A Rake's Vow Read Online Free

Debbington, mute and tight-lipped on the other side of Minnie. The information that he was permitted to enter a church did not melt her ice one jot.
    “And this is Patience Debbington, my niece,” Minnie put in, before Gerrard and Edmond could monopolize him further.
    Vane bowed elegantly in response to Patience’s abbreviated bob. “I know,” he drawled, his gaze on her stubbornly averted eyes. “We’ve met.”
    “You have?” Minnie blinked at him, then looked at Patience, now staring, dagger-eyed, at Vane.
    Patience glanced, somewhat evasively, at Minnie. “I was in the garden when Mr. Cynster arrived.” The glance she flicked Vane was exceedingly careful. “With Myst.”
    “Ah.” Minnie nodded and scanned the room. “Right then—now everyone’s been introduced, Vane, you may lead me in.”
    He dutifully did so, the others filing in in their wake. As he conducted Minnie to the foot of the long table, Vane wondered why Patience did not want it known she’d been searching for something in the flower bed. As he settled Minnie in her chair, he noticed a place had been set directly opposite, at the table’s head.
    “Daresay you’d like to chat with your godson.” Whitticombe Colby stopped beside Minnie’s chair. He smiled unctuously. “I would be happy to surrender my place—”
    “No need for that, Whitticombe,” Minnie cut in. “What would I do without your erudite company?” She looked up at Vane, on her other side. “You take the chair at the head, dear boy.” She held his gaze; Vane raised a brow, then bowed—Minnie tugged and he leaned closer. “I need a man I can trust sitting there.”
    Minnie’s whisper reached only him; Vane inclined his head slightly and straightened. As he strolled down the room, he studied the seating arrangements—Patience had already claimed the chair to the left of his alloted place, with Henry Chadwick beside her. Edith was settling in opposite Patience while Edgar was making for the next seat along. Nothing in the arrangement suggested a reason for Minnie’s comment; Vane couldn’t imagine that Minnie, with wits like quicksilver, thought her niece, presently armored in cold steel, could possibly need protection from the likes of Colby.
    Which meant Minnie’s utterance had some deeper meaning; Vane inwardly sighed, and made a mental note to ferret it out. Before he escaped from Bellamy Hall.
    The first course was served the instant they all sat. Minnie’s cook was excellent; Vane applied himself to the meal with unfeigned appreciation.
    Edgar started the conversational ball rolling. “Heard that the Whippet’s odds on for the Guineas.”
    Vane shrugged. “There’s been a lot of blunt laid on Blackamoor’s Boy and Huntsman’s well fancied, too.”
    “Is it true,” Henry Chadwick asked, “that the Jockey Club’s thinking of changing their rules?”
    The ensuing discussion even drew a tittering comment from Edith Swithins: “Such fanciful names you gentlemen give the horses. Never anything like Goldie, or Muffins, or Blacky.”
    Neither Vane, Edgar, or Henry felt qualified to take that point further.
    “I had heard,” Vane drawled, “that the Prince Regent’s battling debtors again.”
    “Again?” Henry shook his head. “A spendthrift through and through.” Under Vane’s subtle direction, the talk turned to Prinny’s latest eccentricities, on which Henry, Edgar, and Edith all entertained firm opinions.
    On Vane’s left, however, perfect silence reigned.
    A fact which only increased his determination to do something about it, about Patience Debbington’s adamant disapproval. The itch to tweak her nose, to prick her into response, waxed strong. Vane kept the lid on his temper; they were not alone—yet.
    The few minutes he’d spent changing, slipping into a familiar routine, had settled his mind, cleared his vision. Just because fate had succeeded in trapping him here, under the same roof as Patience Debbington, was no reason to consider