My Once and Future Duke (The Wagers of Sin #1)(10)

She could not have been more wrong.

He was tall, golden--haired and austere in dark evening clothes. His face might have been carved by Michelangelo, so beautiful was it. Philip was of a similar height, but rangy; the duke’s perfectly fitted evening clothes showed off broad shoulders, lean hips and well--shaped calves. If he were more than five years older than Philip, it would be a shock.

But there was no warmth at all in his blue--gray eyes as they flicked over her, a thorough but dismissive examination that made her feel very small and insignificant. He stopped in front of them, his attention on his brother. “Well?” he demanded, his voice low but hard.

Philip’s jaw set but he smiled. “Fancy seeing you here. Have you come to play a round?”

The duke’s eyes flickered toward Sophie again. “That was not my plan, no. Nor did I believe it to be yours.”

She glanced from side to side beneath her lashes, but she was stuck. With the fascinated onlookers close behind her, Philip by her side and the duke in front of her, there was no easy avenue of escape.

“It was not.” Philip’s expression grew defiant. “But I spied my dear friend Mrs. Campbell, and all my sense and intentions blew away like a puff of smoke. I was helpless to resist. Can you blame me?” He caught her hand and swept it to his lips.

Sophie flushed; how dare he blame her? “My lord,” she murmured, tugging against his grip. “It grows late. We must finish our game another time.” She put the dice on the table and bobbed a curtsy.

“Perhaps that would be best.” Philip gave her a rueful smile, although with an air of intimacy she would have rather avoided, and released her. “Until another evening, my dear.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said the duke. “That won’t do at all.”

“Oh?” Philip smirked. “Then you must excuse us, Ware—-”

“I meant you shall not finish your game another time,” snapped his brother. “Not with her, not with anyone. You’re done, Philip. I’ve no more patience for these antics.”

“Antics?” Sophie repeated in spite of her determination to stay out of it.

“I’m not a child, Your Grace,” spat Philip at the same moment.

“If not, then you’re a fool,” replied the duke coolly. “A child may be reasonably expected to grow up and become a man of sense and dignity.”

Philip flushed deep scarlet. “Ware,” he said between clenched teeth. “Stop.”

“Stop. The very thing I said to you, the very thing you promised to do,” the duke said, every word as sharp as polished steel. “A month, you swore, away from the tables and the races. And yet here you are, the same night that vow was made. What is your explanation?”

“I only came to see Dashwood,” muttered Philip. The crowd had withdrawn, but the room was quiet enough that people could hear their conversation. Giles Carter had slipped away and was nowhere to be seen.

“I came to see Dashwood,” snapped the duke. “You came to wager away more money you don’t have.” He glanced at Sophie, this time with open disdain. “I see how firm your resolve is, if you’re ready to be fleeced again by the first woman who smiles at you.”

So Philip had promised to stop gambling and broken his word. Privately Sophie sympathized with the duke’s anger; she’d already thought Philip shouldn’t be at the tables, and if his brother had been even a tiny bit kinder about it, she would have added her own voice to his and urged Philip to moderate his behavior.

But she refused to be blamed and castigated as the cause of anyone’s profligacy. “Let he among us who is without sin lob the first stone,” she said lightly. “No doubt we all should contemplate our failings, but surely arguing them in public aids no one.”

“Morality,” the duke drawled. For the first time he gave her more than a glancing look, more contemplative than before. “How novel among your companions, Philip.”

Philip’s head had sunk on his shoulders, like a turtle’s. His ears were red. “Enough, Ware,” he muttered again. “Please, Jack.”

Jack. What a carefree name for such a rigid man. Sophie began to feel rather sorry for Philip, being dressed down in front of his friends and companions. The duke’s voice was not loud, but they had attracted notice. “Yes, please,” she said to the duke in her most quelling tone. “This is hardly the time or place.”

“Oh? There appeared to me to be no time to lose.” Again his cool blue gaze slid over her. “No doubt you would have preferred I remain silent until you’d won a good sum from him.”

She breathed deeply to avoid saying something she would regret. She should have put off Philip more forcefully when he interrupted her game with Giles Carter. “That is manifestly untrue. I’ve no interest in ruining anyone and am appalled you would imply it.”

“Leave her out of this,” said Philip. “My dear, perhaps you’d better go, so my noble brother and I can quarrel in private.”

The duke’s mouth curved darkly, and Sophie had a quicksilver thought that he’d be irresistible if he really smiled. “How much have you won from him?”

“That is absolutely none of your concern,” she shot back in indignation. What did it matter how he smiled when he was such a coldhearted beast?