Читать книгу The Wager - Sally Cheney - Страница 3

“Will you not give me anything in return?” Desmond murmured.

“I will play you a game of cards for it,” Marianne replied. “If you win, you may have me. I will come to your bed, willingly, wearing nothing but a smile of invitation. There will be no damnable tears.”

“And if you win?” he asked. “I get Kingsbrook.”

There was a stunned silence. One could almost see the workings in Desmond’s head as he tried to collect his faculties.

“You would get Kingsbrook?” he finally asked, very slowly and carefully.

“Or you would get me,” Marianne said. Desmond narrowed his eyelids and appeared to be considering very seriously. “You value yourself very highly, Miss Trenton, to put your worth equivalent to this grand estate.”

“Rather, Mr. Desmond,” the girl said coolly, “it is a question of how highly you value me…!”