“Pshaw,” Lady Montague said dismissively. “I’m sure I do not know where you get such ideas, Ashworth. Ladies do not swoon over a few pounds.”
“That is never what I said,” Lord Ashworth said.
“You said, I believe,” Lady Montague went on, “that females do not have the steady nerves necessary to be successful and they do not lose with any sort of composure.”
Lily stared at Lord Ashworth. She very much doubted he would deny it, as it was just the sort of ridiculous opinion he would hold. Steady nerves and composure indeed. Clinging to such ideas as those, he must have been especially mortified to lose to her.
“What I expressed as my opinion is true,” Lord Ashworth said, “and come upon through careful observation.”
“Do not go on with this, Ashworth,” Lord Dalton said quietly.
Lord Ashworth glanced irritated at his friend. “Why should I not? The fairer sex is blessed with many other fine attributes.”
“Though not the steady nerves for a serious wager,” Lily said softly.
“That is correct,” Lord Ashworth said.
“I do not think Miss Farnsworth agrees with you,” Lady Montague said with some delight.
“I do not,” Lily said.
“Well, diverse opinions make the world go round,” Lord Dalton said. “Perhaps we might make the leap to another topic.”
Lady Montague raised an eyebrow. “Do you try to rescue your friend, Lord Dalton?”
“I do not require rescue, Lady Montague,” Lord Ashworth said curtly.
Lily fumed. How on earth could this man keep hold of his condescending opinions about females when the female in front of him had trounced him just days ago? Further, she’d employed the sort of tactics that only the steadiest of nerves could withstand and he well knew it.
“Lord Ashworth is right, he does not require rescue,” Lily said. “What the gentleman requires is a proper amount of respect for the skill he has encountered so recently.”
“One game does not prove anything,” Lord Ashworth said.
“Would two?” Lily said, smiling.
“Ashworth!” Lord Dalton said under his breath.
“If you are insistent on a rematch,” Lord Ashworth said stiffly.
“Oh, I think she is,” Lady Montague said, her voice full of satisfaction.
“She is,” Lily said.
“I suppose fifty pounds will not be too rich for either of you?” Lady Montague asked, before sailing away to her guests.
It was nowonder at all that the news of the proposed game between Miss Farnsworth and Lord Ashworth was swiftly communicated to all of the clusters of people in Lady Montague’s drawing room. Like rabbits overrunning a garden, the idea hopped from here to there and back again.
Lily had moved away from Lord Ashworth and Lord Dalton and sought out her aunt.
As she watched Lord Dalton whisper furiously at Lord Ashworth, she listened to her aunt’s opinion on the matter. Mrs. Hemming did not see anything good in it and Lily was forced to own that she’d been severely provoked. That had led her aunt on a winding path about young people and their prickly natures. According to Mrs. Hemming, with youth came a propensity to be offended. That uncomfortable attribute gently faded with time, until one hardly cared for anybody’s opinion. Though the idea took some time to finally arrive at, Lily thought her aunt was likely right.
She did not tell her aunt that the wager was fifty pounds. She could hardly have even spoken such a thing. She’d never played for such a sum in her life!
As much as she had been intrigued by the idea that the bets would be higher in London, fifty pounds! An amount such as that had never occurred to her.
Now, she sat across from Lord Ashworth. The other card tables were empty, as everybody else had gathered round them to watch. The lord had claimed the deal, noting that she had been the dealer on the last. Lily thought him a fool for taking the disadvantage and assumed it was the pride in him that pressed him to do it. It was not very clever, as he would have had a time of it beating her ifshehad taken the disadvantage.
On the other hand, she was grateful he was being so foolish. There was the fifty pounds to think about. Were she to lose, it would take everything she had, and some borrowing from her aunt besides, to pay the debt.
