Free Wicked Wager by Beverley Eikli Page B

Should she reveal the full truth? The fact that she’d stuffed Harry’s desperate plea into the seam of one of the petticoats she’d removed for Harry? Surely the tiny missive could not possibly have been found, else Lord Peregrine and his sister would have been trumpeting Celeste and Raphael’s sins all over town long before now.
    â€˜I must be truthful, Raphael.’ She couldn’t keep it from him and indeed, he would continue to needle her until she confessed. A dampening thought indeed. Raphael was adept at making her feel as helpless as a butterfly on a pin. ‘A tiny fraction of the message was caught in the glue behind Miss Paige’s picture when I tore it out. Just a few letters only—’
    â€˜And how might that be sufficient to explain Lord Peregrine’s interest in you, my dear?’ He was breathing quietly, but heavily. ‘Since you have just assured me the message could not have fallen into his hands.’
    Celeste glanced across at Lady Ogilvy staring out of the window in the distance and wished she were closer. Shrugging, she regarded him miserably, unable to find a reason that would satisfy him.
    â€˜Curious, my dear.’ Raphael shook his head, choosing to appear more sorrowful than angry, though perhaps it was easier to adopt this course since his mother and Baron Rutherford were approaching. He lowered his voice. ‘I hope you have not been indiscreet, Celeste, for I find it difficult to understand how you can have gained a philandering stranger’s trust to the extent he would so willingly divulge information that is, let us say, not in the public domain.’
    Celeste’s cheeks burned though she tried to bravely hold Raphael’s look. ‘As you know, Lord Peregrine was a guest of Lord and Lady Cowdril during the weekend and … we were much thrown together.’ She swallowed. ‘Naturally I was terrified of speaking to him, in case his sister had indeed recognised me that fateful night at Harry’s townhouse, though it appears I am safe on that score. Nevertheless,’ she took a deep breath, ‘at dinner the talk turned to slaves and later, we were in discussion regarding you being a slave owner while Lord Peregrine is in opposition to slavery—’
    Raphael interrupted her with a sigh. ‘Please get to the point, Celeste, and tell me how you managed to charm the abolitionist libertine Lord Peregrine into revealing to you this extraordinary information. No doubt you flirted shamelessly with him.’
    Celeste dropped her eyes and nodded. ‘I did, Raphael, for I thought that where Harry is concerned …’ She raised her head and finished defiantly, ‘you’d not care what I did as long as you discovered the information you were looking for.’
    Raphael appeared unperturbed by her charge. ‘As long as you are discreet, Celeste, I don’t care what you do.’ He smiled as he leaned against the mantelpiece. ‘Now tell me, where is Harry? That is all I am interested in, though I am somewhat surprised you did not tell me this news earlier.’
    Celeste licked dry lips. Her eyes blurred as she stared at the black and white work she’d nearly completed, deeply afraid now of Raphael’s reaction and wondering how she might mitigate any possible damage she’d done by venturing along this ill-chosen path. ‘Well, Lord Peregrine didn’t tell me exactly where he is,’ she said slowly, ‘however, he showed me the locket.’
    â€˜Good God!’
    She hid her smile, terrified though she was. He was as shocked as she’d known he would be, and by all that was holy it felt good to spear Raphael with something that wasn’t cold indifference or irritation, even though the consequences for her could be dire.
    â€˜How on earth …?’
    Celeste had never seen him lost for words. Indeed, she, too, had not known what to say when Lord Peregrine had held out