“Pardon?”
“Ten pounds is the most we allow,” he repeated. Williams had been very clear about that. “Don’t want anyone ruining their fortunes.”
“But this is supposed to be a gaming hell!” She sounded indignant. “How is it gambling if you won’t even let us decide what to wager?”
“Would you like to take it up with the owners?” Silas raised an eyebrow. He had no idea what Miss Williams was playing at, but he wasn’t going to get caught in the middle. Let her quarrel with her own family if she took issue with the rules.
“No.” Miss Williams seemed to deflate a little. After an awkward moment, she added, “Forgive me. I wasn’t very polite with you just now. I spoke without thinking.”
This surprised Silas nearly as much as the young lady’s attempt to wager two hundred pounds had done. Why should anyone care if they were polite tohim? In his experience, members of the upper classes rarely spared a thought for their inferiors.
“No harm done,” he assured her. “I speak without thinking all the time.”
Miss Williams laughed, and Silas liked her a little better. She might be reckless with her money, but at least she was kind. Out of all the women who’d passed his table this evening, she might be the only one to treat him like a person instead of an interesting decoration.
“Might we please keep the game moving?” Miss Berry didn’t mask her annoyance with a smile this time.
Miss Williams squared her shoulders. “Very well then. I’ll raise the stakes to ten pounds.”
A number of the other ladies folded rather than matching such a sum. When the cards were all revealed, Miss Williams had conquered the others with a hand of nineteen.
“Congratulations, miss.”
Miss Williams gave a muffled grunt of frustration. When Silas pushed the chips toward her, she looked absolutely furious.Thinking of how much larger her win might have been if I hadn’t refused her bid, no doubt.
What must it be like to have so much money that you could afford to throw it away on a whim? Ten pounds would be the better part of a year’s wages to his family, but for Miss Williams it was nothing but the sport of one evening.
They played another hand, and again Miss Williams bid the limit. Some of the other women grumbled as they bowed out, no doubt wondering how long this would go on. When Miss Williams won again with a hand of seventeen, two of them left the table in favor of other games.
“How does no one have a better hand?” she asked. “Seventeen isn’t even that good!”
Miss Berry, who doggedly held her seat despite the recent loss of twenty pounds, spoke through clenched teeth. “There’s no need to brag.”
Is she bragging?Silas wasn’t so sure. She seemed genuinely outraged by her victories, though he couldn’t for the life of him understand why.
“Are you planning to bid the limit for all the hands, miss?” He posed the question as delicately as he could, remembering her brother’s warning to be polite. If this kept up, she was going to drive his whole table away. Although Williams had told him that the club saw some high play among their wealthiest set, the women before him didn’t seem to appreciate it. He would have liked to tell the chit to stop flaunting her money, but the memory of her earlier kindness made him hold fast to the remainder of his patience. “You might want to stop while you’re ahead.”
“Never mind.” Miss Williams rose from her seat in a huff. “This is pointless. I must be cursed.”
With that, she turned and walked away.
“Wait! You forgot your chips,” Silas called after her. Between everyone she’d beaten, there was sixty pounds’ worth on the table.
“Keep them.” She barely slowed her stride. “They’re no good to me.”
What on earth is wrong with that woman?
* * *
What on earth is wrong with me?
It shouldn’t have been hard to lose money. People did it all the time! That was precisely why gambling clubs weren’t an acceptableplace for a lady to pass the evening. If Hannah could only get herself in debt, she might diminish the only thing that was helping Mama attract suitors: her dowry. But it seemed that the fates wouldn’t allow her a single victory tonight.
Hannah stomped to the kitchens, where she checked that Cook had everything in hand before helping herself to a sandwich and a glass of champagne. Mama never let her drink champagne at parties, but Mama wasn’t here.
It was very fizzy. Hannah didn’t like the way it tickled her nose, but she downed the glass with a little cough.
This was supposed to be the evening of her triumph! Nothing was working as it should. She needed to think of something quick, before Mama came to find her. By now, she must have realized that Hannah had given her the slip. With any luck, she would check Eli and Jane’s town house before she thought to come here, and the trip back and forth across Mayfair would buy Hannah some time.
