Jane Feather - [V Series] Read Online Free PDF

waiting for him at a small card table in a relatively quiet corner of the room. He indicated a fresh deck of cards on the table as he took his place. “Do you care to break them, Davenport?”
    Sebastian shrugged and pushed them across to the marquis. “You do the honors, my lord.”
    “As you wish.” The cards were shuffled and dealt and a silence fell between the two men. Sebastian had a full glass of claret at his elbow but Marcus noticed that although he seemed to raise it to his lips frequently, the level barely went down. A most serious gamester. And an expert card player. Marcus, who was no mean player himself, recognized that he was outclassed after the third hand. He relaxed, resigned to his losses, and began to enjoy playing with a master. “Well, my lord, this is a pleasant surprise.” Judith’s dulcet tones came from behind him and she offered himher most ravishing smile. “I have been sadly disappointed at your absence.”
    “Stand behind your brother,” he snapped, quite impervious to this coquettry.
    “I beg your pardon?” She frowned in puzzlement.
    “Stand behind your brother, where I can see you.”
    Comprehension dawned. She stared at him in dismay, all pretense at flirtation vanishing under the sting of such an unwarranted assumption. “But I wouldn’t—”
    “Wouldn’t you?” he interrupted, without looking up from his cards; it was a damnably difficult discard he had to make. “Nevertheless, I prefer not to take the risk. Now move.”
    She stepped sideways, struggling for composure, seeking support from her brother. “Sebastian …?”
    Sebastian gave a rueful chuckle. “He caught you at it, Ju. I can’t call him out for you. Not in the circumstances.”
    “No, I don’t think you can,” Marcus agreed, discarding a ten of spades. “Not that you need any help from your sister.” He watched with resignation as his opponent picked up the discard. “You’ll not even spare me the Rubicon, I fear.”
    Sebastian totted up the points. “I’m afraid not, Carrington. I make it ninety-seven.”
    “What were the stakes?” Judith demanded, this issue taking immediate precedence over hurt feelings.
    Marcus began to laugh. “What an incorrigibly unprincipled pair you are.”
    “Not really,” Sebastian said. “Ju, at least, has some very strong principles … it’s just that they tend to be eccentric. Her view of ethics doesn’t always coincide with the common view.”
    “I don’t find that in the least difficult to believe,” Marcus said.
    “That’s true of you, too, Sebastian,” Judith pointed out. “You should understand, my lord, that we obey our own rules.” Maybe a different form of flirtation would work with this intransigent marquis. If he preferred challenge to coquettry, she could offer him that.
    Disappointingly, Marcus shook his head. “That’s provocation for another day, ma’am.… I’ll settle up with you in the morning, Davenport.” He scrawled an IOU on the pad at his elbow and pushed it over. “Fill in the sum. What have you done with my cousin, Miss Davenport?”
    “He’s gone off with Viscount Chancet and his friends. They had an engagement. And he is feeling very much in charity with me, my lord.”
    Marcus stood up. “Mmmm. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. However, don’t rest on your laurels, my dear.” He pinched her cheek. “As I told you yesterday, you haven’t yet tasted my mettle.”
    “He’s damned familiar with you,” Sebastian observed as the marquis walked off.
    “Yes, and I could cut his throat,” Judith declared. “I’m trying to flirt with him and he treats me like a tiresome child in the schoolroom. I think he believes that now he knows what we are, he can be as familiar as he pleases.”
    Sebastian frowned. “That’s perhaps understandable. Just so long as he keeps his knowledge to himself.”
    Judith sighed. “I don’t seem to be doing too well with my present strategy to ensure that he does.”
    “You were