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many of them have become champions or have sired them. She’s very popular among the racing set. She talks their language, you can see,” he added with a casual gesture toward the group gathered around the lady under discussion.
    “And her social entanglements?” Jude questioned. “Any jealous lovers I may have to contend with while I remain married to the woman?”
    Rutherford glanced back at him with a flicker of curious interest. “You mean you intend to release her?”
    “As soon as possible.” He narrowed his gaze in warning. “And I’ll be grateful if you’ll keep your breeches closed until my connection to her is severed.”
    “Not a problem, my friend. She’s likely to be a bit vulnerable for a time. I will be sure to be there for her to lean on when the moment is right.”
    “Just do your courting far from me, you cocky bastard,” Jude answered.
    It was hard to tell with his old friend how much of what he said was in jest and how much was in earnest. Rutherford had a way of saying things simply for the reaction they caused in others rather than to express any true feelings.
    “Am I to assume she is not currently under another’s protection?” Jude repeated through gritted teeth.
    “If she is intimately involved with anyone, it would be Lord Riley.” At the questioning lift of Jude’s brow, Rutherford continued. “He’s a younger fellow, runs in a different set. Don’t know much about him except that his father, Viscount Neville, has successfully drained his inheritance dry. Riley has found a way to supplement his income and is said to be very accomplished.”
    “Accomplished at what?”
    “In the boudoir, old man.” Rutherford answered dryly. “He prefers to focus his energies on women of independent means, ladies who do not have to account for every penny, if you understand me. He never remains with the same woman for long. Your wife is the only exception to that rule as well, since he always goes back to her after a time.”
    “Is she a Cyprian?”
    “Rumor and gossip has paired her name with a few gents over the years. Men who could afford to keep a woman of her quality. But any assumption of her being a professional courtesan would be pure speculation. If there was any real association between your wife and any of the men mentioned in her company of the years, the details were handled very discreetly.” Rutherford drank from his brandy snifter. “And for some reason, Riley is the only man you ever see escorting her about town with any kind of regularity.”
    The baron was very likely the handsome buck he had seen her talking with at the masquerade. Jude directed his focus across the room at his wife and considered what his friend told him.
    “For the most part, she appears to be on her own,” Rutherford concluded.
    Was that why she said she would not allow an annulment? It didn’t sound like Lord Riley was a very reliable protector. Did she worry about being left with no support?
    No. That made no sense. She had a lucrative and successful business. She was capable, beautiful and apparently beloved by many influential members of the ton. Hadn’t she somehow managed to slide past a cardinal rule of one of the more elite gentlemen’s clubs in town?
    She turned her head and laughed at something one of her cronies said. Diamonds dropped from her lovely earlobes and glittered against her liquid black hair. He was forced to amend his earlier thought; she was very beautiful. Stunning actually, and in a way not many appreciated.
    Her thick black hair framed a strong but refined face that was bronzed from her time spent outdoors. Her brown eyes were the warm color of whiskey and sparkled with mischief beneath her arching black brows. And just below the outer corner of her right eye was a small beauty mark. The night of the masquerade when she had removed her mask, he had thought the mark to be a cosmetic application, but he had seen it again in Newmarket. For some reason, rather than