Page 2 of A Stranger’s Gamble

“He lost everything.”

“What does that mean?” Adam asked in a soft voice.

“The townhouse here in Town. The land in Aberdeen. All but the entailed estate.”

Alistair cursed, and Nick drew a sharp breath.

“Such losses are unheard of,” Alistair said. “It is illegal.”

“Signed and witnessed by a solicitor,” the earl said.

Without another word, Adam brushed past him and hurried up the last half dozen steps to the hallway. Two doors down he turned into the open door of Lena’s office. She looked up from a document lying on the desk in front of her and met his gaze, unwavering. No remorse, no guilt. But he read in her eyes the knowledge that his worst fears and that she’d been the instrument of his downfall.

“How bad is it?” he asked in a too-calm voice he barely recognized as his own.

“You know how your father is when he gambles.”

Adam gave a single slow nod. “You took your usual cut.” It wasn’t a question, and she didn’t reply. “How much?” he asked.

“Ten thousand pounds and the townhouse here in Town,” she replied without hesitation.

Adam felt as if a team of horses had rammed into his chest. “Who is the fortunate man who will be living in my home?”

She hesitated, and his blood went cold.

“You.”

“At your father’s insistence—”

“Pray, do not blame others for your greed,” he cut in.

Her expression cooled—something he’d witnessed a thousand times. “The marquess would simply have lost his fortune in another gambling hall,” she said. “If not tonight, another night.”

“And why should someone else benefit from the ruination of my father and me, the man you claim to love?”

“It is not personal,” she said.

He gave a mirthless laugh. “How well I know.”

Adam turned, and Nick and Alistair stood aside as he strode from the room.