Chapter 14
Stephen handed around the cards for the fresh hand.
Agnes picked hers up and surveyed what she had.
It was a hand of only medium quality, according to the rules as she understood them, so this could go either way.
It felt important, somehow, that she do well in this one.
She understood that Gabriel had been right to worry, and that Stephen had asked her to keep playing because he thought she would be an easy mark.
I don’t mind if he takes every cent I have.
That’s not a problem. I didn’t bring any money in with me that I can’t stand to lose.
But I would like to prove Gabriel wrong, if I can!
I’d like him to see that he was too concerned about me, and that I can take care of myself—even in an unusual situation like this one.
“The bet is to you, Jack,” Stephen told Agnes.
She nodded and pushed a coin into the center of the table without saying a word.
Play passed around the table. The others matched the bet she had started with. When the turn came to her again, she passed, waiting to see what someone else would do.
Stephen smirked. “Not a bad idea,” he said. “Playing cautiously. Defensively. That shows you’re learning. You’ve realized that you’re sitting here with people who have more skill and experience than yourself. I respect your willingness to do that.”
Agnes bristled. She was playing conservatively, but not out of fear or any perception that Stephen was someone she couldn’t handle. She was trying to make a point to Gabriel that she didn’t require his help, that was all.
But now she changed her mind. She didn’t want to sit here and allow herself to lose the game when there was a chance she might actually win.
She didn’t want to play it safe. She wanted to show these people that they were wrong to underestimate her, to think that she couldn’t stand up to their abilities.
She pushed in another coin.
Everyone stared at her, including Gabriel.
She felt his gaze viscerally. It had bothered her when Stephen had put a hand on her arm, but now she found herself almost wishing that Gabriel would.
It was a strange, messy thing to want. It definitely wouldn’t benefit either one of them if such a thing were to happen.
That wasn’t the kind of thing a cousin would do, and if anyone had begun to suspect that she was really a woman, their suspicions would only grow.
Still, the way he was staring at her…She couldn’t help feeling that she had impressed him with her actions. She sat up a little straighter. She wanted to impress him again.
He matched her bet, and the betting went around the table once more.
When it came to her again, he leaned close. “Jack,” he said, “be wise. Remember that this is only your second time playing this game.
He had emphasized the name, Jack. She had the feeling he wanted to remind her of who she truly was—and who she wasn’t.
But she didn’t care. She didn’t want to stand down just because she was a woman.
That would be doing exactly what society expected of her, and it was counter to every reason she had made her list in the first place.
The list was supposed to help her live her life the way she wanted to, not the way she was expected to.
She placed one more bet.
Beside her, she felt Gabriel’s body tense. He leaned closer to her, as if he wanted to shield her from something, and Agnes grew tense as well. A shiver passed through her. She hoped he wasn’t going to notice that.
It would be worth losing, she thought, and wondered where that thought had come from. Did she mean it? Was she really willing to lose the game just for the bizarre pleasure of sitting close to this man and experiencing his reactions to everything she did?
Yes. I am.
“Enough of this,” Stephen announced. “I call the bet.” He turned to Agnes. “How many cards do you want?”
Her hand wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t going to get her a win. Not as it was. “One,” she said.
He dealt her one card. She picked it up. A nine. She had gone over twenty-one. It was a bust.
Frustrated, she tossed her cards down on the table.
Stephen and the other men chuckled. “It’s like I told you,” Stephen said. “This table is really no place for a beginner.” He scooped her coins into his hands.
“That isn’t what you told he—him.” Gabriel rose to his feet.
Agnes shivered. Gabriel had been about to say her—she’d heard it. He had caught himself just in time.
Gabriel continued. “You told Jack that he ought to play another hand,” he said. “You told him he belonged at the table. Be honest, now. You were trying to take his money.”
“Consider it an important lesson well taught,” Stephen said smoothly.
“And be grateful that your young cousin here has learned this lesson from someone who didn’t want to take it any farther than I did.
You know, a lot of people would drive a naive young man like this deep into debt, but I didn’t do that. ”
“I know you aren’t asking me to thank you,” Gabriel growled.
“He sat down at the table of his own free will,” Stephen said. “Nothing untoward happened here. You have nothing to be angry or resentful about.”
“Be that as it may,” Gabriel said sharply, “if I catch you anywhere near my cousin again, sir, there will be consequences. I suggest you take that warning very seriously, because I mean it that way. You will not enjoy the revenge I’ll take on you if I find you meddling in Jack’s affairs again.
And let that be a lesson you can be grateful to have learned from me. ”
To Agnes’ surprise, Stephen was silenced. He paled slightly and nodded. “Very well,” he said. “Take your leave.”
“Come, Jack,” Gabriel said curtly.
Agnes had lost her desire for adventure—she’d had enough. She got to her feet and scrambled after Gabriel. He glanced over at her to make sure she was by his side, but he didn’t stop walking or turn to face her until they were outside the club and out in the open air, walking up the street.
“Well,” he said quietly. “Did you get what you wanted out of that little excursion?”
“I did,” Agnes said. She hesitated. “But you’re angry.”
“Not with you.”
“With those men?”
“I don’t like it when people take advantage of vulnerable people,” he said, his voice clipped. “I didn’t like the way he picked you out as someone he could push around and then proceeded to do that.”
“He didn’t push me around.” Agnes wasn’t a fan of the way Gabriel was rewriting history.
“He didn’t compel me to do anything I didn’t want to do, Gabriel.
He was right. I did sit down at the table.
I didn’t much like the way he talked about teaching me a lesson, as if he was doing me some great favor by allowing me to share the room with him.
I didn’t care for him, and I found him annoying.
But I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do in there. You don’t need to be so protective.”
“I didn’t like how he spoke to you. Or about you. And I definitely didn’t like the way he put his hands on you.”
A rush of heat came into Agnes’ cheeks at his defensiveness. She cleared her throat. “Do you think he knew?”
“For a moment I thought he might have. Now I’m not so worried about that. But I did wonder, when he caught your arm…you have very delicate arms, you know.” He scowled and looked away.
Agnes couldn’t help but wonder why that upset him so much. “If he didn’t learn the truth,” she said, “then we don’t have anything to worry about, do we? After all, the only thing that was lost was a few coins he took off me in the game, and I planned to lose them.”
“I’m just glad this is over,” he said. “I hope your List of Improper Ideas doesn’t involve going to any more places of ill repute.”
“It doesn’t,” she said.
He looked at her for a moment, and she could only imagine that he must be wondering what was on the list. But she wasn’t going to tell him anything right now.
Not while he was already in a temper about what had happened at the club.
If she told him what was coming next, there was every chance he would simply refuse to help her any more than he already had.
She had offered him the chance to back out.
He hadn’t wanted to. And if there was one thing she had learned today, it was that she was going to have much more success at accomplishing her list with Gabriel by her side.
She was no longer open to the idea of him abandoning her to deal with it on her own—she wanted his help.
He was so masterful in there. I do think he was being overprotective—but if something had gone wrong, he would have been ready and able to manage it.
He would have ensured my safety. Just look at the way Stephen backed down when Gabriel got firm!
People are intimidated by this duke. That’s someone I want to have in my corner as I do all these things.
They walked up the street to the carriage they had left parked in the road. Gabriel gave her his hand, and she stepped up into it. Once she was inside and out of view of any passersby, she removed the hat she had donned to cover her hair and allowed it to spill down around her shoulders.
Gabriel climbed up into the carriage behind her. “You can’t allow anyone to see you like that,” he said, gesturing to the ensemble—the men’s clothing and the loose hair.
“Nobody will,” she said. “I’ll be in the carriage until we’re back on your property, and then we’ll be too insulated to be seen by anyone but your staff. And you trust them, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he allowed grudgingly. “But you aren’t very careful, Agnes. I can’t get used to that fact about you. It really seems as if you don’t care what happens to you, and I don’t know what to think about that.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” she said.
“You’ve been written up in the scandal sheets numerous times.”
“Yes, and that experience has taught me that nothing bad happens when your name appears in the scandal sheets,” she pointed out.
“People chatter about you for a few days, and then they forget and move on. Already they’ve stopped talking about the so-called scandal that led to our involvement in one another’s lives in the firs place.
People move on from that sort of thing.”
“They’ve stopped talking about it because we’ve given them something else to talk about,” he said. “Because we’re courting one another now, and that’s bigger news.”
“Maybe. But there will always be bigger news,” she said.
“That’s what I’ve learned, Gabriel. No matter what you do in this life, something bigger will always come along.
There’s nothing that will hold the attention of London society—not for very long.
They’re too thirsty for the next story, the next scandal.
They’ll look under every rock. What they won’t do is keep their attention on the same person. They can’t manage that.”
He looked out the window, apparently having nothing more to say, and Agnes fell silent as well. The carriage began to move, drawing them out of town and back toward the duke’s manor.
One more item crossed off my list.
Three left to go.