Page 39 of Dared By a Lyon
Once the games began, Gabriel quickly realized that Lady Paula’s desire to win was genuine. He even caught her sneakinga peek at the cards of the person next to her when they accidentally revealed them during breaks in play.
“It’s a shame the king won’t be able to come to Bath this week,” she said out of the blue, just as he was about to play an ace of spades.
The other couple looked at her in total confusion. After seeing her looking at their cards, Gabriel recognized it as a hint that Lord West was about to play a king. Irritated with her obvious display of cheating, he took his hand off the ace and fingered a three of spades instead, laying it down and losing the trick to their opponents.
He detested cheating. Excuses aside, it lined up next to lying, which was a terrible offense in his book. If the woman was going to cheat, he would make winning impossible.
When he laid down the ace two turns later, she stared at him in disbelief.
“You should have played that card earlier, my lord,” Lady Paula scolded in her annoying, shrill voice.
“You’re right, of course. It’s too bad the king hadn’t already been played.” Was she mad because he didn’t go along with her cheating? He didn’t like cheaters, and worst of all, he’d already had to put up with her throughout that excessively long lunch. Now, having to sit with her again just added to his complete disgust with her.
“I’d heard you were a very good card player,” she said, pouting. “But we stand to lose.”
As she glared at him, giggles sounded behind him, from the other side of the room. He recognized that lyrical voice. Glancing over the tall head of his table opponent, he spotted Lord Pervis urging a giggling Elizabeth out the door of the room. She was leaning against him. Gabriel knew something was off.
With one turn left in the game, he laid down his remaining card and said, “Excuse me. I’ll be back soon.” With that, he leftthe table and followed Ashbourne and Elizabeth from the room to a dark space behind the red-carpeted stairwell. As he left the room, he heard Lady Paula’s shrill voice declare they had won the last trick.
“No, I’d rather younotkissssss me,” Elizabeth said in a slurred voice, trying to pull out of Ashbourne’s grasp.
“Nonsense. I know you want me to. Besides, how can you expect me to resist those luscious lips?”
Gabriel saw a red mist before his eyes as rage coursed through him. Barreling into Ashbourne, he grabbed the shorter man’s collar and yanked him away from Elizabeth, lifting the man to be eye level with his own six-foot-five-inch height.
“You’re going to regret that, Ashbourne,” Gabriel said, slamming his fist into the man’s face and sending him sprawling. Picking him up off the floor, he punched him again, this time in the gut.
“How dare you?” Ashbourne sputtered, staggering away quickly as Gabriel moved in to punch him again.
“How dareyou?” Gabriel said, his voice steely as he grabbed Ashbourne again. “Touch her again, and I’ll make sure you’ll need extra help to crawl away.”
“Ga-Gabriel… What isssss wrong?” Elizabeth slurred as she stumbled back against the wall. He thought he smelled the distinct almond scent of laudanum on her breath.
Gabriel flung Ashbourne away and turned to Elizabeth. Holding her waist, he tilted her chin up to his gaze.
“Are you all right?” Even as he said it, he knew she’d been drugged. He could tell by how dilated her pupils were. And how she looked at him with an unfocused gaze. “What the hell did you give her, you bastard?” he growled over his shoulder at Ashbourne.
“Nothing! It was laudanum. And only a few drops. Just to make her relax. She was so bloodystiff,” Ashbourne sputtered, as he picked himself up and tried to straighten his clothing.
“You’re lucky I don’t notify the authorities, you blackguard,” Gabriel spat as he tucked Elizabeth firmly against him, moving her away from the alcove where Ashbourne had cornered her.
Ashbourne lurched away, rounding the corner, where Gabriel heard him mutter to a footman that he would no longer need him as a witness. Nor would he pay him for it.
Gabriel stilled and held his finger over his lips, signaling for Elizabeth to listen. She stood still.
Son of a bitch!Ashbourne had planned to compromise her and be “discovered” to ruin her reputation and force a marriage upon her.
“Never mind,” he heard Ashbourne yell at the man. “And you,” he said heatedly, to someone who had appeared in the adjacent hall, where Gabriel couldn’t see. “The man has always come to the rescue of those people whom I deem need to pay a price for their insolence. He broke my nose.”
A familiar, shrill voice answered, “Well, it seems we’ll have to use planB.”
“Did you hear that?” Gabriel asked Elizabeth. He knew it was Lady Paula, and he vowed to get to the bottom of whatever was afoot. He’d not see anyone compromising Elizabeth.
“No.” She giggled, poking her finger in his belly. “What did youhear?”
“Never mind—come with me. We need to get you to your room, love,” he said. Holding hands, they walked up the steps. Luckily, most of the help seemed to be elsewhere. Probably in the kitchen, eating, he thought. He checked the hall before crossing it to her door and stepped inside with her.
“Oh, my! You are in my room, Lord Gabriel… I…I mean Lord Handsome.”
