A Scandalous Countess: A Novel of the Malloren World Read Online Free PDF Page B

None’sproduced offspring of quality, but it’s always a gamble. Remarkable horses have come out of indifferent dams.”
     
    “It’s still a mad chance.”
     
    “Life’s all about the mad chance, Tom—at least for those of us born to make our own way in the world.”
     
    “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
     
    “Because you’re an open-faced fellow and Hernescroft might have sniffed a rat.”
     
    “He might not care. He’s sure he’ll win.”
     
    Dracy looked across the track at the stocky, full-bellied earl. “He won’t.”
     
    “You can’t be sure—”
     
    “Nothing is ever sure. Not even that we’ll return safely to our homes from this event.”
     
    “Oh, I say…”
     
    At least that gloomy observation silenced Knowlton and let Dracy study his horse.
     
    Carta was perfectly conformed. Even his cousin Ceddie had seen that. The fool had ruined the estate with his taste for London life and the latest fashions, and he’d sold off his father’s famous thoroughbreds to pay for gewgaws. He’d kept Carta, however, called the Midnight Jade then, hoping she’d eventually show well in races and sell for a high price.
     
    Carta had been Ceddie’s gamble, and now she was his, renamed for the best battle he’d taken part in. Do or die, then and now.
     
    “Here we go,” Knowlton said, as the jockeys mounted.
     
    Hernescroft’s man wore green and yellow silks, Dracy’s black and red lozenges. The two horses eyed each other as if they knew everything rested on this contest of speed and stamina.
     
    “The deuce!” exclaimed Knowlton.
     
    “What?” Dracy looked around for some unexpected hazard.
     
    “The Scandalous Countess. Over there, in men’s clothing.”
     
    Dracy looked and saw a man cramming a wide-brimmed hat back on the head of a laughing, red-haired woman.
     
    “You could object to that,” Knowlton said. “She could jinx the whole thing.”
     
    “I don’t believe in jinxes.” Dracy returned his attention to important matters. Devil take it, Carta was starting one of her fidgets. Perhaps she objected to red hair.
     
    “Got Maybury killed in a duel over her lewd behavior.”
     
    “Who?”
     
    “Lady Maybury. The Scandalous Countess.”
     
    “She planned it?” Dracy asked, a scrap of attention caught.
     
    “No, no. At least, I don’t think so. Husband dead, Vance fled the country, but there she is, merry as a mayfly. Maybury was an amiable fellow.”
     
    “If he was amiable enough to let her stray, he should have been too amiable to challenge someone over it.”
     
    “Devil take it, Dracy!”
     
    “I’ve no interest in Lady Maybury or her lovers. Calm down, Carta. Calm down. At this rate she’ll burn off her energy before the race starts.”
     
    “Too high-spirited.”
     
    “There’s nothing wrong with high spirits.”
     
    “A true beauty,” Knowlton said.
     
    “Isn’t she just?”
     
    “But too wild to handle.”
     
    “Jorrocks and she understand each other.”
     
    “Who? Damn me, Dracy, I was talking about Georgia Maybury.”
     
    “To hell with Georgia Maybury. They’re readying for the off.”
     
    The buzz of conversation died away.
     
    The horses would gallop eight times around the course, to make two miles.
     
    Devil take the jade, right now he’d get top odds. She’dbucked as if trying to unseat Jorrocks. The groom turned her in a tight circle, forcing her to behave, but men were shaking their heads.
     
    Dracy glared at the starter, Sir Charles Bunbury, who was chatting to Hernescroft. Perhaps the glare was felt, for Bunbury turned and called for order.
     
    “Here we go,” Knowlton muttered.
     
    Bunbury waved the flag.
     
    “They’re off.”
     
    Carta was caught in a fidget and Fancy Free took the lead, thundering toward the distant oak that marked the turning point of the course. Dracy took out his navy telescope and watched Carta close the gap as they turned the tree.
     
    “Nothing in it,” he muttered,