A Beginner's Guide to Rakes Read Online Free PDF Page B

stopped the insult he’d been about to utter, but not the biting anger behind it.
    “I know you don’t embarrass easily,” she said coolly, the pistol unwavering and aimed directly at his chest. “Losing your reputation as a cardplayer, however, is, I believe, another matter entirely. Sit down.”
    He nearly refused, until it occurred to him that not only would she more than likely pull the trigger, but she also might even enjoy it. Slowly, every muscle taut, he sank into the chair again. “I hope you’ve considered how you mean for this conversation to end,” he murmured.
    “I have,” she returned. “I’ve done nothing else for five days, in fact, since I learned of Lord Blalock’s death and that little nuisance Anthony Benchley made me realize that I have quite the prize in Adam House.”
    “Get to it, then.”
    “It’s actually quite simple. Wagering took very nearly everything from me. I mean to turn the vice to my own use now. As for you, Oliver, though you weren’t my first choice, when I consider matters I believe your participation is quite fitting. After all, thanks to Frederick and you I’ve learned a great deal about how men attempt to take advantage, and about how … ill-advised it is to rely on anyone else.”
    “This is all a rather overelaborate means to tell me to go to the devil, then? You might merely have sent a letter. There’s a chance I would even have read it.”
    “Don’t be an idiot,” she retorted, true emotion pitching her voice a breath higher. “This has nothing to do with you, other than the fact that you’re knowledgeable about wagering and that I can compel you to assist me.”
    “By threatening to ruin me and have me banned from every club in London? That’s not a wise approach, Diane.”
    She gazed at him for a long moment. “I’d rather not ruin you, or even shoot you. But I suppose that’s up to you now. Shall we discuss my business requirements, or would you prefer to continue with the threats?”
    Oliver eyed her. “Two years ago you were much more weepy and … soft.”
    “Two years ago I’d just buried an idiot husband who’d left me destitute in a foreign country. And I was not weepy. I was angry.”
    A flash of her moaning beneath him, her nails digging into his back, crossed his mind. “You were, at that. It was quite invigorating.”
    “I have a pistol pointed at you. Do you truly wish to discuss that particular fortnight? You didn’t precisely look anything but cowardly by the end of it.”
    “No, I don’t suppose I do. What am I being compelled to do, then? Loan you five thousand pounds and then what, gamble at your club? Very well. I will lend you the blunt for one year, at the end of which you will return to me six thousand pounds. As you said, no bank would do business with you, so accept the offer or walk away.”
    “I have a counteroffer.”
    “Do tell.” Her statement didn’t surprise him in the least. What she said, however, just might. And that at least made it interesting.
    “You will lend me the money, and you will keep a private lodging at the club. Th—”
    “What? You must be joking.”
    “Your presence here will both provide me with a shield against unwanted attention from others of your gender and make me sought after. You see, via you I will have made myself unobtainable, and you’re quite aware, I believe, that men most want what they cannot have.”
    “So you want me to live here, under your roof. You do wish to be murdered, don’t you?”
    She actually smiled. “I should have mentioned— I’m not in direct possession of that statement from Monsieur DuChamps. I’ve put it somewhere safe, to be opened in the event of my death or disappearance.”
    “Good thinking.”
    “I agree. You are also a master at card playing, so in addition to lodging here you will provide me with every bit of information you have on odds and wagering and the rules of particular games, and you will train my employees.”
    “I’m