother, Hugh, the sixth Duke of Edenham.

“You’re thinking of Lady Paignton,” Edenham said mildly.

“Lady Lanreath is not at all like her sister.”

“You speak as if you know them very well.”

“I know them as well as you, Kay, which is hardly at all,”

Edenham said. “Knowing of someone is not quite the same thing

as knowing them, is it?”

198 CLAUDIA DAIN

“Isn’t it?” Katherine answered. “How presumptuous of me.”

Edenham looked down at his younger sister with a great

deal of affection and toleration. They were very late to Lady

Lanreath’s soiree and the reason they were late was because

Katherine had found one excuse after another to delay their de

parture. First she had to make certain his children, William and