The Courtesan's Wager Read Online Free PDF

quite inconceivable that a mother could possibly practice such discretion with, one might even say against , her own children.
    “No, not precisely,” Blakes said, “but Sophia said as much, without actually admitting a thing, naturally.”
    “Naturally,” Cranleigh said wryly.
    “That sounds precisely like her,” Iveston said. “What little I know of her,” he added. Iveston had, in fact, by way of his zealously guarded privacy, spent very little time with anyone, particularly women, and even more particularly if they were unmarried women.
    “I have some trouble believing that the duchess has more than a passing acquaintance with Lady Dalby. It would be approaching scandalous and we all know how little the duchess cares for scandal,” Cranleigh said.
    “Where we’re concerned, certainly,” Blakes said, “she has as much toleration for scandal as any mother, which is to say, none at all, but this is about another woman and, as we all know, women have very different requirements where other women are concerned.”
    “Mother is a woman, that is true,” George said somewhat reluctantly. It was most strange to think of one’s mother as anything other than a mother. Most strange and not entirely pleasant.
    They pondered that individually and silently, the room shifting as Blakes made a seat for himself next to Cranleigh on the sofa. There was hardly room, but Blakes didn’t seem to care that Cranleigh had to put his feet on the floor and shift his arse over to accommodate him. Blakes, now that he had Louisa, seemed to think he could do anything.
    “You still plan to leave?” Blakes asked him quietly.
    “I do,” Cranleigh mumbled, slouching down and extending his legs out.
    “More now than ever, I should think,” Blakes said.
    “There is no more now than ever to it,” Cranleigh snarled quietly, casting his brother a sideways glance. “I like the sea. I like Uncle Timothy, for all that he’s an American. There is little for me to do here.”
    “You could marry,” Blakes suggested.
    Cranleigh snorted. “I have no need to marry.”
    “I believe that people marry not only for need, but for want.”
    “I want for nothing.”
    “And no one?” Blakes asked softly.
    “And no one,” Cranleigh answered stiffly, his gaze on his feet stretched out before him.
    “Then I suppose it is wise of you not to marry,” Blakes said evenly. “When will you go?”
    “Next month, I should think. There should be an Elliot ship in port in the next few weeks. Timothy has offered me a place on any of his ships.”
    “Most kind of him.”
    “I’ve earned it,” Cranleigh said, shifting his weight.
    “No doubt of that,” Blakes said. “I suppose the duchess will cry.”
    Cranleigh snorted again, this time in amusement. “I suppose she will not. She didn’t cry the first time I took to sea. Why should she cry now?”
    “Perhaps because it’s the last time?” Blakes said softly, gazing at Cranleigh’s profile. “You don’t intend to return, do you?”
    “Of course I do. What nonsense, Blakes.”
    “Is it?”
    “Complete.” But he did not look his brother in the eye as he said it. No, Blakes was far too discerning and saw too many things Cranleigh did not wish him to see.
    “Well then, I’m glad to be wrong about it. I should miss you, I think.”
    “With that pretty bride waiting in your bed?” Cranleigh said with a half smile. “I think not.”
    “Oh, we do not restrict ourselves to beds, Cranleigh. Too pedestrian for my Louisa. She does like to get about, you know. Very ambitious, my girl. Quite like her cousin, Amelia, in that, though not in form, of course.”
    “Of course,” Cranleigh said. “Not at all in form. Quite obviously.”
    “They’re very close, those two, nearly like sisters. I should think Lady Amelia will make herself quite at home here, or whenever Louisa is in residence at Hyde House.”
    “When are you leaving, by the way?” Cranleigh asked casually.
    “As soon as the