“We’ll need your special dealer.”
“Danny’s already there, ensuring Chadbourne’s winning enough hands that he should be fairly cocky and full of himself by the time you arrive. Now entertain me by putting him in his place.”
Benedict shook his head, and she suspected if he was the rolling-his-eyes sort, he’d have done that as well. As it was, he turned to her. “Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Placing his hand on the small of her back reassuringly, he guided her around the tables, through the crush of people. It was an odd mixture of the well attired and the coarsely dressed. She doubted a single woman she spotted was of the nobility. Their woolen frocks were simple and plain, their hair pinned up but not nearly as tidy as it might be. The pipes and cigars made the room smoky enough to sting her eyes. Even some of the women were puffing on slender cheroots. It seemed everyone was indulging in spirits. Footmen were dashing around refilling glasses.
People were so absorbed in their play that no one was paying attention as they wended their way through the room. If any other lords were here, anyone who might recognize her, she thought it unlikely they would notice her. After all, she no longer dressed as an aristocrat but as a commoner, and nobles seldom gazed into the faces of commoners unless they were standing right in front of them, as she’d been with Lady Jocelyn that afternoon. Therefore, she didn’t feel as though she was walking a gauntlet fraught with any danger of being called out by another.
“Does your brother loan this much so easily to everyone?”
“It’s not a loan, Thea. If you should happen to lose it all, you won’t be paying it back.”
She stopped abruptly to look up at him. “You can’t be serious. He’s just giving it to me?”
He gave her an indulgent smile. “Eventually, if he stays at the tables long enough, whoever you lose it to will lose it to the house and it’ll go back into Aiden’s coffers. It’s one of the reasons gambling hells are so profitable.”
“He doesn’t give money to everyone.”
“No, everyone else has to pay him back with interest. Only family gets to play without any investment.”
“But I’m not family.”
He sighed. “You’re with me tonight and I arranged this little endeavor, and so the chips are a favor to me. Now come along, before Chadbourne grows weary of playing.”
She knew the moment Chadbourne spied her. His eyes grew as round as a barn owl’s, and she regretted that her new frocks weren’t yet ready, the frocks with the unfaded cloth, the untattered cuffs, the unfrayed collar, the unscratched buttons. The frocks that would fit her perfectly rather than hang slightly loosely because she was no longer the stout girl she’d been when food had been abundant and she’d spent every afternoon enjoying an entire box of chocolate-coated bonbons while lounging on a burgundy velvet-covered divan with a book in hand. Her hair was another matter entirely. As her first lady’s maid lesson, Hester had spent over an hour before dinner arranging it in an elegant coiffure.
He didn’t come to his feet as she neared but remained seated and she hoped rather wickedly it was because the sight of her had weakened his knees. Although she suspected the truth was a bit more disheartening: he simply no longer thought her deserving of the small courtesy.
His lack of movement made her appreciate more that Benedict not only came to his feet whenever she entered a room but also extended the same respect to the women in his residence who earned their coins by performing intimate services. She wondered if he looked down upon anyone. When she glanced quickly up at him, she saw in his dark eyes that Chadbourne apparently occupied that position. She found the realization fortifying.
Oddly, all activity at the table had stopped, and she suspected it was more a result of Benedict’s presence than herown, that wherever he appeared, people went still until they determined what he wanted. Or perhaps it was simply that the “special dealer”—she had no idea what made him special—had been awaiting their arrival.
She stopped just shy of the table, her gaze locked on the blue eyes that had until recently held hers so tenderly, made her feel precious. “Lord Chadbourne.”
“Lady Alth—” He stopped, disgruntlement sweeping over features she’d once deemed incredibly handsome. Interesting how betrayal made him look far less attractive. “Althea, what the devil are you doing here?”
“It’s Miss Stanwick to you, and I’m here to take all your money.”
Chapter 16
Bloody hell. She’d delivered that pronouncement with such confidence that a few mouths—including Chadbourne’s—had dropped open, and one gent was still blinking in wonder. A couple of them might have even fallen instantly in love with her. Not that he had. Not that his chest hadn’t swelled with pride because she wasn’t intimidated by this lordly buffoon.
“You can’t... You can’t play here,” Chadbourne stuttered. He looked to the dealer, who was quietly shuffling the cards with slender hands that matched the rest of him. “Her father was a traitor to England. She shouldn’t be allowed in here.”
“Mr. Trewlove’s only requirement for entry is that a person has money to lose.” He narrowed his dark eyes at the tray Thea held. “I’d say she has about a thousand quid in chips there, so she is welcome at this table.” He gave her a little nod.
Beast touched the red-clad shoulder and the chap slipped away like smoke. He pulled the chair out farther, and she lowered herself into it with the elegance of a queen taking her place upon the throne.
“I can’t play with the daughter of a treasonous bastard,” Chadbourne announced and began gathering up his chips, their clattering loud as he tossed them into his palm, nodoubt expecting Danny to fall into line and oust Thea so the entitled lord could continue to play.
“Embarrassed to lose to a woman?” Beast taunted, understanding fully the foolishness of men’s pride and how to take advantage of it.
The earl gave him a long, thorough study, not bothering to disguise his detestation for someone he recognized as not being part of the aristocracy. “What concern is any of this of yours?”
“Sheis my concern.” He wondered if he should have the words etched on his forehead so he wouldn’t have to keep repeating them to every idiotic aristocrat they happened upon.
