Free The Courtesan's Secret by Claudia Dain Page B

handled delicately," Blakesley said, by which he meant that Louisa must be handled delicately. He would not have her know of this bargaining as it would hardly flatter her. "And I must know what you expect from me in return. I am not going into this blindly, Dutton."
    Unless love made one blind, which it quite possibly did to judge by his behavior for the past two years and, most especially, in the past two minutes.
    He must be mad. The proof being he did not care if he were mad.
    "Let us wager on it," Dutton said. "A simple wager for simple stakes."
    It was well known to every man in London that there was no such animal as a simple wager for simple stakes. And, being mad, he still didn't care. He would get this thing settled with Louisa Kirkland one way or the other before he truly did go mad.
    "Which are?" Blakesley asked.
    Dutton shrugged and looked idly across the dark interior of White's. "I will let it be known sometime before dawn that you have the Melverley pearls. If, shall we say, in three days time, she does not, oh, what is a polite way of expressing what I'm trying to say?"
    "There is no polite way of saying it," Blakesley said with a cold smirk.
    "Then I am saved," Dutton said. "I shall just have to say it, shan't I?" Dutton returned Blakesley's smile with equal chill. "If she does not leave off my scent and chase after yours, then we shall know that pearls are not what interest the lady. Fair?"
    "Not quite," Blakesley said. "How will this interest be measured? Neither one of us is hardly objective."
    Dutton looked at him squarely, his nostrils flaring in indignation. Dutton's nostrils could rot in hell for all he cared. He was not going to lose this bet, and Louisa, on some fragile claim made by a man who was foxed more often than not.
    "You think I would cheat?" Dutton said. "Dissemble?"
    "I think you would flatter yourself," Blakesley said, crossing his legs casually and leaning back in his chair. "You are not a stranger to self-flattery, after all. I'm merely protecting my interests. You can hardly find fault with that."
    "Then let's name an objective third party to arbitrate," Dutton said with a half smile.
    Bloody hell, the last thing Blakesley wanted was someone else knowing what was afoot. Louisa would rage if she ever found out.
    The obvious point being that she must never find out.
    "Fine," Blakesley said coolly, looking around the room and finding the perfect choice almost instantly. "Shall we ask the Duke of Calbourne?"
    "Let's," Dutton said, rising to his feet, rather sloppily, he might add.
    The Duke of Calbourne was easily the tallest and most rugged duke in England. That he was a widower with a young son, that his estate was formidable, that he was a good-tempered though private man, meant that he was, for all the aforementioned reasons, privy to the most delightful gossip in the ton. Or that was the speculation. Calbourne was not a man given to gossip, which naturally made him a magnet for all the most scandalous on dits imaginable.
    Calbourne, sitting alone in a heavily tufted leather chair and sipping a brandy, did not rise upon their approach. Blakesley was just as glad; no need to call attention upon this impromptu meeting. The sooner, and the quieter, the whole mess was done with, the better. Calbourne sat listening to Dutton's drunken explanation of the situation with Louisa and the Melverley pearls with an expression of amusement he did not bother to hide.
    Blast. This is where love led a man. He might as well put a gun in his mouth and be done with it.
    "It certainly is turning into a season for pearls," Calbourne said with a grin. "If this continues for even another week, the price of pearls, never reasonable, will triple."
    "No one is buying pearls," Blakesley said. "We're simply making use of the existing supply."
    "Aren't you, though," Calbourne said, leaning back in his chair. "What's my part in this?"
    "A simple case of observation," Dutton said. "Simply observe where Lady Louisa's