Unrivalled Regency: A Gallant Gamble Part 16

"No! We accepted the proposition offered. We have nothing else of value to give you. Though I swear that I never knew of Rookwood's deceit or dastardly plans, I never go back on my word. There is nothing of higher value than a man's honour." He gave a short bow.

Geoffrey took a few breaths before he suddenly grinned.

"I have it! A man's honour is priceless, wouldn't you agree, Charlotte?"

She nodded vigorously, following his train of thought instantly.

"As priceless as my diamond, would you estimate?" She gave a small laugh and the gathered men gawped at her. She smiled at the first man. "So you agree that your honour is worth more than the value of your property, that's why you insist on honouring the debt? Well, my diamond has been described as 'priceless' too. It appears that we all hold something of similar value. The solution is simple. I accept your honour and my husband will accept your respect in payment of your debts."

The gathered men looked at one another as if they disbelieved their ears. One at the back pushed up on his toes to speak over the other's heads.

"This is most singular. I'm not sure that I quite understand. Are you saying that you will accept our honour and respect as your payment?"

Charlotte looked up at Geoffrey for confirmation. They both nodded as one.

"Yes! We have the thousand guineas prize money and we already own two estates. Anymore and we will be unable to cope. Your respect is all that we ask."

There was a few more seconds of confused rumblings before the men began to believe their own good fortune. The first man spoke up again, a flush on his cheeks as he gave a relieved smile.

"I think I can say for all of us that you both have our honour, our respect and our highest regard. You will be welcome at my home at any time and if you ever need a.s.sistance of any kind you only ever have to send word." He bowed low, shook hands with both of them and made a quick exit. The others soon followed suit.

Geoffrey and Charlotte were left on the platform with Giles, Alexander and a rather confused Olivia.

Giles spoke first.

"I think you have made several loyal friends with that gesture. It was a wise and elegant thing to do, but I am still slightly confused. You mentioned two estates."

Charlotte puffed out a resigned breath.

"Well, I could hardly refuse Lord Rookwood's original stake." She took out a paper from her breeches pocket and showed it to her friends. Colin Rookwood's rough signature was scrawled and witnessed on the bottom of the solicitors note. He had agreed that his estate was of equal value to the Caithwell diamond and that he gave up his rights to his property if Lady Charlotte Denvers won her bet.

Geoffrey shook his head.

"You aren't really going to take it from him, are you?"

Charlotte raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Well, of course I am. It's not like he'll be using it any longer. He wasn't married and has no heirs. Besides, when we have children we might want to leave them a place of their own...He took the gamble and lost. He deserved to lose, Geoff. He would have seen you dead after those women drugged you and his men beat you, he tried to unseat me too. I might have died at his hands."

Giles shuddered at the memories before he huffed out a breath and quirked up his lip.

"I know that you won the race, but it was hardly fair. I don't know how you fooled Davenport and the Prince, but we all know that Geoffrey's name was in the book."

Charlotte pressed her hands to her hips again.

"No it isn't. Go and take a look."

The all moved over to where the register of horses and riders sat. Giles opened it up, raised his eyebrows and looked at Charlotte for an explanation.

She smiled back at them all.

"It happened when I checked the entry last night. You saw how upset I was. I couldn't bear to think that we were going to lose everything because I had been so stupid as to not check the rules. It was only a couple of teardrops. I had blotted the book before I noticed what had happened." She turned back to Geoffrey and threaded her arms about his waist. "I knew then that it was my destiny to be married to you."

Giles held up the book for everyone to see.

In a slightly smudged hand where the bottom curl of the 'G' had been directly beneath Charlotte's salty tears was the entry.

'Lightning' 'C. Talbot'

Epilogue.

The house in St. George Street was quiet at last.

Giles and Alexander had said their goodbyes after making hasty arrangements to travel to Lavenham following the receipt of a sad message from Alexander's wife, Lily. Anne's father, the Earl of Lavenham had pa.s.sed away two days previously. Arrangements had to be made and letters sent to Anne's brother Edward, the new earl.

Charles Latham had wished Geoffrey and Charlotte well and fairly skipped down the steps in his fas.h.i.+onable new suit of clothes after revealing that he hadn't acquired any estates, he had made a small fortune on the outcome of the race. He was off to find Annabel Bellingham. He had enough money and more left over to buy her a small country retreat and pay for staff of her own. He was quite excited about his new purpose and looked a completely new man.

Olivia had commandeered Callum to take her and Coalport back to Ormond where, after a short but happy discussion with Alexander, they had decided to make the Dower house their home. Olivia decreed that she'd had enough of London life and was looking forward to taking things easy with her new husband to be. Their wedding would be held in the chapel at Ormond as soon as Geoffrey and Charlotte had finished their honeymoon.

Geoffrey watched as Charlotte closed the front door behind the last of their visitors. She looked at her husband and sighed over the bruises that still marred his handsome face. She lifted her hand to his cheek and he turned his head to kiss her palm. He caught hold of her shoulders and pulled her towards him.

"At last, I have you to myself."

Charlotte smiled up at him.

"I suppose that you want to claim your prize for winning our bet, Sir Geoffrey." She closed her eyes and pursed her lips up at him for a kiss.

Geoffrey laughed.

"Oh no, nothing quite so simple. I was promised your first ever kiss, but you gave me that when I was still lying in bed before the race, so you will have to come up with something of equal value." He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Charlotte opened her eyes again and stood with her hands on her hips.

"Yes, well I gave you a lot more than a kiss that night, all of which were 'first ever' experiences. I think we are pretty well quits on that point!"

His voice dropped to a husky growl.

"I'm sure that I can discover something else that you haven't done yet. In fact, I still owe you a paddling for being so reckless and putting yourself in danger."

Charlotte squealed as he suddenly caught her about the waist, tipped her over his shoulder and slapped her heartily on her bottom. He was about to turn towards the stairs when there was a hard rap at the front door. With Charlotte still dangling over his shoulder he walked back and opened it, revealing a messenger holding a small box.

"A package for Mrs. Talbot." The man held out the box while staring at Charlotte's rump.

Geoffrey glowered at the man, took the parcel and closed the front door smartly. He pa.s.sed it around his side as Charlotte's scarlet face twisted around to see it. She took the box from his hand.

"Oh good! I was wondering when it would be ready."

Geoffrey's curiosity couldn't be contained.

"What is it?"

Charlotte shook her head. Her blonde hair tumbled around her face and almost brushed the floor.

"I'm not telling you until you put me down."

Geoffrey grinned and began walking up the stairs. He strode along the corridor to their room and promptly dumped her in the middle of the bed. Charlotte brushed the hair back from her face as he came to sit beside her. It took some moments to sit up, lift the lid and unwrap the layers of silk from inside the box. She took out an intricately filigreed metal sphere and a length of chain from the box and handed it to Geoffrey. He looked at it curiously for a long moment before holding it up to the light. A glimmer of deep pink could be seen inside.

"You had the diamond made into a pendant? It's a bit large and the chain very long. I thought you didn't want it as a jewel to be worn."

Charlotte rolled her eyes as she took the pendant, stood up and dangled the chain before his eyes.

"It's not a pendant. It's our new bell pull for White Briars. I couldn't think of what else to do with it and since you seem inclined to take my clothes off at all hours of the day or night, I can't keep it hidden inside my chemise any longer. We had mentioned turning it into a bell pull and it seemed like a good idea. I sent the stone to the jeweller and asked him to make the cage to go around it. No one will ever suspect what it contains."

His laugh filled the room as he held the bell pull up to the light and admired the colours twinkling through the metalwork.

"I wonder what you would have done if you had lost the race. It seems to me that you couldn't give the diamond to all of the people you made bets with. What did you have planned if the outcome had been different?"

She laughed again as she began to undo his cravat, pulled it away from his neck and began on the b.u.t.tons of his s.h.i.+rt. Geoffrey's breath hitched as her fingertips brushed his skin. She leaned into his neck and nibbled at his throat as her hands pushed his s.h.i.+rt from his muscled shoulders.

"I wasn't worried about the stone." She trailed her kisses over his chest.

His breathing grew heavy as he pushed his fingers into her hair.

"And why would that be? I can't imagine that the men would have wanted to share the diamond. Nor would they have been quite so forgiving as you. They would have wanted to collect on your wagers."

She shook her head as she tasted her way down his flat stomach.

"I only gambled with the 'fabled Caithwell Diamond.' A stone that doesn't exist." She twirled her tongue in the indent of his navel and he groaned as she worked her magic.

Geoffrey tried to concentrate on her words.

"What do you mean? We have the diamond here." He rattled the chain bell pull.

"We have my diamond here; the Denver's diamond. It was concealed inside the cinnabar box that my father gave to me. He said that if I could open it, whatever was inside was mine. I was only ever Lady Charlotte Denvers before I married you. I've never been a Caithwell. My brother may have boasted of a legendary family jewel but there wasn't one. Lord Rookwood was the one to call the stone the 'Caithwell diamond' and he must have told his friends about it, because not one of them questioned the wording of my betting slips."

Geoffrey opened his mouth to speak, but then shut it again when he realized that she was perfectly right. Her brother had circulated the rumour of the diamond's existence to stave off his creditors, but it neither belonged to him or to the Caithwell estate. The men who had wagered their property against the stone had gambled on something that only existed in their minds. Their own greed had fed their imaginations. There was no Caithwell diamond, fabled or otherwise. He grinned down at his beautiful, clever wife.

"Ha! No wonder you didn't want to keep their property." He fought his rising desire as she sat back and tugged his boots from his feet. Her dress dipped at the neckline and he groaned as he glimpsed her milky white b.r.e.a.s.t.s, but his control didn't snap until her teeth grazed the fall of his breeches. Taking hold of her beneath her arms, he pulled her back up to face him. Tugging gently on the laces at the back of her dress, the material parted as his lips searched for the soft skin beneath her ear. "You do know that there would have been uproar if Rookwood had won?" He whispered.

She shook her head again.

"But he didn't. I never thought that he would. I know Lightning and never doubted him for a moment. I am half the size of Rookwood. Lightning and I would have won by a couple of lengths if the despicable man hadn't decided to cheat at the last fence. As it was, we still won easily." She gasped as Geoffrey pushed her dress down to form a puddle of silk at her feet. His hands moved slowly over her body, taking the weight of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s for some seconds before seeking out the ties of her chemise...but he had run out of patience. He growled in frustration and caught her undergarments at the back of her neck, gathering them in his hands and tugging sharply. The cotton rent in two and fell to the floor. Her pantaloons soon followed.

Naked before him, he wound the bell pull chain around one of her slender wrists and the other end around his own before he pushed her gently back onto the bed.

He rose over her, pus.h.i.+ng his breeches down over his hips with his free hand and kicking them from his feet. He kissed his way down her body, eliciting sighs and gasps that were music to his ears. It was only seconds before he rolled sideways and pulled her on top of him. She settled over his hips and he caught hold of the chain with his hand, pulling her forwards before he released her.

His hips began to lift and swirl and Charlotte moved with his rhythm, lifting and swaying her with him. He whispered into her ear as he slipped his s.e.x inside her while listening to her mewls of delight.

"You may have won the race, but I gained the greatest prize. You. I love that you are wild and outrageous and I vow that I never want you to be dutiful, but I swear that I nearly died of fright when Rookwood cheated as you came over that last fence. I want you to promise me one thing."

Charlotte stilled her movements and lifted herself high enough to look down at him.

"What thing?"

Geoffrey held onto her hips and began lifting and lowering her over him, groaning in delight as she picked up her rhythm again. His straining voice reached her ears.

"That from now on, the only thing you ever ride so recklessly, is me!"

The End.

I hope that you have enjoyed.

A Gallant Gamble.

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