“The wager is, then,” Motherham said in summary, “that Monty cannot seduce Miss Katherine Huxtable into full sexual intercourse within the next… what? Month? Fortnight?”

“Fortnight,” Charlie Field said firmly. “The outcome to depend upon our trust in Monty’s word.”

They proceeded to a discussion of the monetary details of the wager.

“Agreed, Monty?” Motherham asked when all had been decided upon.

“Agreed,” he said with a careless wave of his hand. “Miss Katherine Huxtable will be bedded and enjoyed within the next fortnight. And, it might be added, she will enjoy it too.”

There was a ribald burst of laughter.

Jasper yawned hugely. This was certainly something new for him. He had never done anything like this before. But there were no really interesting challenges left that he had not already taken on and won. This would at least be interesting. Also challenging.

The seduction of Agatha Strangelove had been neither really. It had basically been the other way around, in fact, except that it could not be said that he had exactly been seduced. Miss Katherine Huxtable was a rare beauty. He had seen her a number of times so far this spring and had even taken the occasional second look. She was the young Earl of Merton’s sister, as someone had just pointed out. Her elder sister had recently married Viscount Lyngate, who was Merton’s official guardian-and possibly Miss Huxtable’s too. Now there was an interesting thought.

A formidable man, Lyngate.

As was Con Huxtable. And Jasper was not as sure as Motherham was that Con hated his cousins-at least this cousin. Jasper had met him one day driving her and another young lady about town, presumably showing them the sights, and-significantly-he had not stopped to introduce them. He had probably been protecting their innocence, an unlikely shepherd guarding the lambs from the wolf.