Page 111 of Duke with a Deception
“Because the six of us are now married men, in love with our wives, and we no longer want to be tasked with hosting the house parties or otherwise running the club. None of us needs the funds, but we hate to see our efforts of so many years end. We are looking for new blood to take the reins.”
She gave a short laugh. “My blood is hardly new. I am five-and-thirty.”
“Ancient,” he said lightly, “as I am only four-and-thirty.”
“You know what I am saying, King. Such clubs are for the young and wild and reckless. I am none of those things.”
Samuel had returned to King’s ear, licking it exuberantly. He gently guided the pup back to his lap before resuming his explanation.
“You have been the epitome of discretion for as long as I have known you, Ophelia,” he said softly. “Your marriage was a misery, and we both know it. You have lived for your children alone. It is time you lived for yourself.”
She laughed, looking startled. “What use do you think I could possibly have for a scandalous club? I’m not looking for a lover.”
He shrugged. “You need not be. That is the beauty of the club. You may participate or not. Many of our members prefer to be masked. No one needs to even know it is you. Do as much or as little as you like. The funds are more than handsome, and if you gather a group of similar-minded friends as we did, you can share the duties, and all reap the rewards.”
“What you speak of is madness,” she said, but there was a hint of curiosity in her voice that he didn’t miss.
Henry began chewing enthusiastically on a chair leg in the next moment.
“Henry,” Ophelia chided. “You must not eat the furniture. It is badly done of you.”
The pup wandered off in favor of a potted plant.
“It need not be madness,” he pointed out, scratching Samuel’s silky neck. “The six of us have orchestrated it for years with great success.”
“And now you wish to take your leave because you are all happily wed? Forgive me for saying that you don’t look particularly contented.”
“That has nothing to do with the club and everything to do with my own actions,” he conceded gruffly. “I have rather made a mess of my affairs, and I am now paying the price.”
“I thought yours was a love match.”
“It was,” he said through a throat gone thick with emotion. “It is. But I have wronged my wife, and she left me a fortnight ago. I have been merely existing in her absence, hoping she will forgive me one day and return.”
“So that is why you look so gaunt and sleepless,” Ophelia said.
He reckoned he must look dreadful, but he hadn’t bothered to examine his reflection in recent memory. What did it matter anyway?
“It is.” He shifted Samuel in his lap, and the pup stared up at him adoringly whilst taking a bite of his trousers and upper thigh. It was fortunate that the little beggar still had his milk teeth.
“Why are you sitting here in my drawing room?” Ophelia demanded. “Why are you not wherever she is, begging her to come back to you?”
“Because I owe her the space and time she requested.”
“But if you love her, why wait?”
His heart thumped. Why indeed?
“I am paying penance.”
Ophelia shook her head. “Life is short, King. Fight for her.”
“Then perhaps you should also consider your counsel. Life is indeed short. Why not do this, Ophelia—if not for yourself, then for your children? The club earns thousands of pounds per annum.”
Her eyes went wide. “Thousands?”
Wetness began spreading on his trouser leg, and he realized that young Samuel had pissed on him. Well, if that wasn’t appropriate, he didn’t know what was.
“Thousands,” he confirmed. “Now, then. I do believe my new companion has relieved himself upon me. My valet shall be apoplectic. I ought to go. But think about what I have offered, Ophelia. It would be lucrative for you, and we are running out of time. Another house party is set for next month. All you would need to do is play hostess for one week.”
