Chapter Six #2
She had no liking for her own words being turned on her. “Your hand, my lord? I think not. It is not my best interests you have in mind, but your own.”
“You think I’m influenced only by the debt that’s owed me?”
“I think it cannot be discounted. I am nothing to you beyond it.”
But you could be. He did not say it aloud nor give any indication that the thought had been occurring to him with irritating frequency. “Then let us speak of my interests, shall we?”
“If you like.”
“At the risk of encouraging such action as you took this evening, I can still allow that you have demonstrated an error in my thinking. None among my patrons this evening doubted that you were dealing a fair game. There are likely those who would not have cared and considered it a reasonable price for the time spent close to you.”
Griffin’s mouth twitched as Olivia snorted in a most unladylike fashion. “I doubt even a sound like that would have cleared the table.”
“You are being ridiculous.”
“No, unfortunately I am not. You skillfully fended their questions this evening and remained wholly professional in your attention to the game. Still, if you are to continue dealing faro, there will be more inquiries and you will have to say something more than ‘place your wagers’ and ‘all bets are down.’ Even your rather appealing smile will wear on their nerves if you do not throw them a bone from time to time.”
“Not my bones,” she said stiffly.
“A figure of speech, nothing more.”
“What are you proposing? That you will allow me to deal at the table again?”
“In the event that we can arrive at certain satisfactory arrangements, yes.”
Olivia was immediately suspicious. “What sort of arrangements?”
“You are far too transparent in the leanings of your mind. Truly, is the thought of bedding me so distasteful that you would abandon that finely honed sense of responsibility you say you possess to avoid just that end? I can tell you, it is not at all flattering to my person.”
“Yet you persist in your belief that your attentions should be flattering to mine.”
His dark eyes narrowed a fraction and pinned her where she sat before he gave up the pretense of outrage.
A shout of laughter would not be suppressed.
“Bloody hell, but it is that tongue of yours that is finely honed. How you managed to comport yourself with such decorum at the faro table is a fascination to me. I shouldn’t wonder that you bloodied your own mouth each time you stayed your tongue.
Your admirers were not subtle in making their feelings known. ”
“Perhaps it is that I am not averse to their attentions.”
Griffin chuckled, not so easily taken in.
“Have a care, Olivia, else I will be moved to take up that challenge.” He observed her prepare to take exception to what he’d said, then suddenly think better of it.
“Yes,” he said. “It was indeed the challenge of a practiced flirt, though in your case I will allow that you most likely stumbled into it. You are curiously direct in some regards and in other ways almost painfully artless. I cannot make sense of it, and I don’t suppose that asking you for an explanation will give me one. ”
He shrugged. “It is of no matter. I enjoy a puzzle.” This confession did not seem to ease her mind, thus prompting his most diabolical smile.
He thought he probably should not be enjoying himself quite so much, though how he had finally come to this pass was something of a puzzle itself.
The threat to beat her may have been mostly an idle one, but he had contemplated turning her over his knee.
Now he was amused by her and contemplating an arrangement that might serve them both.
Griffin decided that the sequence of events did not bear scrutiny. “Allow me to suggest the conditions by which you might deal faro in my establishment tomorrow night.”
“I am listening.”
“I insist upon your identity being protected. Your estrangement from Sir Hadrien is not sufficient to suppose that he will not cause me considerable inconvenience if you are harmed while in my care. That includes damage to your reputation and, by the connection of family, to his own. He may not cause trouble for me because he cares about you; he may do it because he decides I have caused trouble for him.”
“You are afraid of him.”
Griffin did not answer immediately, carefully considering his reply.
“I believe I would admit it if it were so,” he told her.
“The truth is more complicated than that. I am afraid of what he might cost me. He is an influential man, your father, and given to standing on the moral high ground. It is why I do not believe your brother will be successful in bending him to advance an allowance misspent on gaming and lady birds. The length of Mr. Cole’s absence seems to bear me out. ”
“Very well, I concede that our father is not the sort of man one crosses lightly. What is to be done?”
“Changing your appearance is the obvious solution. I will have Mason purchase a wig for you. Several, in fact, of varying styles. Auburn, I think. Different than your coloring but not so dramatic that your eyebrows and lashes must be painted as darkly as you did this evening. You will apply color to cheeks and mouth but with a lighter touch than you used. If you look like a whore, you will be treated like one.”
Olivia glanced down at her hands. “They did not treat me like one tonight.”
“I imagine because they thought you were my whore.”
“Oh.”
“A consequence of being nearly attached to your side. There was most definitely a line drawn that no one crossed.”
“I did not draw it.”
“I did. Do not suppose you could have managed so well without me. You might have cut a few to ribbons with the sharp edge of your tongue, but there always would have been someone advancing. I believe I mentioned they were three deep.”
He had, and so they had been. “Your mistress used to stand at the tables. I heard someone remark on it.”
“She is my former mistress, and she didn’t deal. Her mere presence at a table encouraged betting.”
“Then she was a practiced flirt.”
“Precisely.”
“You were not moved to stand by her all evening.”
“Mrs. Christie knew what she was about. It is clear to me that you do not—at least not entirely.”
“So you will stand post while I deal the cards.”
“No.” He sighed. “I must move about the rooms, but you can rest easy that someone will be observing you. At the first sign of trouble, they will come and get me.”
The thought of constant observation did not make her easy in the least. “It is not in my mind to cheat you.”
“And it is not in my mind to allow you to be tempted. Nevertheless, the trouble I was speaking of is a gentleman’s unwelcome advance that puts you at the center of a brawl.
Someone will be moved to proposition you and someone else will be moved to speak up on your behalf.
I will have to eject half my patrons if I cannot put a period to the thing quickly.
” His mouth twisted in a bit of a smile as he thought of Lady Rivendale hoping for some pugilistic entertainment.
“Although there would be those willing to step aside so they might wager on the outcome.”
“So I will wear a wig and some modest paint and you will see to it that nothing untoward occurs. Is there anything else that must be done?”
“You must have another name, of course. I noticed tonight that you did not offer one.”
“I thought mystery served.”
“One night, perhaps. You cannot go on in such a fashion else some enterprising rascal will set his mind on the truth and have at it.”
“Then what do you propose?”
“You do not wish to choose a name yourself?”
“No.”
He regarded her with consideration, lingering on her splendid green eyes. “Emerald, I think. Miss Emerald Hepplewhite.”
Olivia pursed her lips. “Oh, very well, if you are going to be silly about it, I shall be Ann Shepard.”
“Ann Shepard. Just like that?”
“My nanny.” She was unaware that a shadow crossed her face.
“Do not concern yourself. She is long dead now. A vague memory even to me, though I wish it were not so. I called her Honey, a childish corruption of Nanny, I suppose.” Olivia shook her head slightly, her slender smile a bit winsome.
“Or perhaps it is only that I thought she was sweet.” The smile disappeared.
“They did not like her, though, and she was sent packing. I recall that well enough.”
Griffin did not ask Olivia to identify who “they” were. He slipped this morsel of information into the pocket of his mind that he’d constructed exclusively for all things Olivia Cole. It still had very little in the way of content.
“So, shall I call you Ann or Honey?”
“You may call me Miss Shepard.”
He nodded, tempering his smile. “You should think of a story for yourself, some tasty bits of information that you may drop from time to time to calm your suitors.”
“Is that really necessary? They are at the table because they want to win at faro.”
She seemed to genuinely believe that. “Humor me then. I don’t care what you say to them, but you should be prepared to say something.”
“Where I live, for instance, and how I came to be dealing faro at your hell. Are those the sort of things I can expect to be asked?”
“I imagine. How will you answer such posers?”
“I suppose I shall have to put the speculation to rest and make it clear that I have replaced Mrs. Christie in your life.”
“Yes, that will end the speculation,” he said dryly.
“Really, my lord, if there is another more suitable explanation, I am unaware of it.” She raised an eyebrow as he shifted in his chair. “Have I discomfited you? You have only to recall that you were the one to suggest it.”
“I do not believe I suggested it precisely. I merely pointed out that the gentlemen playing faro were likely to have believed as much.”