Seth dealt her a third card, face up, an ace, which could be one or eleven.
“Are you content?” he asked again.
Instead of answering, Frances took her garter and placed it on top of her cards.
Now it was his turn. The first card he turned over was a ten and the second was a nine. She could only beat him if she had twenty or twenty-one and with an ace showing, it was unlikely.
He watched intently as she turned the first card over, a nine, giving Frances a ten or twenty depending on if she needed the ace to be one or eleven.
The corners of her mouth tipped as she slowly flipped the last card—an ace, giving her twenty-one, which beat his nineteen.
He had just lost his The Emerald Garter on the turn of a card.
His source of income was gone. Yes, he had money in the bank but the club had been his dream, his independence from his father. Now he had nothing.
Never wager more than you are willing to lose.
Those words would haunt him for the rest of his days.
She said nothing, and Seth was speechless as he reviewed each hand they played tonight, her losses and odd win. Her luck had been poor, but Seth had assumed she only remained out of pride, or truly did not mind the amount she had lost to him.
He now suspected that she had been playing an entirely different game with him.
“You let me win earlier and lost intentionally until all of your funds were depleted,” he accused, but not angry.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Luck in the beginning and foolish risks, but with each card played it was easier to calculate the odds of what would be turned by knowing what remained in the deck,” she answered.
“You memorized each card played?” Seth asked in disbelief.
“Yes.”
“When did you start doing so?”
“I always have,” she answered. “It is a gift, I suppose, but I have always remembered cards played and calculated odds, once I knew the rules of the game.”
It was not possible. “I won too often at the cottage for that to be true.”
Frances simply stared him in the eye, unflinching.
She was telling him the truth. No wonder she had done so well gambling at balls and entertainments. “Why let me win then? It would not have mattered.” It had been just the two of them in the cottage.
“Your pride,” she answered simply. “I enjoyed playing the games with you and did not want you to stop or become angry if you knew.”
“You lied,” he said flatly.
“I did not consider it such at the time.”
“It no longer matters.” He stood. “Thank you for the games, Miss Hawthorn. I will return to the club and prepare the documents so that you can claim ownership tomorrow.”
With that, Seth turned on his heel and marched from the room and out of the house, leaving his winnings behind. They did not matter now.
Nothing mattered.
He had lost everything and to the woman he loved. The woman who had betrayed him.
