Heck no!
Idiot!
JACKASS!
Gal’s fearful heart hammered against his rib cage and his throat dried to dust. But the cat who had gotten the cream, opposite him, decided to toy with her prey, drawing out the moment for all it was worth.
“Put us out of our misery and lay the goddamn card, Vee!” Jeremiah bellowed exactly what Gal was thinking, only to be reprimanded instantly by his wife.
“There is no excuse to resort to coarse language!”
“Ooooh!” Diana’s squeak made Gal jump because his frazzled nerves could take no more. “Oh my goodness!” Her white knuckles gripped the table while she gaped at them all. “My waters just broke!”
Then all hell broke loose.
“Get her upstairs!” Minerva jumped up with such force, she sent the card table toppling. Playing cards, counters, and hot tea flew everywhere.
“Summon the physician!” That came from Olivia, who started to bellow for Dalton again, while the sisters rushed to Diana’s chair and Hugh and Jeremiah shuffled this way and that like headless chickens not sure which direction to go.
“Don’t panic!” With impressive calm, Giles raised his hands in the middle of the room as if calming an unruly crowd about to riot. “Do.Not.Panic.”
As his cousin sucked in a theatrical calming breath, everyone, including Gal, did the same. In unison, they all blew it out slowly.
But while that simple, single, measured breath apparently held magical powers to make all of them stop panicking, it had the opposite effect on the prospective father.
Because Giles started to panic with a vengeance.
“Summon the physician! Summonallthe physicians! Get her upstairs! Oh my God! Oh my God! Dalton!Dalton!DALTON!” His breath sawed in and out at an alarming rate as he clutched at his wife, who was now trying to smooth his cheeks to calm him down despite being the one in labor. “This shouldn’t be happening! The baby is too early!It’s too early!Something’s wrong! WRONG!”
It was Venus who took charge.
Somewhere amid all the commotion she had transformed from the overheated seductress to the cool-as-a-cucumber schoolmistress in the blink of an eye. She grabbed his cousin by the shoulders and shook him.
“Giles, breathe. Diana needs you.” He nodded, his face ashen, andshe smiled as she stared deep into his eyes. “Everything is going to be all right. I promise. Help Minerva get her upstairs.”
That important task done, she turned to the others and started issuing instructions like a general. “Hugh—you fetch the physician.” Hugh didn’t need to be told twice, sprinting from the room calling for a horse like Richard III at Bosworth. “Jeremiah—Dalton…” Both men snapped to attention. “We are going to need plenty of hot water and as many fresh towels as you can muster. Keep them coming until I tell you to stop.” They nodded and dashed out, too. “Olivia—ready the room.” Because Giles and Minerva had already begun maneuvering Diana out of her chair, Venus snapped her fingers at Gal. “You—open the doors for them!”
As jobs went, Gal’s was undoubtedly the least important and soonest done. Feeling like a spare wheel, he closed the bedchamber door on the ladies and his cousin the moment they got Diana to the bed. With nothing else to do, he went to the drawing room and decided to correct all the chaos that had been left there.
He picked up all the broken china first, then used Diana’s discarded cold compress to mop up the spilled tea. Finally, he righted the card table and set about collecting up all the cards and counters. Next to his chair he found his jack of hearts in his discarded hand, and because it called to him like a beacon—because he had to know—he walked on leaden feet to Venus’s chair and stared at the solitary card lying facedown in her abandoned hand on the floor.
If he had counted the cards right, this should be the eight of hearts. If he hadn’t…
No. NO!
Best to leave it.
Forget about it.
Ignorance was bliss and Gal was certain he should thank his lucky stars that fate had intervened to save him from himself again. What he didn’t know couldn’t hurt him, and the game and bet were now as good as voided. Especially ifone of the servantscleaned up all the evidenceof it as unwitting but diligent servants were prone to do when a mess had been made.
But thennotknowing would drive him insane.
Dreading it, he reached for the damning card and turned it over, and stared dumbfounded at the queen instead—a card he could not beat.
The witch had tricked him.
Acted for all she was worth.
