Chapter Six
The Lords Ashworthand Dalton trotted through the dark streets after departing Lady Montague’s card party.
“As you mean to be silent,” Lord Dalton said, “I will carry on both sides of the conversation. You say to me, thank you for pulling me out of Lady Montague’s house before I said anything else outrageous. Then, I say to you, you’re very welcome friend, but you must watch your tongue. The girl has a father, and perhaps even brothers, it will not do well to accuse her of trickery, which is tantamount to an accusation of cheating.”
“You saw it for yourself!” Hayes muttered.
“I did not, actually,” Lord Dalton said. “I walked away after she trounced you on the first play. I occupied myself with a cold ham until it seemed the game was coming to an end.”
“Nobody is that good,” Hayes said. “Nobody.”
“It appearssheis that good,” Lord Dalton said drily.
Hayes did not answer, but spurred his horse to a quicker pace. There was something about Miss Farnsworth’s play that he did not understand. If it was not trickery, and now that he was reflecting on it he saw that it could not have been—she had not been in her own house and had not produced her own cards—there was some method involved.
How could it be that there was some method or strategy that he had not discovered for himself? He’d studied the game backward and forward. He’d spent endless hours playing out one scenario after the next. He understood Hoyle as he understood himself and he’d studied every treatise on probability and chance. Nobody knew the game better than he did.
Except, apparently, Miss Farnsworth.
He really hoped she would keep herself out of his way going forward. She might be exceedingly pleasant to look at, but their encounters always ended unpleasantly.
“I know you are in the habit of winning,” Lord Dalton said, “but you must practice being a more gracious loser. Rather unsportsmanlike to talk of trickery.”
“I have no intention of playing the lady again,” Hayes said through gritted teeth. “Further, it was not a trick exactly, but there is some method to her play that is new.”
Lord Dalton snorted. “Careful you do not begin to sound like a boy who needs his governess while you’re at it.” The lord turned his horse down a side street toward his house and left Hayes on the avenue.
As he watched his friend’s dark figure pass under a lamplight, Hayes attempted to brush off the sting of his friend’s remarks. The sting was deuced hard to brush off, as it had the ring of truth. Regardless of what he’d thought in the moment, he should not have actually said it. Especially now that he’d had time to reflect. It had not been trickery, but it had beensomething.
He silently vowed that he would do his utmost to avoid Miss Farnsworth in future. He had lost sixty pounds to the lady and he would not lose a pound more.
*
Lily sat inthe drawing room, barely attending to a piece of embroidery.
“Infuriating!” she whispered, once more reviewing Lord Ashworth’s comment on trickery.
“Miss?”
She glanced up to see Ranier standing before her.
“Goodness, Ranier, I did not even hear you enter. I was too far away in my own thoughts.”
Ranier nodded and said, “Whatever or whoever has infuriated you, I stand firmly against them.”
Lily smiled. It was comforting to know that whatever went on out in the world, as far as Ranier was concerned, she was always in the right. The dear man did not even need to inquire into the circumstances before staunchly siding with her.
“You have little idea how much that sentiment cheers me,” she said, taking the card the butler held out on a silver tray.
“Miss Darlington is here,” Ranier said. “She is aware that it is not your at-home day, but decided she might chance a visit.” The butler gazed over Lily’s head and said disapprovingly, “She has arrived driving a phaeton, with a rather fierce looking boy of a tiger hanging off the back.”
“I have heard of her penchant for it,” Lily said. “Do show her in, Ranier.”
The butler bowed and said, “I will arrange for tea forthwith.”
Ranier left the room and Lily rose to greet Miss Darlington. She was eager to make the acquaintance of one who had already been so kind to her.
Miss Darlington fairly danced into the room behind Ranier. “There you are, Miss Farnsworth!”
