Never Gamble Your Heart (The Secret Society of Governess Spies #2)

Chapter 20

A shiver raced up Frankie’s arm, and too late she realized she was clutching Jasper’s bare hand in hers and that she was so close she could smell the tobacco smoke from his club on his skin. She cautiously withdrew her hand and took a step back. She could not think when he touched her; his hands dulled the clarity of her mind, and she was left with only feelings , and Frankie was never quite sure what to do with those. The corner of Jasper’s mouth lifted but he did not attempt to close the space between them.

Frankie’s tongue felt dry, but he was right: He’d upheld his end of the bargain. Not only was he uninvolved with the Dowry Thieves, but he was actively bettering the world with his wealth. Frankie’s secret heart had been right, as had been the Dove’s suspicions, and Cecelia’s staunch conviction. Jasper may have been feared on the streets, and he may have gambled his way to the top, but he was no devil.

She took a deep breath and said, “I am a governess. That is not a lie. I am not a very good one, however. My last charge threw his shoes into the Serpentine and had to walk stocking-footed through Mayfair.”

Jasper leaned a hip on the desk and waited patiently.

She licked her lips. “I have a younger sister. Her name is Fidelia, and she is sixteen years of age. Several weeks ago she ran away to help her friend, who has become a victim of the Dowry Thieves. As soon as my mother realized Fidelia was missing, she tasked me with finding her. It is imperative that I locate and bring her home before anyone realizes she is missing and unchaperoned. If that happens, she’ll be ruined. Except I wasn’t making any progress, so I made a deal with someone: If I help this person expose the mastermind behind the Dowry Thieves, this person will help me find my sister.”

Jasper held up his palm, and the ring he wore on his middle finger caught a yellow sliver of lamplight. “Who are the Dowry Thieves? Why did you think I was involved with them? Who made the deal with you? Start from the beginning, Miss Turner, and do not leave anything out.”

So she did. She told him about the entrapment of the outspoken and troublesome women and the suspicion that a single mastermind was forcing them into compliance through threats of ruination. She explained her sister’s devotion to their family friend, Lady Elizabeth Scarson, and how Lady Elizabeth had recently become a victim of the scheme. She told him that all twelve of the hastily married grooms had memberships to his gambling club. “That is why I needed to see your ledgers, to verify that you are not complicit.”

While she’d talked, Jasper’s expressions had morphed from interest to understanding, and then landed on cold fury. Frankie took an instinctive step back.

“Let me get something straight, Frankie .”

She did not think it boded well for her that he’d just used her given name for the first time.

“Even though you suspected me of this disgusting scheme, you still entered my employ and broke into my study to go through my ledger?”

“That is slightly correct. I did not really think you were involved once I got to know you.”

Her reply didn’t mollify him. “What would have happened if I were heading the Dowry Thieves and caught you in my study? You have been naively thrusting yourself into danger with the hope of helping your sister and the person with whom you made the deal—a person you have yet to share details about, I might add—but what happens when you misstep? For a bloody brilliant mathematician, you are acting astoundingly stupid.”

Frankie gasped in outrage. “I am not!”

Jasper leaned back and threw his hands into the air. “Naive? Ridiculous? Foolhardy? Which do you prefer?”

“I will have you know that I am not working—” Frankie stopped herself before she could finish the sentence: I am not working with just anyone . The Dove had not told Frankie to keep her identity a secret, but Frankie understood on some baser level that it was implied that the details of their arrangement would be kept confidential.

Jasper’s eyes narrowed. “You are not working…?”

“I am not working under the assumption that I am invincible,” she finished. She shoved at her irritating spectacles, which had insisted on sliding down her nose throughout the exchange. “However, I cannot afford to be timid. My sister is impulsive and young, and no one knows where she is. There are women being sold into lives of miserable matrimony because they dared stand up for others. Who is defending them now? No one. I will not sit back out of fear for my own life when I have the skills to help, even in some small way.”

“Bloody hell.” Jasper scrubbed his hand over his face. “I want to be angry with you, Frankie, but it seems I cannot be. Your actions have been foolhardy, but your heart is in the right place. If anyone knows about gambling with high stakes, it’s me.”

Silence fell between them as she contemplated the man whose presence took up more space than it should. The soft light of the lamps deepened the inky black of his hair and cast shadows over his cheekbones and square jaw. Frankie did not understand how the very sight of him could give her chills and flush her skin at the same time, but it embarrassed her that she consistently had inappropriate thoughts about him when she was certain that, other than regretting her employment, he never thought of her.

“Who is looking for your sister?” he asked, breaking the silence.

“A detective.”

“The person you made the deal with—he or she is footing the bill for the detective in exchange for your sleuthing, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And this person’s name is…?”

“Private.”

He sighed. “You know I will eventually uncover his identity.”

Frankie was not so sure about that, but she had taunted him enough for one night.

“What is next?” His voice was deep and soft in the shadows.

“Now that I have cleared your name, I suppose… I suppose I shall leave soon.” She did not know if the Dove would ask her to do anything more than examine the ledgers that had already been sent, or if maybe she would send Frankie to another home. Frankie hoped so; she did not want to be left with nothing to do but worry about Fidelia and worry about how she was going to help support her family now.

Jasper rounded his desk and opened one of the drawers. He withdrew a pack of playing cards and tapped it in his palm. “I do not think so.”

Frankie’s spine snapped straight. “Excuse me? You do not tell me what I will and will not do.”

“I am your employer.”

“Then I formally resign.”

“Even better. Now that you are no longer under my employ, you are free to accept or decline my offer of a card game.”

Despite her better sense, Frankie was intrigued. “A card game?”

Jasper broke the seal on the cards. “Poker.”

“I have only seen it played once, at Cecelia’s soirée.”

“I have you at an advantage then, so I suggest a practice game. I suspect you will pick up on it quickly.”

When he returned to stand in front of her, Frankie’s breath caught. His gaze was dark with barely repressed emotion. No man had ever looked at her the way he was in that moment, as if he burned to kiss her until she was breathless and hot and needy.

No, that was her projection again, she thought bitterly.

There was no reason to play a game with him in his study so late in the evening, not when she had just foolishly resigned. And yet her curiosity was enflamed.

“What are the stakes?”

Barely civilized satisfaction flashed across his face before he said, “What do you want?”

“Are you… do you mean I can ask for anything ?”

He spread his hands and gave her a wolfish smile. “Anything I am capable of giving you. Do not be afraid to think big, Frankie. I will be.”

Frankie was speechless as a world of possibilities opened before her. Jasper was outrageously wealthy and well-connected. Was there a way to leverage his wallet and relationships to help find her sister? Perhaps he could help Frankie hire a second detective to track down Fidelia? Except the Dove was already working that angle, and if anyone could find Fidelia, it was the Dove, and Frankie did not dare insult her by implying she did not trust her to uphold her end of the bargain.

But what if there was another way Frankie could help? Now that Jasper was a dead end in the investigation, was there something else she could do to expose the Dowry Thieves? She had accomplished what she’d set out to do, but that did not mean she was ready to let this go. She wanted to help find the monster who was orchestrating the marriages. Lady Elizabeth was her friend, too, and nothing like this should ever be allowed to happen.

Her brain swirled in a maelstrom of thoughts and then—she sucked in a breath and clapped her hands over her mouth. Yes ! That was it!

Jasper’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“If I win,” Frankie said slowly, “you will commit to funding another charity.”

“Which charity?”

“Me.”

“Pardon me?”

“Did you know that at times the very wealthy fund dowries for poor girls with pristine reputations? If I win the poker game, you will stun the ton with your first act of public charity and bestow upon your poor, spinster governess an outrageous dowry that will allow her to have one last hope of marriage.”

“ What ?”

Frankie pressed her hands together. “It is unconventional, I admit. Usually the beneficiaries of such generosity are young girls from the country. However, before I earned my spinster status, I was barely noticed during my four Seasons, so my reputation remains untouched.” At the look on his face she hastily added, “It would not be real, Mr. Jones. You would not truly have to give me a dowry. But if everyone believes that you have been so enraptured by the goodness of your governess that you have seen fit to pad her dowry, it may be just the ruse we need to lure the leader of the Dowry Thieves into the open. When everyone believes me to have a generous dowry, especially combined with my genteel roots, I will be invited to every ton event. Then I shall speak my mind about the inequality of women in the mathematics field, and it will only be a matter of time before I become a target for the Dowry Thieves.”

“Absolutely not!” Jasper roared.

Frankie sighed. “It would not actually cost you anything, Mr. Jones.”

“It is Jasper to you,” he snapped, “seeing as my tongue has been in your mouth. And the money is not my concern. Frankie, did you not see how the men looked at you at Cecelia’s soiree?” At her confused expression he snorted. “Exactly. They were salivating over you as a governess. Can you imagine the attention you would receive if you suddenly had a massive dowry?”

Frankie laughed. “Mr. Jo—Jasper, you are too much. I do not have any illusions about my appearance or personality, but that is what the dowry is for. Everything can be overlooked for money.”

Jasper halted mid-pace and stared at her. “You are jesting.”

“No, most men can tolerate a plain spinster wife if she comes with a large-enough dowry.”

A heavy pause settled between them. When Jasper spoke, his voice was silky and dangerous. “Do not tell me you believe yourself to be plain or lacking in personality?”

“Jasper, I am an on-the-shelf governess. My entire life I have been told that I am not beautiful, that I am strange, that my intelligence makes men insecure. I spent four Seasons being roundly ignored by men I would not have even acknowledged in the first place. I know what I am and what my place in the world is.”

Jasper stalked toward her, fury rolling off him in waves. If she were not so entirely certain of her safety she would have melted into a frightened puddle. “Only a stupid man can be made to feel insecure by a woman’s intelligence,” he said, his voice low and hard. “An intelligent man would find you a delightful change of pace rather than a challenge to his masculinity.”

Her eyebrows flew up, but he did not stop his advance until he was toe-to-toe with her and she had to lift her eyes to meet his. Her entire body thrummed with the thrill of being so close to him once again. She could feel his body heat, smell the tobacco smoke from his club, sense the electric current that hummed between them.

“As for your level of attractiveness, nearly every man at Cecelia’s soirée was looking at you as if you were dessert.”

“You do not have to—”

“But none of them matter,” he interrupted, “because it was me who kissed you at the end of the night.”

Frankie flushed further. “I have not had a chance to apologize for that. I put you in an untenable situation where you had to return my kiss or risk embarrassing me. It was very gentlemanly of you to not make me feel poorly.”

Jasper gave a bark of laugher. “Do you think I would kiss a woman like I kissed you just to be polite ?”

Frankie licked her lips. “I do not know how you typically kiss women.”

Jasper’s hand drifted to her waist, and at the simple brush of his fingertips, her skin erupted into chills. He lowered his head so that his mouth hovered over her ear, his breath caressing her as he murmured, “I kissed you, Francis Turner, because I could not stop myself, and I have dreamed every single night since then of doing it again. I fantasize about pulling your sweet body to mine and exploring every sensitive and exquisite dip of your mouth until you are either limp in my arms or begging for more.” His lips brushed the shell of her ear and Frankie inhaled sharply. “Preferably begging for more.”

She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. Desire was pulsing through her veins and obliterating rational reason. She could barely reckon with her overwhelming attraction to him, much less grapple with the possibility that he might find her less-than-repulsive. Could one kiss initiated out of deceit and desperation really have affected them both ?

Jasper lingered, and the air between them grew thick with tension. For one heady moment she thought he would introduce her to that more he was talking about, but then he cursed and turned away, breaking the spell.

He put distance between them by returning to the desk, where he raked his hand through his hair, his eyes hooded. “For argument’s sake, let’s say we make this bet, you win the game, and we go through with the ruse. What if, instead of exposing the Dowry Thieves’ leader, he instead succeeds in entrapping you? You could end up engaged to a sixty-year-old man with missing teeth and hard fists.”

Frankie’s thoughts were still scattered, and it took her several moments before she could force them to focus on the earlier thread of conversation. Clearly, Jasper had not been as affected as she had by a mere brush of his hand on her waist.

“I…” She paused, unsure what she was going to say. She intended to be on her guard at social functions, but it was true that she could not control all the variables, as she’d once told Cecelia. She thought quickly, and a solution presented itself almost immediately. “He will not succeed in entrapping me because you will not let him.”

Jasper’s lips parted in disbelief.

Frankie nodded, satisfied with the idea. “Yes, as my new patron, you will host my stay in London under the ever-watchful eye and chaperonage of Madam Margaret, who will attend the events with us.” Frankie would have to repeatedly rouse Madam Margaret from a doze, but it was the only proper way to go about the business. “With your knowledge of your hell customers’ identities, and your expert ability to read body language and facial expressions, your presence will be quite handy. If someone tries to entrap me in marriage, I will demand the name of the man he paid to devise the scheme, and you will be there to make sure nothing ill comes of it.”

Jasper lifted the cards in one hand and they fell in a perfect sheet into his other palm. “You want me to guard you. To act as your protective patron.”

“Essentially.”

“No. It is far too risky.”

Frankie gave him her most charming smile. “You must not be very confident in your card skills. I have never played poker before, and you are the king of London’s underworld. Surely you could not lose to a governess?”

Jasper growled. “I know what you are doing, Frankie.” He thought for a moment as he idly handled the cards with his long, nicked fingers. “I am arguably the best card player in all of London. Chances are you will lose. If you do, you must adhere to the stakes.”

She waved her hand impatiently. She did not care what he asked; the risk was worth it. “What do you want if you win?”

“If I win, you agree to marry me.”