Page 13 of A Game of Scandal

The certainty in his words had me thinking about kissing him all over again.

“Yes,” I murmured. “I believe I could.”

Izzy’s eyes moved from Ash to me, and she groaned.

“Oh, your brother is going to kill me.”

CHAPTER SIX

Despite the fact the sun was creeping its way up, Izzy and I reached the house before Max did, which, I thought as I stripped off my gloves, was probably for the best. She and I had plenty to discuss.

“Before you start,” Izzy said as we stood in the hall, “let me go first.”

I nodded.

“I am a worm,” she pronounced.

This rather took the wind out of my sails. “What?”

“An absolute worm,” Izzy continued, tugging the wig from her head and ruffling her hair. “It’s no excuse, of course, but when I met you, you had just turned sixteen and you seemed so young and so sheltered, and then Max treated you as though you were defenceless and I suppose I did too, though I should have known better.” She flopped down into a comfortable seat in the drawing room. “I’m disgusted with myself. Really. To underestimate another woman, when I’ve seen what I’ve seen, it’s unforgivable.”

The tongue-lashing Izzy was giving herself was making it difficult for me to argue with her, which was frustrating. I’d tried not to hold it against her, the way she repeatedly underestimated me, matching Max’s attitude, but as she said – I’d always hoped for better from her.

I sat down, noticed that the fire was crackling cheerfully in the grate, and wasn’t surprised to discover that Wheeler, the butler, knew even more about what went on in this house than I did.

“I don’t think I’d call you a worm,” I said reluctantly.

“Well, you should.” Izzy sat up straighter and gripped my hand. “You don’t know all the details of my own family history, but I was young when I took on responsibility for keeping my household running, and I did so in unconventional ways, and in secret. Looking after people, protecting them was my … purpose, I suppose. It was a sort of singular focus that kept me going when things were difficult. When I married Max, it changed so much, but I suppose the instinct is still there – to manage people, to keep them safe and cocooned from an imperfect truth.” She looked thoughtfully into the fire. “Perhaps too safe. You said Max is overprotective. I see that I followed his lead there and didn’t give you the respect you deserve. I’m truly sorry, Felicity.”

“All right. But it’s annoying. I was really braced for a good argument, and I had so many good points to make.”

Now Izzy laughed, her posture loosening. “You could still make them,” she suggested. “Perhaps it would make us both feel better.”

“No.” I also looked into the fire. “I don’t think it would.”

There was a moment of quiet.

“Do you want to tell me,” Izzy hesitated, as though choosing her words carefully, “why you decided to visit the Lucky Penny tonight?”

“I wanted to make some money. And I did. I made a lot of it. Only, thanks to this Ash character, I don’t currently have it, and I had to stop long before I planned.”

“You wanted money? I was sure you were going to say it was for the thrill of it.”

“It was thrilling, I suppose.” I remembered the excitement of the cards turning, of winning hand after hand, and then my mind moved instead to the moment in Ash’s office, when my mask had slipped from my face, and his lips had skated so close to mine. I shook my head, as if to dispel the feeling. “But that was a secondary motivation.” I said firmly. “It was the money I was after.”

“Because Max has control of your trust?” Izzy surmised.

I nodded. “Until I marry or turn twenty-five. After some consideration I decided that neither of those options are acceptable to me.”

Izzy nodded too, and I felt relief that she wasn’t going to argue the point.

“This is about university?” she said instead. Her tone was neutral; I wasn’t sure what she thought about the matter.

“I’m going to study mathematics. Max knows that already.”

“He does. He and your mother want you to have a season first.”

I got to my feet impatiently. “Because they both think party dresses and the promise of marriage and babies will magically change things for me, but it won’t. It won’t!” I was an inch away from stamping my foot, so I took a deep breath to steady myself instead. Having a tantrum like a child wouldn’t help my case.