Dancing With A Devil Read Online Free PDF Page A

ball tonight. He is determined to see her married and out of the house before this season ends.”
    A very odd feeling tightened Trent’s insides into hard knots. He did not need to hear anymore to know her father was uncaring and her brother was an addle pate. Convenience and arranged marriages were the norm, but usually the father arranging such things loved his daughter and did his best to ensure she would be in a good marriage. Trent laid his cards down in front of him faceup. “ Vingt-et-un , gentlemen.”
    “ Damnation!” Cringlewood cried and threw his cards on the table. “Would you be willing to let me pay you back next month?”
    “ Let this be a gift between friends,” Trent replied. “I’m sure your mind was occupied with concern for your sister, as well it should be. Does she have any particular suitors currently that bother you?”
    “ No. No,” Cringlewood replied, standing. “In fact, she is not aware of it yet, but Father has lined up several interested gentlemen for her to meet tonight.” Cringlewood looked away from Trent and across the room. “There’s Thortonberry now, gentlemen. I better take my leave before I’m too tardy for the ball and join my sister in Father’s bad graces.”
    Trent raised an eyebrow at Cringlewood, though he wanted to stand, forcibly detain the man and demand answers. With a casualness he did not feel, he asked, “Is Thortonberry one of your sister’s suitors?”
    Cringlewood chuckled. “Hell no. Thortonberry thinks of Audrey as a sister. He is our neighbor and they have known each other since we were all in leading strings. If I thought I could hoist Audrey off on Thortonberry I would, but as you can see”―Cringlewood waved toward the marquess who stood some twenty brown-lacquered wood tables away, locked in the embrace of the demirep he had been speaking with―“he has no interest in marriage. But he did generously offer to do me the favor of helping to keep an eye on my sister, so we really must go.”
    Trent did not like the sound of that at all. He did not trust Thortonberry to keep nothing but his gaze on Audrey, even if her doltish brother did. His gut told him Thortonberry was not as he seemed, and intuition had saved him more times that he could remember when he was on assignment for Prinny in France. The only time it had ever failed him was with Gwyneth. He had never suspected she was anything other than the simple Frenchwoman she had pretended to be, working in a bookstore with her brother.
    His thoughts were interrupted by Thortonberry’s appearance. The marquess regarded everyone at the table with assessing green eyes before his gaze locked with Trent’s. “I seem to be running into you at all the hellfire clubs this week, Davenport. Have an itch you cannot get scratched properly?”
    “ I could ask you the same,” Trent replied, making sure his sarcasm laced his tone, instead of the irritation strumming through him. Thortonberry’s caustic remark had touched a nerve.
    Thortonberry’s gaze sharpened. “I’m perfectly satisfied, just voracious. And late.” He glanced at his pocket watch, then turned to Cringlewood. “I took the liberty of requesting the supper dance with your sister. I thought that way you would be free to do as you please at supper, and I can keep a watchful eye on her.”
    “ That’s grand of you,” Cringlewood boomed. “Gentlemen, many thanks for tonight.”
    As Cringlewood and Thortonberry disappeared into the crowd, Trent stood. “I’m going.”
    “ Going where?” Dinnisfree asked.
    “ To the Allred ball.”
    “ Devil take it. I knew you were going to say that.”
    Sutherland stood, a grin stretching his face. “I’m going there as well. Whitney is expecting me. Are you coming, Dinnisfree?”
    Dinnisfree shrugged into his overcoat and shook his head. “Even if I did not have somewhere else pressing to be, I would not willingly go to a ball crammed full of supposedly perfectly proper lords and ladies.