Page 36 of Most Truly the Gentleman

“We have here nine people, enough for a rousing go at Commerce,” Mr Lucas announced just then. “Shall we make a table?”

It was a ‘rousing go’ indeed, the table full of laughter and good-natured teasing. Fitzwilliam made the mistake of suggesting that he was rarely beaten after he took the first round, only to find himself mercilessly ribbed by Miss Elizabeth and Miss Lucas, who sat to either side of him, as a run of bad cards lost him two counters over the next three rounds, while the ladies each took one. In the end, however, it was Mr James Harrington who won it all, grinning over a tidy little pile of tokens.

Bingley and Miss Bennet joined another table for Vingt-un after the first game of Commerce, but everyone else chose to play again. Seeing his sister safely ensconced at a table of young ladies near her age, engaged in a lively game of lottery tickets, he also stayed.

The ladies teased Fitzwilliam again when he sheepishly displayed a truly terrible hand at the end of the first round. Darcy thought Miss Elizabeth had never looked so beautiful, eyes sparkling with laughter, curls dancing in time with the shaking of her shoulders, and he wished with a pang that it had been he who made her laugh so.

That pang deepened into an ache later in the evening, when he and his cousin formed a whist table with Miss Lucas and Miss Elizabeth. Unconventionally, they played gentlemen versus ladies, and found themselves very much equal, fighting for every trick. Fitzwilliam and Miss Elizabeth traded witticisms throughout, while he and Miss Lucas played with quiet concentration. Watching the two of them banter, he thought how well-matched they were, and felt that if she were not yet in love with his cousin, she soon must be. He knew he ought to be happy for them both, but he was not. He could not, or perhaps would not, name the weight in his chest as they laughingly taunted each other, but neither could he deny that their happiness made him very unhappy indeed.

“Are you enjoying the party, Miss Darcy?” Elizabeth asked, happening upon the young lady at the refreshments table.

“I am,” she replied eagerly. “Though I am not very good at most of the games. I had never played lottery tickets before at all. I think I quite shocked your sister when I said so.”

Elizabeth laughed. “That is Kitty’s favourite, which I think you may have guessed. And you could not have picked a better place to improve your skills, since Sir William only allows playing for tokens.”

“I have always thought I would never be so foolish as to play too deep, but not half an hour ago I found myself with only three tokens to my name and positively longing for more! I think I see how some people might be swept up in the excitement and lose their purse.”

“That is what happened to the previous owner of Netherfield,” Elizabeth related in a confidential tone. “Sir William took a lesson from Mr Morris’s downfall and banned all play for stakes in his home henceforth, though I do not believe anyone has ever been made more than briefly uncomfortable by losses suffered in the parlours of this neighbourhood. It was London that did poor Mr Morris in.”

“I shall remember to be very careful when I play there, though it will be another two years at least before I might. Neither my brother nor my cousin ever attends a ball or party with more coin on his person than he is willing to lose, and they never play on credit.”

“There is an example you would do well to follow,” Elizabeth said.

“What example is that?” enquired Mr Darcy, coming up to them.

“I was telling Miss Elizabeth of the habit you and Fitzwilliam share regarding gambling only with the coin you have brought,” Miss Darcy explained.

“A habit my father impressed upon me,” Mr Darcy deflected modestly. “Speaking of Fitzwilliam, have you seen him?”

“He is playing piquet with Miss Lucas,” Elizabeth informed him. “He is determined to win at something or other tonight, but I fear he may be disappointed yet again. There is a reason no one else will sit down to piquet with her.”

Miss Darcy giggled, and Mr Darcy went so far as to smirk for a moment.

“As the stakes are so low,” Miss Darcy suggested, “perhaps I shall invite him to play me next. For the sake of his pride, you know.”

“The ladies of Hertfordshire are Captain Sharps, the lot of them!” the colonel declared late that night, as the gentlemen enjoyed a brandy in Bingley’s study before retiring for the night. “The only games I won were at tables of gentlemen alone, aside from that hand of piquet Georgiana requested of me.”

“Did not Mr James Harrington beat us all at Commerce?” Bingley asked.

“He did, but there were ladies at the table, if you recall, and I am convinced the ladies allowed their confederate to win in order to lull us into a false sense of security,” Fitzwilliam ridiculously claimed, the corner of his mouth twitching with suppressed laughter.

“Perhaps it was less their skill and more your distraction at their charms which foiled you,” Darcy suggested.

“Well…perhaps.” The colonel grinned and raised his glass. “When a man is contemplating setting up his household, it is only right that he pay particular attention to the lady he may wish to install there.”

“Are we racing to the altar, Colonel?” Bingley asked humorously. “Because I believe I am rather ahead of you.”

“Perhaps you started off earlier, but I do believe I am presently moving with greater speed,” was the colonel’s laughing riposte.

Bingley laughed. “Perhaps you are, sir. For what my opinion is worth, I think the lady would be a fine choice, Colonel. Some might say she has little to recommend her, but I am not afraid to declare her one of the pleasantest ladies of my acquaintance. And she is a good friend of Miss Bennet’s, which I hope will ensure that we shall all meet often in future.”

“That is a strange way to describe the closeness between Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth,” Darcy said, eyeing Bingley for signs that he might have over-imbibed.

“Miss Elizabeth?” Bingley and Fitzwilliam repeated in puzzled chorus. Their eyes met and they inexplicably burst into laughter.

“I am sure I do not know what is so amusing,” Darcy said stiffly.

“Bitten by the green-eyed monster,” Fitzwilliam murmured, shoulders quaking with mirth. “While you were busy pretending that you were not tracking Miss Elizabeth’s every movement, you completely failed to notice the attentions I have been paying to Miss Lucas.”