Page 14 of Lady Controversial
‘Does Lord Brooke know where you are residing?’ he settled for asking.
Miss Crawley sent him an enquiring look. ‘No, he does not. I saw no reason to enlighten him. We are notthatintimate, and as I said we are not his responsibility. Presumably he will contact me through my lawyer if he requires to speak with me. Either that or through my aunt’s good offices.’ She canted her head in a manner he was starting to recognise. ‘Why do you ask?’
An aunt who allows her nieces to live in comparative squalor, Ellery thought but did not say. He had never had the dubious pleasure of making the woman’s acquaintance, but was pre-disposed to disapprove of her inattention to her responsibilities.
‘I ask because this cottage forms part of your father’s estate.’
She sighed impatiently. ‘Even I, a feeble female, have been able to reach that conclusion.’
Ellery chuckled. ‘There is absolutely nothing feeble about you, Miss Crawley.’
‘Thank you, my lord.’ She sent him a sweetly sarcastic smile. ‘It’s a very long time since anyone paid me such a charming compliment.’
Ellery smiled and shook his head. ‘That I find difficult to believe.’
‘Well, you should believe it since it’s the truth. Don’t mistake me for the type of female who deliberately fishes for compliments. You have been mixing within society’s ranks for too long if that is what you suppose.’
‘I can assure you that I have as little to do with society as possible.’
‘Which is most unreasonable of you.’
‘Excuse me, Miss Crawley, but I do not have the pleasure of understanding you.’ He leaned back in his chair and subjected her person to a deliberately prolonged scrutiny that caused her cheeks to warm. ‘You just now made your low opinion of society’s ways plainly apparent, yet you chastise me for avoiding them.’
She smiled. ‘Papa squandered my right to have any part in it, but unlike my sister I have no desire to join its ranks anyway. You however are an eligible earl and have a duty to…well, to be seen, looked over and admired, I suppose.’
‘I am not a horse!’
‘Are you not?’ She waggled a hand from side to side in a considering fashion. ‘Excuse me, but isn’t the marriage mart a bit like, well…’ The colour in her cheeks deepened and her words trailed to an embarrassed halt.
‘Yes, Miss Crawley,’ he said politely. ‘What analogy did you intend to draw?’
‘You wretch!’ She laughed and waved a hand at him. He enjoyed hearing her laugh. It wasn’t contrived, and it was not a polite simpering giggle, it was simply Isolda Crawley enjoying a brief respite from her myriad responsibilities. ‘You know very well and are deliberately trying to embarrass me.’
With some success, Ellery thought as he continued to enjoy the sight of her flaming cheeks. She was not quite as worldly as she tried to make out, a fact that Brooke undoubtedly intended to use to his advantage. He would likely have succeeded too, had Ellery not decided to take up her cause.
‘Returning to the subject of Lord Brooke,’ Ellery said, his expression sobering. ‘Are you aware that he has been accused of cheating at cards?’
Chapter Five
‘Cheating?’ Isolda blinked at the earl, unsure if she had heard him right, her mind preoccupied about the ownership of this cottage. She had not told him the complete truth—but then it was none of his business. ‘Surely you are not suggesting that…’
‘That he won your father’s estate by underhand means?’ He inhaled sharply and sent her a considering look. ‘The possibility has crossed my mind, as it will have crossed the minds of all the other people whom he has supposedly beaten fairly at the tables ever since the rumours emanating from White’s have snapped at the heels of his reputation.’
‘Ah, the gentleman’s club where a gentleman is no gentleman if he does not behave in an honourable manner.’ The ghost of a smile touched Isolda’s lips. ‘I dare say that even the suggestion of a stain of his character will give Lord Brooke sleepless nights.’ Her smile widened. ‘Such a thing could not have happened to a more worthy recipient.’
‘The rules governing a gentleman’s code of conduct do not only apply to White’s.’
‘No, I am perfectly sure they do not. Papa was very aware of his gentlemanly credentials, much good they did him.’ She leaned forward, trying not to scowl at recollections of her father’s irresponsible behaviour. ‘Do you mean to suggest that if Papa had been a little more astute, perhaps a little less trusting, he might have realised that he’d been duped?’ Isolda found it hard to conceal her agitation. ‘That if he had remained alert then he could have called Lord Brooke on his cheating?’
The earl held up a placating hand. ‘Pray do not distress yourself, Miss Crawley. It is not quite that simple. Accusing a man of cheating at cards, especially if the accusations come from a man who has just lost everything, is not a course of action to be adopted lightly. There is a stigma attached to a dishonoured debt of honour, if that isn’t a contradiction, which would have tarred the reputation that your father valued so highly.’ The earl flapped an elegant wrist. ‘There are those who would always have doubted him, even if he had been able to prove his case. I am sure you follow my meaning.’
‘One gentleman’s words against another’s, I assume.’
‘You assume correctly. One must have definitive proof of dishonesty and call the person out at the time or risk being ostracised and branded as a poor loser.’
‘My father demonstrated his inability to accept defeat gracefully by blowing his brains out.’ The earl, she noticed, flinched at the harshness of her words, but she felt no pressing need to apologise for them. ‘Leaving us to fend for ourselves is, to me, an act of extreme cowardice, and certainly not the gentlemanly way out that he undoubtedly saw it as.’
The earl lowered his head and she noticed sympathy in his expression, which annoyed her. She had not expressed her long held belief that she had thus far kept to herself in the expectation of soliciting his compassion. ‘He is not the first gentleman to take what I agree with you is an easy way out,’ he said.
