Still, these weren’t thoughts to share with her guests. Eli had no business making such a comment. At best, he made her sound inexperienced.
“There’s likely a great deal you and I don’t know about one another, Lieutenant.” Jane added a smile to soften her reproach. Let the others think she was flirting with him. He would hear the warning beneath the words.
He might have fooled half of London with his tragic story and miraculous return, but he wasn’t fooling her.
“Well.” Eli tipped his head in mock surrender. “I promise not to make any disparaging remarks about your ability to strategize, so long as you promise not to clean me out entirely. I’ve been off the navy’s payroll for a few years.”
Always joking.
This provoked gentle laughter from the other women, but Jane only arched her brow. “You must forgive me, but I can promise nothing of the sort. You see, I have a prior obligation to our members who come here expecting serious play. You will be at their mercy, should they choose to show it. They may just as easily decide to take all your coin home with them.”
The laughter increased, which gave Jane a particularly warm feeling in her chest. It wasn’t often that she got to enjoy such camaraderie. Della was more often the amusing one, while she was the taskmaster.
“Let’s see which it shall be then.” Della jumped in, herding them toward the tables.
Crisp little namecards awaited them at each seat. That was new. Jane wasn’t at the same table as Eli, who’d been given a place of honor amongst their highest-ranking guests: Lady Eleanor and the wealthier ladies in their number. It made perfect sense to keep them happy. Why should Jane feel any disappointment? She didn’twantto see Eli.
The table was hushed as they took their seats, each member of the party straining to catch the conversation from Eli’s table. Jane’s attention was fixed there too, watching him laugh at something Mrs. Duff had just said. With dawning horror, she saw him reach for the deck of cards and begin to shuffle.
Della hadn’t just invited him as a guest, but as adealer. What was she thinking? They’d spentweekstraining Miss Chatterjee, making sure she had a solid grasp of all their rules, but Eli had only to grace them with his presence to be judged trustworthy? They’d never even observed him play! Jane tried to catch Della’s eye to better convey her outrage, but she didn’t look her way.
If he botches things for us with Lady Eleanor, I’ll never forgive this.
Jane broke the silence with the crack of her cards as she shuffled, the movements so familiar she was scarcely aware of them. This was normally her favorite part of the evening, when the night was young and full of possibility. Now she was too nervous to enjoy it.
“Stakes, please, ladies.”
“Lieutenant Williams was engaged to your cousin, wasn’t he, Miss Bishop?” Miss Anwar kept her voice low enough not to carry as she slid a counter from her pile. She was a dark-haired young lady with a prominent overbite and high brows that made her look perpetually quizzical. “How heartbreaking to think that she married another when he wasalivethis whole time.”
“He must have been devastated.” Mrs. Muller’s lip actually trembled before she stilled it with the touch of her champagne flute.
Whether or not to serve drinks had been a point of contention. Jane had been against it, for fear that it would set a poor tone and inflame tempers when a lady suffered a losing streak, while Della felt that a little champagne was always a welcome lubricant for the fingers upon the purse strings. Della had won out.
Perhaps she’d been right. There were occasions when a drink was called for.
“I don’t know that he wasdevastated,” Jane replied, taking a long swallow from her own flute. Across the room, Eli was sliding a pile of chips toward Lady Eleanor. How high was he letting the bets run? “There may have been some initial disappointment, but Lady Kerr is very happy with Sir Thomas and Lieutenant Williams is back safe, so it all turned out well.”
Why must everything be about Eli? Jane volunteered nothing else, and the conversation subsided for a long moment as she dealt everyone a second card.
“Has he found another sweetheart, do you know?”
Jane startled at the question, turning to Miss Anwar.
“I…I couldn’t say.”
It hadn’t occurred to her. The period when he’d been presumed dead was entirely blank. He might have met someone else during that time.
Are there such things as lady pirates?
“I’m sure he has,” Miss Anwar said knowingly, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Or soon will. A young officer with a heroic past. He’ll have found himself an heiress before the season is out, unless he’s one of those who’s married to the sea.” She pursed her lips, though it was difficult to say whether her displeasure was aimed at her cards or at gentlemen who failed to enter the state of matrimony.
Jane stole another glance at Eli as she turned up cards for those who requested them. He looked impossibly handsome, smiling at Lady Eleanor as he reshuffled the deck. Could he really just waltz back into town as though nothing were amiss and have beautiful heiresses fawning over him for it? Would she have fallen under his spell as easily as everyone else if it weren’t for their history?
Jane had a sinking feeling she would have. Even now, she couldn’t deny that he was charming, and handsome, and irritatingly likeable.
“Mrs. Muller.” Jane turned to the lady on her left, struck by sudden inspiration. “Your husband is in the navy, isn’t he? What doeshethink about the lieutenant’s return?”
“Oh, the captain is off in Halifax,” she replied. “Though I expect I’ll hear his opinion on the matter in his next letter.”
