Oh! Mrs. Muller!
Della had meant to find her hours ago. Where had she got to? A quick scan of the room revealed nothing. At this hour of the morning, only a few last hedonists remained at their games, their faces flushed with excitement and drink. Della went over to the whist dealer, whowas packing away the chips.
“Good evening, Mr. Parekh. Did Mrs. Muller already leave, do you know? I thought I saw her here earlier.”
“You just missed her, miss. She left about a quarter hour ago.”
Drat!How had she forgotten? Della was loath to ask the question that weighed on her spirits, but she had to know. “Did she…um, lose very much?”
“Hmm.” Parekh looked up from his count just long enough to bob his head in a noncommittal fashion. He pointed to the ledger for his table, letting the numbers speak for him. Twelve pounds, and that was on top of what she already owed them.
Della raised her eyes to the heavens and suppressed a groan.Jane is going to kill me.
“What’s the matter?” Eli had finally found her again, now that his own table was empty.
“I forgot to cut off Mrs. Muller. I meant to do it earlier, but there was always something more urgent and it got away from me.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. We had our hands full the whole night. No one could have done more.”
That wasn’t strictly true, and they both knew it.
“Jane did more,” Della said with a touch of regret.
Eli sighed, his expression turning wistful at the mention of his wife. “Jane is a singular woman. Not everyone can store the smallest details in their brain as she can, but we each have our own strengths. There’s no point in comparing yourself to her. And as for Mrs. Muller, you’ll get another chance.”
“I suppose.” Eli was probably right; there was no sense in worrying about what she couldn’t change. But Della had a nagging feeling that she might have made Mrs. Muller her first priority if she hadn’t found the prospect of catching up with Reva Chatterjee to be infinitely more appealing than the difficult conversation that wasstill in store for her.
“Anyway, I have good news,” Eli continued. “I found someone for the new dealer’s post. An old friend of mine from the navy.”
What?
“I saidIwanted to do the hiring, remember?”
Eli couldn’t be trusted to judge the subtleties of male beauty the way she could. And handsome dealers were an essential part of her business plan!
“I know, I know.” Eli winced. “But he’s just been dishonorably discharged, and he has nowhere else to go. I can’t abandon him.”
“Dishonorably.” Della cocked an eyebrow.
“It was all a misunderstanding. Give him a chance before you say no, won’t you? He’s coming to London in two weeks. You can judge for yourself if he’s handsome enough to be a dealer.”
“Oh, is that how you’re choosing staff now?” Parekh murmured. He fixed them both with a cool gaze, evidently having heard his fill.
Oh dear.When had he finished tallying his chips?
“Don’t pay Mr. Williams any mind,” Della blurted out. “That’s just a little joke of his.”
The dealer latched the box that held his chips and cards, then carried the whole lot over to the gaming cabinet, shaking his head as he went.
Eli turned back to Della. “I never had a chance to ask you: How did your meeting with that author fellow go this morning?”
“Terribly.” She felt like pouting, if she weren’t far too old for it. “He was so stubborn. He wouldn’t even give me the courtesy ofpretendingto consider my request. Please don’t tell Jane she was right; I would prefer to maintain an illusion of infallibility.”
Eli chuckled. “I’ll tell her that you thought better of meeting a gentleman alone, took her sage advice, and canceled the whole plan,shall I? Then she’ll be very pleased with you.”
“No.” Della sighed regretfully. “She’ll know we’re lying. Let’s tell her something believable, like a kitchen fire destroyed our meeting place and prevented me from speaking with the viscount, so we’ll never know what he might have decided.”
“That’s much better,” Eli agreed, laughter still lighting his eyes. He turned his attention away for a moment to see a group of stragglers out, leaving Della to ruminate on her failure.
