The Earl's Prize (Harlequin Historical) Page 9

  Later on, he had deliberately asked her if she had obtained a ticket for the draw and she had stammered and blushed with a look of absolute guilt. He had asked her what she would do if she had found a ticket and she had turned scarlet. She was no natural conspirator, but she was certainly hiding something.

  Joss swallowed another mouthful of claret and gazed thoughtfully into space. He had a good memory for figures and he could recall the exact number on his lottery ticket. Two thousand, five hundred and eighty-eight, winning thirty thousand pounds. He did not need the thirty thousand pounds from a financial point of view, although it would still have been welcome, but his sense of fair play told him that money was rightfully his.

  So what should he do? Joss smiled faintly. He could ask Miss Bainbridge directly, of course, or he could mention to Richard that he had dropped a lottery ticket in his dining room and see what kind of response that elicited. Those were by far the most sensible, the most prosaic courses of action. He could even dismiss the whole matter from his mind, given that thirty thousand pounds was a mere drop in the ocean of the restored Tallant fortune. However, such a sensible course was also a trifle dull and he detested the ordinary. So, instead, he could watch Miss Amy Bainbridge for signs of sudden prosperity—see when a modish gown from Bond Street’s finest couturier replaced the dress of faded lavender.

  His lips twisted cynically. Miss Bainbridge was undoubtedly an unusual woman. He had actually enjoyed her company, which in itself was rather startling. It had been a novelty for him to hold a conversation with a woman who employed no arts to attract him and in whom he had not the slightest romantic interest. She was not conventional; he had suspected it when he had first met her in Covent Garden. Their recent conversation in the phaeton, which had started predictably enough, had soon veered off in an unexpected direction. Joss had been intrigued. Instead of the ordinary conversational gambits that he had intended to employ to pass the journey, he had allowed himself to enter into a genuine debate, a debate that had been decidedly stimulating. Nor was little Miss Bainbridge as reserved as he had at first imagined. No, indeed, there was a core of strength beneath that quiet exterior.

  Was it a core of strength that had permitted her to deliberately appropriate someone else’s property and use it for her own financial gain? Joss could not be sure. On the one hand, she had struck him as thoroughly honest, but the requisitioning of his lottery ticket for her own ends did suggest an adaptable attitude towards morality. Joss raised his glass in a mocking tribute to the absent lady. There was no doubt that Miss Bainbridge was a decidedly unusual woman. It would be no hardship to study her a little. No, indeed, no hardship at all.

  ‘I am not sure that a lottery win is respectable,’ Lady Bainbridge said thoughtfully. ‘We must make sure that no one knows the truth of it. Cits and nabobs are disreputable enough, but a win on the lottery is quite beyond the pale!’

  It was early afternoon and Amy, Amanda and Lady Bainbridge were ensconced in the parlour with a pot of tea and chocolate biscuits in celebration of the occasion. Lady Bainbridge had insisted on celebrating, even when Amy had finally managed to make both her friend and her mother stop talking for long enough for her to explain that the lottery ticket belonged to Richard. They had both looked disappointed for a moment and then Lady Bainbridge had ventured the opinion that it need not matter and had immediately gone back to the fascinating topic of what to do with the money.

  ‘No, it is not at all respectable,’ Amanda was agreeing with a laugh, ‘but you must own, Lady Bainbridge, that it is vastly exciting to be in possession of thirty thousand pounds.’

  Lady Bainbridge nodded with more animation than Amanda had seen in her in years. ‘Well, of course. It is not tonnish to win money, of course, especially not for a woman. In fact, it is quite scandalous! And no amount of cash makes one truly acceptable to society. That need not matter in Amy’s case, however! We shall simply put about a story that she has inherited a fortune! No one need know where it has really come from!’

  Amy frowned slightly. She was a little puzzled at the direction the conversation was taking, for it seemed that Lady Bainbridge was wilfully misunderstanding the situation. She sat forward on her chair.

  ‘But, Mama, I thought that you understood? We cannot spend any of the money. The ticket must belong to Richard. I did not buy it and I found it in the dining room!’

  Lady Bainbridge looked slightly shifty. ‘I do not recall that your brother mentioned buying a lottery ticket, my love. Ten to one you will find it was not his! Maybe it blew in from the street—’

  ‘Or a bird dropped it down the chimney!’ Amanda finished eagerly.

  Amy looked at them suspiciously, and then the penny dropped. ‘Oh, I see! You do not wish it to be Richard’s ticket! Mama, how could you?’

  Lady Bainbridge drooped. ‘I know it is dreadfully dishonest, my love, but your brother has an income of his own whilst you have nothing, and besides, he would only gamble it away…’

  Since this was exactly what Amy had thought from the first moment, she could not really dispute it. She pulled a face. ‘I know that is so, Mama, but we cannot pretend that it is mine—’

  ‘Oh, why not?’ Lady Bainbridge looked anguished. ‘You could say that you found it in the street, or that it was stuck to the doorstep! Any number of excuses could do!’

  Amy put her teacup down and moved across to the window seat. ‘Mama, I am as concerned as you yourself that Richard will gamble the whole fortune away—’

  ‘Then why give it to him?’ Lady Bainbridge twisted her hands together. ‘Oh, Amy, we would be able to live so much more comfortably—refurnish the house and buy a few more candles…’ She wavered to a halt at the look on Amy’s face. ‘Must you be so tiresomely virtuous about this? Why not give Richard half, if your conscience troubles you? Even fifteen thousand pounds would be something.’

  ‘Make it twenty thousand,’ Amanda advised. ‘That way Amy might have the chance of an advantageous marriage.’

  ‘Wait! Wait!’ Amy besought. ‘I have no wish to marry, certainly not to a man who is only interested in me for my fortune! Amanda, you must remember all those dreadful men we met during our come-out! Why, half of them had no conversation, and the other half had conversation that consisted of talking about nothing except themselves. It was dreadfully boring.’

  Amanda was nodding sagely. ‘I know, Amy, but you may find that matters will be very different now.’

  ‘A man can make himself extremely agreeable for the sake of thirty thousand pounds,’ Lady Bainbridge added.

  Amy frowned. ‘I do not wish a man to make himself agreeable for my money, I wish him to do so because he likes me for myself! Oh, this is ridiculous! I do not wish to go into society and I do not wish to marry and the whole thing is speculative anyway since I have not won the money—’

  ‘My dear Amy!’ her mother said, in the tones of one addressing a simpleton. ‘Surely you do not expect us to continue living retired now that we have come into money?’

  ‘Why, yes!’ Amy said. ‘Even were the money mine, I have no wish to go out into society!’

  Amanda and Lady Bainbridge exchanged a look. ‘My love,’ Lady Bainbridge said carefully, putting down her teacup with solid emphasis, ‘I believe you must have misunderstood our situation. We do not live retired because we wish to do so. We live retired because it is cheaper!’

  ‘Yes, Mama.’ Amy fidgeted a little uncomfortably. ‘I understand that, but I prefer to live quietly. The balls and entertainments of the ton do not appeal to me.’

  Lady Bainbridge blinked. ‘How can you know that, my love, when you had only one season and that was so tragically foreshortened by your father’s death? You will find that society is an entirely different matter when you are courted as an heiress.’

  Amanda was nodding enthusiastically. ‘Oh, yes, Amy! Lady Bainbridge is in the right of it, you know!’

  Amy felt as though she was struggling in a quicksand. Both her mother and Amanda had gl
ossed over the issue of the rightful ownership of the lottery fortune and had moved on to Amy’s prospects with breathtaking speed. She drew breath to argue, but before she could say anything else, the door opened and Richard Bainbridge strolled in, home at last. He bent to give Lady Bainbridge a dutiful kiss, then straightened up, grinned at Amy and gave Amanda an elegant bow and an admiring glance.

  ‘Lady Spry, is it not? Your servant, ma’am. Mama, is there a cup for me?’

  ‘Of course, dearest!’ Lady Bainbridge rang the bell. ‘Richard, you will not believe! The most extraordinary good luck—’

  ‘Please, Mama!’ Amy said quickly, leaping in before her mother entangled them all in a web of untruths. ‘Richard, did you have a lottery ticket for the draw today?’

  Richard looked confused. ‘Why do you ask, Amy? No, I did not. I was going to buy one but I never got around to it.’ He took a chocolate biscuit and bit into it. ‘How delicious. Are we celebrating?’

  ‘Yes!’ Lady Bainbridge seized the moment. ‘Richard, your sister has won thirty thousand pounds on the lottery! Is it not fine? We have just been making a few plans…’

  ‘A moment, Mama!’ Amy said desperately. She swung round on her brother. ‘Richard, are you certain that you did not have a ticket?’

  ‘Of course I’m certain!’ Richard looked quizzical. ‘As for you, buying tickets on the sly…I can only congratulate you!’

  Amy blushed. ‘Oh, but I did not—’

  Lady Bainbridge cleared her throat meaningfully. ‘Amy means that she did not expect to win, Richard.’

  ‘Mama!’ Amy glared.

  ‘I should go,’ Amanda said, getting reluctantly to her feet. ‘I am sure that you must have a million and one things to discuss en famille! Dear Amy—’ she swooped on her friend with a scented kiss ‘—you have no idea how much I envy you your good fortune! I trust we shall be able to meet up again soon.’

  Amy grasped her sleeve. ‘Oh, but we have not had chance to exchange our news! Please come to see me tomorrow.’

  ‘Of course,’ Amanda said, with an enchanting smile. She dropped a curtsy to Lady Bainbridge. ‘Good day, ma’am.’

  ‘Richard, go to procure Lady Spry a hack,’ Lady Bainbridge said authoritatively as her son, nothing loath, escorted Amanda from the room. ‘Such a pretty child,’ she added, as the door closed behind them. ‘It is a shame that her fortune is no more than ordinary, for Richard really needs to marry an heiress.’

  ‘Mama,’ Amy said, ‘I had no notion that your thoughts ran along so mercenary a route! You have quite shocked me today.’

  Lady Bainbridge opened her eyes wide. ‘My dear Amy, I am only trying to do the best for my children and if I have not seemed to put myself out before it is because we did not have the fortune to do the thing in style!’ She smiled contentedly. ‘But now all that is changed, of course. It is high time that Richard was wed and an heiress will be just the thing for him. As for you, now you have a fortune of your own it will be monstrous easy to see you settled! I think we shall invent an elderly spinster aunt from whom you have inherited. Yes, indeed, old Aunt Bessie from Kent, lived quite retired for many years, but devoted to you, my love, and surprisingly rich…’

  ‘Mama!’ Amy said again, horrified at her mother’s duplicity.

  ‘Well?’ Lady Bainbridge looked defiant. ‘You heard your brother, my love. The ticket is not his!’

  The door opened again as Richard came back into the room. ‘What a charming girl your friend is, Amy. ’Tis a pity she has no fortune, for then she would be more engaging still!’ He sat down and swung a careless leg over the arm of his chair. ‘Is there any cake, Mama? Surely we can run to that now that Amy is so rich?’ He grinned at his sister. ‘Can you lend me a couple of thousand guineas, just to tide me over? There’s a game on at the Cocoa Tree tonight…’

  Amy made a despairing gesture. ‘Richard, it is not as simple as that—’

  ‘Too soon?’ Her brother looked disappointed. ‘I dare say you have not had chance to claim the money yet? I’ll go for you if you give me the ticket, or better still, send Churchward! Time the poor chap had some pleasant business to undertake for this family!’

  ‘Exactly what I thought,’ Lady Bainbridge nodded and smiled. ‘Churchward will see to it, Amy. He can make a few sound investments for you, my love, and then we will have the rest to spend. You need a couple of new dresses, but not too many,’ she added hastily. ‘We must still be careful to make sure the money is not wasted!’

  Amy blinked hard. Matters were moving very quickly and she felt as though she could not quite catch up. The lottery ticket in the dining room had not been Richard’s after all…Whilst her mother rattled on, she tried to think. If Richard had not been the owner of the ticket she had found in the dining room then it must have belonged to one of his cronies who had been playing hazard two nights ago, to Bertie Hallam or Humphrey Dainty, or the Duke of Fleet…or Joss Tallant. She suddenly went cold all over. She had appropriated a lottery ticket that belonged to someone else…

  Richard got up to hold the door as Patience came in with a laden tray. ‘Excellent! More tea and fresh biscuits! Do we have any cake, Patience?’

  Patience looked outraged. ‘Cake? I should think not, Sir Richard. Pure extravagance!’

  ‘We are celebrating, Patience,’ Lady Bainbridge said hastily. ‘Amy has inherited a sum of money—’

  ‘I’m sure I wish you very happy, miss,’ Patience said, her stern face almost cracking into a smile. ‘Perhaps there will be some money to spend on you now!’

  She swished out with a righteous rustle of black crepe.

  Richard winked at her and Amy felt herself blush hard. The tales were already being spun; the story was already running out of control. Soon it would be halfway around London. She had to put a stop to this once and for all.

  ‘Mama! Richard!’ she said, so sharply that Lady Bainbridge jumped and spilt her tea. ‘You do not understand. I have been trying to explain to you this age that the lottery ticket does not belong to me! I found it!’

  There was a short silence. Richard and Lady Bainbridge looked at each other and then back at Amy.

  ‘So?’ Lady Bainbridge said, as though expecting more. ‘That merely makes you twice as lucky, my love!’

  ‘No!’ Amy frowned fiercely. ‘It makes it imperative that I find the rightful owner.’ She swung round on her brother. ‘I found it in the dining room. I thought that it must be yours, Richard, for it was lying beside your chair.’

  Richard’s face was a picture. ‘In our dining room! Well, perhaps I did buy one after all—’

  ‘No, you did not!’ Amy got to her feet and paced restlessly across the room. ‘You said earlier that you had not got around to buying one. Do not try to gammon me! It must belong to one of your cronies—to Bertie, or Humphrey Dainty, or the Duke of Fleet, or…or the Earl of Tallant.’ Her voice wavered a little on the last name.

  Lady Bainbridge was looking bewildered. She started to pull her delicate lace handkerchief through her fingers. ‘I do not understand! Surely you are not suggesting that the money belongs to someone else, Amy?’

  ‘It must do, Mama!’ Amy swung round on her. ‘I have been trying to get that point across to you this half-hour past! The ticket is not mine and it is not Richard’s! The servants do not gamble and I do not suppose that you had a lottery ticket in your possession?’

  ‘No, indeed.’ Lady Bainbridge sagged a little. ‘Though if I had known that I should win thirty thousand pounds I would most certainly have procured one!’

  Amy frowned a little. ‘We digress, Mama! The ticket must belong to one of Richard’s friends and we should give it back!’

  ‘Oh, no!’ Lady Bainbridge moaned softly. ‘All that money. I cannot bear it!’

  Richard had his head in his hands. He looked up, his eyes bright with hope. ‘It cannot belong to either Bertie or Humphrey, for they were both with me at the Cocoa Tree this morning and neither of them made mention of the lottery draw. Seb a
nd Joss, I do not know. I could ask them, I suppose…’ He looked most unhappy at the thought.

  ‘The Earl of Tallant drove Amy back from the Guildhall and the Duke of Fleet escorted Amanda Spry,’ Lady Bainbridge said eagerly. ‘Surely they would have said something if either of them had dropped a ticket here that night?’

  ‘I am sure they would.’ Richard stood up and stretched. ‘So really we need not regard it.’

  Amy looked at her relatives wrathfully. ‘Really and truly I cannot believe what I am hearing! You both think that we should just forget that the money belongs to someone else?’

  Richard flushed and Lady Bainbridge looked defiant in a genteel manner.

  ‘If it was Joss or Seb who had found the ticket and won the money, they would keep it for themselves,’ Richard argued hotly. ‘They need not know that it was you who found it! Besides, they are both rich and do not need the money as we do. Winner takes all!’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Lady Bainbridge said quickly, ‘I am sure that must be true, Amy dearest! We are far more deserving.’

  Amy shook her head. ‘It is immoral, Mama—’

  ‘So is gambling,’ Richard said, with a quick grin, ‘yet you are the one holding the winning lottery ticket, sis.’

  ‘I went to the draw to try to find you!’ Amy snapped, her patience at an end. ‘I thought the money was yours—’

  ‘Then give it to me if it salves your conscience!’ Richard reached for her reticule.

  ‘Oh, no, you don’t!’ Amy grabbed at it. ‘I shall hand this over to no one but Mr Churchward and I shall ask him to hold the money safely until I have discovered the real winner. Now, I am going to lie down. My head aches and I need to decide what to do.’