Moonlight shimmered on her face, silvery and pale in the dark. Her eyes glinted, and her disarranged hair made her look wild and fierce.
She's so bonnie,Dominic thought, followed immediately by shock that he'd thought of such a thing. He'd seen plenty of beautiful women in his time, and none of them had possessed his thoughts like she had. What waswrongwith him? He didn't even know her name, and she might well have been fleecing his patrons out of their hard-earned money for months.
"Ye claim ye werenae cheatin'," he said, desperate to distract himself.
"I wasn't," she snapped. "I don't cheat. It's not easy to cheat at cards, you know. So long as you understand how the numbers work, you'll never need to cheat."
"Numbers?" Dominic echoed, thinking of the endless ledgers and columns in his account books at home. He gave his head a little shake to distract himself. "Ye may not have been cheatin', but in me opinion, a skilled card player like yerself taking on that pack of fools might as well be cheatin'. It would be like me challenging a baby to a swordfight and braggin' when I win."
The woman suppressed a smile. "You challenge a lot of babies to swordfights, do you?"
"Nae the point," he said testily. "I think ye owe me some answers."
"I owe you nothing. Why do you care? It's not like I'm the only woman in that pub."
"Ye are the only English woman there, and the only woman who won a card game like that. Two aces and two queens? Come on. Nay wonder they thought ye were cheatin'."
She flushed. "I don't have to answer to you."
"Aye, maybe not, but I think ye can at least take your hatpin out of me face."
The woman wavered, biting her lip, and backed away. She still held the hatpin, ready to use if he chose to attack her, but at least it wasn'tthatclose to his eyes anymore. Dominic sighed, rolling his shoulders.
"Ye forgot yer gloves," he said shortly, holding them out. The girl went to take them, but he held them just out of her reach. "These are fine gloves."
"Thank you," she responded suspiciously.
"Very fine," Dominic mused, almost to himself, rubbing an empty glove finger between his forefinger and thumb. "Kid gloves, arenae they? Most people here can live their whole liveswithout touchin' something so fine, let alone ownin' it. And here ye are, wearin' them as if they're nothin'."
The woman made another vain grab for the gloves. "Give them back. They're mine. What do you want from me, anyway?"
"I told ye," he snapped. "Answers. Who are ye? Because there's something odd about ye, and it's nae just because ye are English. Let's start with yer name."
She tilted up her chin, defiant. "You have no right to ask my name."
"I'm the owner of that pub. I have a right to know the names of everyone who sets foot in it. Ye've been accused of cheating, and I'm sure I daenae need to tell ye that it's a serious accusation. I'm nae saying that a woman can't play cards and win, but ye must agree that it's nae usual. Ye are nae a local, or I'd know ye, and ye never so much as buy a drink in me pub. Ye just come to play cards, and then leave with yer winnin's. So, ye will excuse me if I don't trust ye. Ye are not stirring a step further without telling me who ye are and what yer game is."
The woman swallowed hard, eyes darting this way and that.
Don't run into the forest,Dominic thought.It's easy to get lost here.
"I don't owe you anything," she said. Her voice was calm, but he heard the underlying panic in her words. "I'm not a cheater. Itold you that, and I meant it. I'm very good at cards. My father taught me all the games he knew, and we used to play for hours. Of course, that was before..." she cut herself off with an awkward cough.
"My point is," she continued, "I don'tneedto cheat. And I didn't cheat. Your precious customer is probably just angry that he lost to a girl."
"Most likely," Dominic agreed. "But I've seen ye often, and I have a lot of questions to ask. As I said, we'll start with who ye are. What is yer name, lass? Come on, out with it. Tell me, or I'll die of curiosity."
There was a long, tense silence between them. That last comment was meant to be a joke, to lighten the mood and put her at ease. Thomas had often remarked on how serious Dominic could be and had suggested jokes to make himself seem more approachable.
It didn't seem to have worked. The woman narrowed her eyes at him.
"Die then," she snapped, "Because I'm not going to tell you."
She darted to the side, leaving the path and crashing through the undergrowth.
Dominic sighed heavily. They were doing this the hard way, then.
4
