be a hostess with her daughter. Come, Mr. Rawlings, let us go to her at once."
Mr. Rawlings dutifully led his charge away and Henry was momentarily alone with Cranshawe. The other three men in the box were deep in conversation about a horse race that was to be run the following afternoon.
"Did you receive my package, sir?" Henry asked frostily, deciding that it would be best to go on the attack.
"Yes, indeed, cousin," he said, giving her the full benefit of his most charming smile. "How delightful to know that you have come about so soon."
"Yes, well, I told you I should pay you back as soon as I was able," she said.
"I wonder how you managed quite so soon, though, Henry," he said. I hope you have not lost your trust in our friendship and put yourself in debt to someone else."
"That is none of your concern, sir," she said spiritedly. "All that concerns you is that you have recovered the full sum that you loaned to me."
His eyebrows rose in surprise. "Oh yes, almost," he said. "I shall not press for the remainder, of course, but then I did assure you that there was no haste for you to repay the principal."
"The remainder?" Henry asked faintly.
He looked puzzled. "But I have lost money while the three thousand was in your possession," he explained. A must, of course, recover the interest. But I do not wish you to worry your pretty little head over it, Henry. There is no hurry at all. In fact, I should be quite willing to take the loss if you would care to repay me in, er, some other way.
"What do you mean?" she whispered.
He smiled directly into her eyes as he answered. "A night with you, Henry."
Henry's mouth dropped open. "Where?" she asked naively.
The smile broadened. "In bed, obviously, my dear."
Henry was saved from the ignominy of being seen to jump to her feet and smack the face of Mr. Cranshawe in that appallingly public setting. As she was about to respond to the impulse, she was aware of Eversleigh stepping back into the box. His eyes found her face immediately and took in its expression. His eyelids drooped over his eyes as he strolled forward.
"Ah, Oliver, dear boy," he said languidly, "you are becoming quite the stranger these days. It seems quite a while since you invited yourself to breakfast last."
"I have the distinct impression that I was not welcome the last time I came, Marius," said Cranshawe, an edge to his voice.
Eversleigh raised his quizzing glass and surveyed his heir unhurriedly through it. "Indeed?" he said. "What can have given you that impression? Ridley was there, was he not? I cannot remember his being rude to you. There was the matter of newspaper being left behind, though, was there not, dear fellow? It is still there for you to claim." He let the glass fall to his chest again.
"You are too kind, cousin," Cranshawe said through his teeth.
"Not at all, not at all, dear fellow," said Eversleigh. "You must give me the honor of your company as well as my wife, you know. In fact, dear boy, I must insist that you announce your visits so that I may not be deprived of the pleasure."
"The second act is about to begin," Cranshawe mumbled, getting to his feet and bowing stiffly. "Your Grace?"~
Henry nodded, but she did not look up. The ether 0 three gentlemen also crowded around to make their farewells.
As Henry turned her chair to face the stage again, Eversleigh took her hand and laid it on his sleeve.
"I wish to leave," she said, eyes riveted to the stage. "Please take me home, Marius."
"No, my love," he replied gently. "We must be seen to sit here in amicable agreement."
His words hummed in Henry's mind as the music and singing washed over her. What had he meant? Was there already talk about her and Oliver Cranshawe? Was Marius trying to avert it?
****
The Duke of Eversleigh walked into his secretary's office the next morning before luncheon. He was still clad in riding clothes.
"Ah, James," he said, "bow predictable you are, dear fellow. One can always depend upon finding you here."
"Well, you do pay me to work here during the daytime, your Grace," Ridley replied patiently.
"Quite so, dear boy," Eversleigh agreed, "though I seem to remember giving you an assignment yesterday that should have had you up and abroad."
"I have already done my best on that mission," his secretary replied, "and devilish difficult it was too, sir, if you will excuse me for saying so."
"Oh, surely, James," the duke replied, waving a hand airily in his direction. "And what did you discover?"
"I can find no trace of any debt incurred by her Grace that has not been sent here," Ridley said.
Eversleigh regarded him thoughtfully. Hmm, he said. "Are you sure your information is complete, James?"
Ridley shrugged. "I talked to the persons most likely to know about any gambling debts," he said.
"My wife is missing a ring that she almost never removes from her finger," Eversleigh said almost to himself, strolling over to take up a stand in his favorite spot, one elbow propping him against a bookshelf.
"Pawned perhaps, your Grace?"
"I think not," his employer replied. "I have visited all the most likely jewelers this morning, and none of them knows of it. No, James, I believe it must have been pledged for a large sum."
"Not a moneylender, your Grace?"
"I hope not, dear boy. Perhaps my heir has it. He has her in his power, I am sure."
"You think he has lent her money?" asked Ridley.
"I fear so," the duke replied. "She is frightened, at least, and my wife does not scare easily. I wish I knew why she needed money."
"I-I think I might have the answer," Ridley said, shifting uneasily in his chair.
Eversleigh looked penetratingly at him. "Well, out with it, dear fellow!" he said.
"I discovered that her Grace's brother, Mr. Giles Tallant, had quite large gambling debts a while ago."
"How large?" the duke asked.
"In the region of three thousand pounds, I believe, sir.
Eversleigh whistled. "Rash puppy!" he said. "I doubt if his brother allows him near enough to pay that. And have these debts been paid, James?"
"Yes, your Grace," Ridley replied, "in full."
"Ah," Eversleigh commented, straightening up and tapping his boots with his riding crop. "I believe I shall see if my brother-in-law would like to share luncheon with me at White's. Do take a break soon, James. Too much work cannot be good for the health."
"My midday break is due to begin in a half-hour," Ridley explained to his employer's disappearing back.
****
Henry spent the morning in her room, breaking with her usual routine of riding early. She felt very close to despair. It seemed that everything was going wrong around her. The new debt to the moneylender looked like an insurmountable problem now in the morning light. Henry did some calculations in her head, and then on paper to make sure that she had not made an error. If she saved most of her allowance each month, she would be able to repay little more than the interest on her loan. There was no way she would ever be free of the whole debt. That meant that she would never recover her ring. Its absence would be a great loss to her. More important, she did not know how she would answer Marius if he asked about it again, and he surely would. Soon he would demand to know the name of the jeweler to whom she had taken the ring to be checked. And then she would be forced into more lies.
She had, in fact, got herself into a terrible mess, and all for nothing, it seemed. Oliver was still insisting that she owed him interest on his loan. He had not said, and she had not asked, how much it was. But she had the distinct impression that the amount was limitless. Even if she went out now and pawned her most precious piece of jewelry and sent the money to Cranshawe, he would claim that it was not enough. And how could she argue? There had been no written agreement.