Page 121 of Rules for a Wicked Wager

Wretched without you. “I shall be glad to get this finished. I will have to return to Sommerfield if the prince allows me to keep it.”

“Will he?”

“If I pay my father’s debts, fines, and add in a gift of thanks to Prinny for his compassion.”

She winced. “Do you have it?”

He shook his head. “Not even if I were the nabob everyone thought.” Then he looked her in the eye and lied. “Not even with your dowry.”

There. He’d said it. This was the statement she’d need to wash her hands of him. To realize that hitching herself to his boat was disaster for certain.

“Oh dear,” she said, and he heard the death knell of his dreams in her tone.

But he couldn’t end it like that. He couldn’t let her think that any part of him still pursued her for her money. Some perverse part of his nature forced him to explain.

“That wasn’t my plan, Mari. It was never my hope.”

“I know. You wanted to build a utopia.”

“Yes,” he said. Then he shook his head. “But not like you think. I wanted a base. A solid place that would be our home.”

“Sommerfield.”

Damnation, why couldn’t he ever find the right words? “Not just a place, Mari, but a financial base. A peaceful base. Someplace you could return home to whenever you needed rest.”

She frowned at him. “Return to? But it would be my home.”

“Yes, yes, of course, but don’t you see? All those other men want you to be their support. They want you to dress their arms, host their tables, enhance their careers.”

She nodded. “That’s what a good wife does.”

He pulled her hands together, and she moved a step closer to him. He hadn’t intended to do that. Mostly he was gripping her hands in frustration as he fought for the idea that had been in his mind but never spoken aloud.

“No, Mari, I wanted to support you. So you could do whatever you want. So you could come home to Sommerfield, secure in your position there if the rest of your plans went awry.”

She blinked at him. He could tell she’d never thought of the idea. She’d been reared to dress a man’s arm, to read his ledgers, and set his table. “But what would I do without you?”

He felt his lips twist in a wry smile. “Whatever you wanted. You understand Society. You know money, too. You even thought to manage Mr. Camden’s political career. You could have done that from Sommerfield. Or the townhome in London.” With me.

He could see the possibility hit her. He could see her mind work in its rapid-fire way. And he watched as her eyes widened and her words slipped out unbidden. “I had some ideas about what to do for Tie,” she said. “But then I thought, what about the other boys? Where would they go?”

He smiled. She understood now. “What will you do?”

Her eyes began to dance. “I have no idea, but I did jot down some ideas. I know the men to speak with. The women too.”

Of course she did. Hadn’t she spent the last six years analyzing how the ton worked? “You’ll need to make a list.”

“It will take more than one, don’t you think?”

He hadn’t the foggiest clue.

She lifted their joined hands in what probably would have been a gesture if he’d released her. As it was, she simply swung their joined fists higher.

“Why didn’t I see this before?”

“You were busy looking for a husband.”

“But I could have been doing other things as well. I could have been thinking.”