“Why would I speak to Richard?” Danvers said finally. While he’d tried to sound indifferent and unconcerned, something in his voice caught her ear and Suzette turned to glance his way, noting that the constant thumb twiddling that he’d been doing since they’d got into the carriage had stopped. His fingers were now clenched tightly together as he returned her father’s stare.

“The two of you are friends, are you not?” Cedrick Madison asked as she turned her gaze out the window again. “I seem to recall you being there at the club and then the gaming hell this last time I lost so much.”

“You remember that night?” There was definitely wariness in Danvers’s voice now and Suzette wondered idly why that was, but didn’t really care.

“Bits and pieces. Enough to recall that you and Dicky appeared quite chummy,” Lord Madison said grimly, his hand massaging his cane handle. It was a sure sign that he was agitated, but then he’d been agitated since finding out she was going to marry Jeremy.

“We are friendly acquaintances only,” Danvers muttered.

Suzette turned her gaze his way again, noting that his face was turned to the window and his thumbs twiddling around each other once more.

“How did you find out about my markers?” her father asked next.

“I told you, Cerberus gave it to me in lieu of payment,” Jeremy answered shortly, his charming visage slipping.

“Aye, that’s what you said,” her father agreed grimly. “But I find it hard to believe that anyone would agree to an arrangement where they had to hunt down the payment themselves, or indeed that any respectable owner of a gaming establishment would even suggest it.”

“Cerberus is hardly respectable,” Jeremy muttered. His twiddling had picked up in speed so that the thumbs were whirling around and around each other very fast.

“Yes. So I’ve heard. I’ve been told he drugs and fleeces the unwary, like myself . . . which is why I find it so hard to believe that you won anything, let alone such a large sum.”

Jeremy shifted impatiently and snapped, “Well, I did, which makes you most fortunate that I am willing to marry your daughter in lieu of payment, doesn’t it? Can we change the subject now?”

Her father narrowed his eyes. “We have learned that Dicky led me to the gaming hell again and tricked me out of more money to ensure a friend of his could marry my Suzette as he had my Christiana,” he said grimly. “And it’s very odd that you happened to arrive to save the day just as my gel was getting her heart broken.”