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light a brown as to seem almost gold in color, were not quite as nondescript as she’d once thought. Maybe the giggling young ingenues weren’t completely daft. Despite his maddening tendencies to be deliberately obtuse and tease her relentlessly, he had a certain charisma. As children, it had served them well. His clever explanations had gotten them out of more than one scrape that might have proved uncomfortable.
    She said acerbically, “Luke might have my head for poking my nose into his affairs, but I’m asking anyway. So tell me, what did he do he could afford, but shouldn’t have?”
    “Wagered twenty thousand on one hand of cards.”
    Elizabeth blinked. “Twenty thousand pounds ?” It was an enormous sum. She might not be privy to her brother’s finances, but that didn’t matter. Twenty thousand was a significant amount.
    Miles gave her a supercilious look. “Right.”
    “Oh.” Elizabeth stared at the crowd for a moment, digesting this information. “It doesn’t seem like Luke,” she said eventually. “He might not act like he cares about being responsible and beholden to his duties, but I know he does. Look how he has squired me around when I know he’d much rather be doing something else. I don’t understand his actions.”
    “I don’t either.” To her amazement, Miles didn’t sound infuriatingly superior for having more information than she did, which was out of character. Usually he gloated over it. It had started when she was about five and he was eight. But right now, he was frowning, rubbing his jaw. “Something is wrong. He’s moody and distant.”
    Distant. There was that word again, repeated by Miles, no less.
    She could count on one hand the times the two of them had agreed on anything lately, and wished this wasn’t one of those rare instances. “You’ve noticed it too?”
    “Occasionally,” he drawled in a dry tone, “contrary to your disparaging opinion of my character, I do manage to divert my attention from my own interests. Yes, I’ve noticed. He’s preoccupied, though he’s doing his best to be perceived as enjoying himself with the usual pursuits available to wealthy, aristocratic gentlemen. If I had to guess, he had no intention of entering into that bet. It just happened because it was assumed he’d relish such a staggering wager.”
    That was insightful enough that Elizabeth was star tled. “You’ve given this some thought. And when put that way, at least it makes some sense.”
    “Now that’s frightening.” Her cousin’s mouth quirked at one corner, and his thick lashes dropped a little over those unusual amber eyes. “The last time we were think ing along the same lines, we decided to take your fa ther’s brand new phaeton for a spin in the country. If I remember the disaster correctly, I couldn’t sit down for three days afterward when we were caught upon our return. My father was furious with me.”
    She’d always felt a bit guilty he’d gotten the caning for that little misadventure, while she’d merely been confined to her room. “You shouldn’t have claimed it was all your idea. We both knew I was just as guilty.”
    “My idea of chivalry at the time.” He shrugged. “I’m older and wiser now, as the saying goes, so the answer to your question is a firm no.”
    The music swelled again, filling the room with the strain of the latest popular waltz. “I haven’t asked any thing,” she muttered, studiously adjusting her glove.
    Miles straightened from the wall in a lithe movement. “You were just about to suggest that I try to find out what is bedeviling Luke.”
    She had been. Damn him. “Not at all,” Elizabeth said coolly.
    “Liar.” His grin flashed, and then faded. He shook his head. “Women just don’t understand men.”
    “Why the devil would we want to?” she muttered. “But could you be more specific as to what I don’t un derstand in this instance?”
    “I’m not going to pry. Sorry, El. If he wished to dis cuss it,