“I am not a dancing bear, my lady,” Gwendolyn replied, unwilling to cave just yet. “Besides, I’m Irish. How good can I possibly be?”
“It is only the Irish comment that has upset you?” Lady Orpington reached for the deck of cards and shuffled them herself, cackling as she did so. “Very well. Hooray for the Irish. Long may they live. Happy now?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Vera will be your partner, Miss Lanscarr, while I shall play two hands of cards.”
“That puts you at an advantage,” Gwendolyn pointed out.
“I know,” Lady Orpington said happily. “Now sit.”
Gwendolyn hesitated. She didn’t know how she felt about all of this.
“Please, Miss Lanscarr,” Mrs. Newsome said again. “It will make my cousin happy.”
And then Gwendolyn remembered that when she’d first met Mr. Steele, she had been playingcards. He had complimented her play... for a purpose, she now realized.
She would dearly enjoy teaching Lady Orpington a littletruerespect for the Irish. But first—
“Why is finding a whist partner important to you, my lady?” Gwendolyn asked.
“I told you. The Middlebury house party is next week. Whist is the game we play.”
“Lady Middlebury is devoted to whist,” Mrs. Newsome offered helpfully. “As is my cousin.”
“Do you gamble on it?” Gwendolyn asked.
“Of course.” Lady Orpington shook her head as if that had been a silly question. “However, the money is of no consequence.”
“What isofconsequence?” Gwendolyn asked.
“Winning.” Lady Orpington said this as if it should be obvious. “Proving who is the best player. Who can amass the highest points. But what does it matter to you? You play. That is all that is being asked.”
“Except I wish to know who I am playing with and why winning matters.” Gwendolyn knew people went to Mr. Steele for many reasons. Some to find missing loved ones like she and Dara had for Elise. Others because they had special requests that only they understood. “Why do you wish to win so badly you are willing to play with a stranger? Or go to whatever lengths?” Mr. Steele’s services always came with a cost.
Lady Orpington set the stack of cards in the middle of the game table, her expression bullishly solemn.
Mrs. Newsome prodded. “Tell her, Ellen.”
At the soft words, tears suddenly welled in Lady Orpington’s eyes. She blinked them back. “You do it.”
Mrs. Newsome looked as if she would have patted her cousin’s hand but stayed herself as if knowing such a kind gesture would be unwelcome. “Lady Middlebury is a devoted player,” she said to Gwendolyn. “She hosts a whist tournament at her house party. It is well-known.”
Not to Gwendolyn, but that was unsurprising.
“Lady Orpington’s partner—winning partner, I should add—was her late husband. They were a very good team. They always won. Lady Middlebury had long wished to defeat them.”
“Her desire to best us was about more than the cards,” Lady Orpington said. “My husband and I were a love story. She was jealous of us.”
Mrs. Newsome nodded agreement. “Lord Orpington did adore you. He was also a brilliant player. A great mind.”
“Charles and I knew each other’s thoughts without speaking,” Lady Orpington declared. “That is how close we were.”
“Unfortunately,” Mrs. Newsome continued, “during last year’s party, he began to fail.”
“His mind... it went away,” Lady Orpington whispered. “It came about so suddenly. It didn’t make sense.” She squeezed her eyes shut as if hating the memory.
“Yes, it was sad. And quick. Nothing was wrong until they started playing, and then he somehow became lost in the game,” Mrs. Newsome said. “He made the wrong bids.”
Lady Orpington took over the story, doubling her fists and placing them against her chest as if her heart hurt. “I saw it happen immediately. There was a change in his eyes. They became unfocused. I asked Franny—” She paused, looked at Gwendolyn with hard eyes and said, “Franny, Lady Middlebury, who was my childhood friend, whom I have bolstered and guided and cared for all of the years since we were very young girls—I asked her to put the play on hold. Stop the tournament for that year. The matter had to be handled delicately. Men do not accept they are not all they wish to be.”
“What happened?” Gwendolyn asked.
