Lord Gray's List Read Online Free PDF

in dire straits. The debts must have been crippling for them to come to this pass.
    “You’re mad. No, that would be me, wouldn’t it?” Robert chuckled, though his dark eyes remained bleak.
    “Not mad. I hope my faculties are as intact as anyone’s. But I am somewhat perturbed to see each and every breath catalogued each and every Tuesday. I take it Evangeline didn’t mention my offer when you took lunch together.”
    “If she did, I simply don’t remember,” Robert shrugged. “Evie does hold a grudge, but not with me. Don’t know why she takes such good care of me. I wasn’t much of a father.”
    Ben silently agreed. Robert Ramsey had dragged his impressionable daughter throughout the British Isles and the rest of Europe in search of an elusive golden jackpot. It had been feast or famine for the Ramseys, probably one reason Evie had been so reluctant to throw her lot in with the youthful, feckless, gambling Ben.
    She might have noted in her constant investigation of his activities that the only risks he took currently were on the Exchange. He wagered now in only the most minimal way, as any gentleman did to pass the time and keep boredom at bay. He had never been struck with her father’s fever, but at twenty-two—older than he by two long years—Evie had thought she knew everything. She had seen what she had wanted to see—a careless, good-natured youth anxious to rub elbows with more experienced men at the tables. Become a man of the world. She had helped in that effort, and not entirely against her will.
    Only her better judgment.
    Gad, but there was no point in crying over spilt milk. He’d been better off without Evangeline Ramsey to harass and harangue him in person—bad enough she did it in the poisonous pages of her news rag.
    “What say you, Robert? I mean to make my offer tempting—you could leave this address, perhaps go to Italy to get out of the worst of the winter.”
    The old man turned up a card. The Jack of Hearts. He slipped it back into the deck and continued to shuffle. “It will be rainy season there. The south of France might be better. A jolly Joyeaux Noel, what? Evie might like that now that Boney’s settled.”
    “Anywhere in the world, Robert,” Ben said with patience he did not feel.
    The Ace of Spades dropped to the table, and Robert’s mouth turned down. “I’ll have to talk to Evie. She won’t like it that you’re here, going behind her back.”
    “I spoke to her this morning. She knows full well that I intend to buy the paper from you. In fact, I charged her to make my offer.”
    “She may have . . . but I don’t think so. We had toasted cheese, though. My favorite.”
    Ben could sense the man withdrawing into his private world. Robert’s mouth slackened and his eyes slipped from his cards to a corner of the room.
    “We can draw up a simple agreement now, right here. I’ll get my solicitor to work up something more formal if you wish later. I’ll place no stipulations on the sale—you’ll have the full amount before the day is done.”
    Robert was silent for a long while, lining his cards face-down on the table in a concentric circle. When all fifty-two had been placed where he wanted, he nodded his head. “I’ll talk to Evie.”
    “This is in her best interest, Robert.” He waited a beat. “Do you know she goes about town dressed as a man?”
    To Ben’s surprise, the man’s eyes lit. “Does she now? She used to do that. When she was a girl. Sometimes the places we were—it wasn’t quite safe for her to be a young lady. I’m sorry for that.”
    Ben played his own last card. “Robert, she’s a girl no longer. Imagine the scandal if people discovered her disguise. She’d be shunned. If you sell me The London List there will be no need of her to risk her reputation. You’ll have enough to provide her with a handsome dowry.” Not that any man in his right mind would ever marry Evangeline Ramsey—Ben’s offer was more than generous but still