‘Oh, I hope you did not,’ Miss Beaumont said. ‘He cheats.’
Every head turned to her. ‘I beg your pardon?’ the Duke said.
‘Sir James cheats at cards. At whist, at least. He has a system with his friend Sir Francis Plath. I hope you weren’t playing with them, Mr Crosse?’
‘They played as partners,’ Leo said grimly. ‘When you saycheat—’
‘They have a way of signalling what cards they have, and want the other to play. If he says “gentlemen” before they start, he’s saying he is strong in hearts – that is, has good cards or a lot of them,’ she glossed helpfully, ‘and “trifle” indicates strong in diamonds. So he might say “excuse me, gentlemen, a trifling cough” or “let me not trifle further, gentlemen” and both of them mean that he has hearts and diamonds. “Come”, as in “come, your card” or “will you come to dinner tomorrow?” means he wants Plath to lead a spade, but if he says “Plath” with it, it means to play a low spade. That sort of thing. It has to be very subtle, so as not to be obvious when they do it. I have heard them rehearse it.’
Leo was going purple. Mr Kentridge said, ‘Really? That is exceedingly interesting.’
‘Interesting?’Leo exploded.‘It’s bl— blasted disgraceful!’
‘Yes,’ said Kentridge. ‘Do you think you could write down everything you recall of his system, Miss Beaumont? And, Leo, not a word of this. No posting back to London to confront him. Don’t tell anyone at all.’
Leo blinked at his formidable brother-in-law. ‘What? Of course we must.’
‘I think Kentridge means, keep quiet until the right time,’ the Duke said.
Kentridge gave him an approving nod. ‘This may be an opportunity. A weapon, even. But he must not be alerted too soon. Does he know you know about this, Miss Beaumont?’
‘I don’t think so. I was eavesdropping,’ she said frankly. ‘One had to in that horrid house.’
‘We will consider the matter well before we act,’ Kentridge said. ‘The first concern must be to extricate Miss Beaumont from Vier’s guardianship. She should, I think, stay here, as Severn has suggested. I shall go down to London to put matters in motion. If Vier is capable of sending bravos after her, it might be best if Leo also stays in my absence.’
‘It would be my privilege,’ Leo told Miss Beaumont.
‘We shall cut our cloth depending on what I can find out. As to the matter of cheating, we shall keep it in hand, and consider when best to strike.’
‘Goodness me, Kentridge,’ Louisa said, with a curl in her voice. ‘How ruthless.’
‘What about you, Sev?’ Leo asked, evidently reluctant to observe his sister making eyes at her husband.
‘I’m not going to act until Kentridge has had a chanceto get the lie of the legal land,’ the Duke said. ‘Meanwhile I have some ten days to go on our wager—’
‘Oh, nonsense,’ Leo said, in chorus with Louisa. ‘You must see this is more important. I absolve you.’
‘You will do no such thing. It is a wager, and I want to complete it. And, really, this is best not in my hands. I don’t greatly want Vier to find out that I was directly responsible for aiding his ward’s flight, or abetting the deception of a vicar—’
‘Of a what?’ Louisa demanded.
‘Oh, but that wasn’t you. It was Mr Charnage,’ Miss Beaumont said.
‘Charnage?’ Leo repeated.
He couldn’t avoid it any longer. ‘That’s right. A gentleman I travelled with for a while.’
‘Which Charnage? Because as far as I know, of the men of that name—’
‘Daizell.’
‘You cannot mean that.’ Leo sounded distressingly like his father. ‘Are you serious?’
‘No relation of George Charnage, I hope?’ Louisa put in.
‘His son.’
‘What?!’
