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‘What? And stop in at St Clement Danes on your way back up the Strand to pray for a miracle?’ James asked.
Nick flushed. ‘No. I was going to come to you and...and ask for advice. But I didn’t find Hensleigh and I ran into my attackers on the way back.’
‘My advice would have been to stay out of gaming hells in the first place,’ James said. ‘However, that’s done. Why the hell didn’t you stop when the play got too deep?’ A question for the ages, that one.
He watched as Nick swallowed. ‘I... I thought I could win it all back. You...you see, I did win at first. Quite a lot. And then—’
‘And then you lost a bit. Not much, but a bit,’ James said. It was a familiar story.
‘Yes,’ Nick said. ‘And I won it back quite quickly, but then—’
‘Then you really started losing,’ James finished for him. ‘Haven’t you played enough salmon in your time to know when you’re being played?’
‘Apparently not.’ Nick fiddled with the bedclothes. ‘What do I do now? I can’t pay this debt and even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to pay for my lodgings, or eat, or—’
‘Precisely,’ James said. ‘Did you enjoy it?’
‘What?’
‘The cards. The play. The excitement.’ He needed to know if he was going to be wasting his money. He’d bail Nick out this first time, regardless, but if the boy was a bred-in-the-bone gamester, he needed to know. As things stood, Nick’s father, William, was his heir, with Nick next in line.
‘Oh.’ Nick grimaced. ‘No. Not much.’
‘Really?’ Was the boy just giving the answer he must know his cousin wanted?
‘Well, winning was fun,’ Nick admitted.
‘Winning is supposed to be fun,’ James said.
‘Yes, but I have more fun, say, steeplechasing,’ Nick said. ‘Even if I don’t win, the ride is fun.’
‘And gaming isn’t?’
Nick shook his head. And winced. ‘No. I felt sick most of the time.’
Relief flooded James. ‘Come down this summer and we’ll race. There’s a colt you can try out for me. He’s not up to my weight.’
‘If the pater ever lets me off the leash again,’ Nick said. ‘I’ll have to write to him. Tell him what I’ve done and—’
‘I’ll sort it out,’ James said. ‘No need to upset your parents.’ William and Susan were good people, but the boy would never hear the last of it and he suspected Nick had learned his lesson. Learned it the hard way, but at least he had learned it. Many never did. Also, William couldn’t afford to settle a debt like this. James could.
‘What? No!’ This time Nick did sit up, swearing at the pain. ‘Curse it, James!’ he went on, when James had helped him back against the pillows. ‘I wanted advice, not your money!’
‘If I didn’t believe that, you wouldn’t be getting either,’ James said. ‘Listen, you aren’t the first youngster to make a fool of himself in London, and—’ he grimaced slightly at the memory ‘—I don’t suppose I was either.’
‘You?’ Nick sounded as though he could as easily have believed St Paul’s had heaved itself up off its foundations and walked away on chicken legs.
James reminded himself that his cousin was nineteen. ‘I wasn’t born staid and respectable,’ he said. Far from it.
Nick flushed to the roots of his hair. ‘I didn’t mean that! It just seems unlikely that you could have done something this stupid.’
He’d been a great deal more stupid. ‘Believe it or not, you don’t have a monopoly on idiocy,’ he said. ‘But that’s beside the point. The point is that someone bailed me out and never let me repay her.’
Nick stared. ‘Her? Who?’
James cleared his throat. ‘What I’m saying is that I’ll sort this out and consider that I’ve done something towards clearing an old obligation.’ He was fairly sure Elizabeth would see it that way.
‘Now I feel like a worm as well as an idiot,’ Nick muttered. ‘I will pay you back, whether you like it or not.’
‘Fine,’ said James, knowing better than to tell the idiot boy that the money didn’t matter. If it mattered to Nick, so much the better. ‘Now, you’d better tell me who and where I have to pay. And while we’re at it you can furnish me with Captain Hensleigh’s direction.’
Nick blew out a breath. ‘I don’t know it, but you’ll find the Cockpit easily enough.’
‘The Cockpit? Is that the hell?’ James asked.
Nick nodded. ‘Yes. It’s in an old cellar. Used to have cocking there, apparently. He’s there most nights.’ He frowned. ‘You don’t need him, though. Fellow called Kilby bought the vowels. One of his bullies let the name slip, but they said to ask at the Maid and Magpie tavern with the money.’
Paget’s return with coffee gave James a moment to think. He sat down on a chair by the bed and sipped. The first thing was to pay off the debt. Before Nick got another beating from this Kilby’s enforcers. After that...
James’s jaw hardened. Then he’d go after Captain Hensleigh.
‘James?’
He looked at Nick. ‘Hmm?’
‘You aren’t planning something stupid, are you?’
‘No.’ The lie came easily. ‘I was thinking that your parents are due in town soon.’ He ignored Nick’s groan. ‘You can go out to my place at Chiswick for a couple of weeks until you look less like something the cat coughed up and that rib has a chance to heal.’
Nick smiled weakly. ‘Nice try. And you don’t think Mama will just pop down for a visit? Chiswick isn’t that far out of town.’
James shrugged. ‘Not if I hint to your father that you took a woman with you.’
Nick sank even further into the pillows and James noted with some amusement that under his bruises the boy was blushing. ‘Damn it, James! They’ll think I’m in the petticoat line!’
James suppressed a grin. ‘Aren’t you? Well, it’s your choice. Do you prefer your mama clucking over you like a hen with one chick?’
Nick groaned. ‘All right, all right. I take your point. Thank you.’
‘You can go in my carriage when the doctor says you can travel,’ James said, sipping his coffee. ‘This is excellent, by the way. Do you think Paget might confide his secret to my cook?’
Chapter One (#ulink_e818bfd8-4f8c-511b-8f6c-2414051e5dce)
Three weeks later
James blinked across the table at his opponent. ‘I make that a thousand pounds, Hensleigh. Time to settle up, don’t you think?’ He spoke with extra precision, as if without care his speech might have slurred. With seeming clumsiness, he knocked his glass of burgundy. ‘Oops,’ he said absently.
Hensleigh smiled broadly as he righted the glass. ‘Oh, come now, Cambourne! I’m no faint heart. The merest reverse! You must give me at least a chance to recoup my losses. Double or nothing on the next hand? Winner take all?’
James would have preferred to end this farce right there and then, walking out with his winnings, or at least Hensleigh’s vowels. Frankly he thought he’d spent enough time in the Cockpit.
Finding the hell had been easy. Getting in had been trickier, even with the password Nick had given him, but a crown to the doorman had worked a minor miracle. He’d noted Hensleigh on his first visit, a tall, bluff, open-faced sort, with thinning ginger hair, but hadn’t approached him. Instead he’d played dice at another table, careful not to win or lose too heavily, once he’d worked out how the dice were weighted. He’d dressed carefully, making sure he looked and behaved like a well-heeled squire fresh from the country—a pigeon ready for plucking. He’d also introduced himself as plain Mr Cambourne. In this situation his title would be a hindrance. He’d watched the card play, come to the conclusion that Hensleigh was far from the only Captain Sharp in the room, and planned accordingly.
Sure enough, the first time he’d played whist, he’d been allowed to win. Easily. Afterwards, when Hensleigh had come up to congratulate him, he’d grumbled that his opponent wasn’t skilled enough to make it entertaining. The second time he’d lost a little, but won more, swaggering away two hundred pounds to the good. Tonight Hensleigh had approached him, all “hail, fellow, well met” and “care for a hand or two?” Apparently tonight was plucking time.
James considered. Double or nothing would end the affair and he wanted it over. The dingy, smoky hell, with its complement of the desperate and the dangerous, bored him. Several women, their profession—and assets—very obvious, prowled the room, only too ready to relieve a man of his winnings if the professional card sharps at the tables failed to do it. Occasionally a woman would leave with one or more of the players. It could not be said that they slipped away. Nothing so discreet. A few times James had heard the price agreed on.
He veiled his contempt with a bleary stare. ‘Double or nothing?’ he said. ‘That would make your losses two thousand pounds, Hensleigh.’
The fellow smirked. ‘Oh, well,’ he said, with another broad smile, ‘What’s life without a little risk? Shall we have a new deck for it, eh?’
James raised his brows. ‘Why not?’ He sat back as Hensleigh signalled.
‘A new deck here, my man,’ Hensleigh said to the servant who came over. ‘And a cloth for this mess. Mr Cambourne and I have agreed to double or nothing. Winner take all.’
The servant’s gaze sharpened. ‘Aye, Cap’n.’ He scurried away.
‘Another glass of wine, Cambourne?’ Hensleigh suggested, his hand hovering by the bottle.
‘Why not?’ James plastered a vacuous grin to his face. Hensleigh had been pouring glass after glass of wine for him with a fine appearance of generosity. No doubt he assumed James was at least verging on foxed, if not well beyond it. In fact, most of the wine had been surreptitiously poured on to the carpet.
James lounged back to wait, as another servant wiped the table.
The first servant brought the new deck and glanced at Hensleigh, who held out his hand. ‘Thank you, my man.’ He cut the deck.
James waited until he began to shuffle, straightened and said quietly, with no trace of impairment, ‘It’s my turn to deal, Hensleigh.’
Several cards slipped from the man’s hands, as his gaze flew to James’s face. ‘Is it? I am sure you must be mistaken.’
James raised his brows. ‘No, Hensleigh, I am not.’
Hensleigh’s eyes narrowed, flickered to the glass of wine.
James smiled. And shook his head. He reached out, swept up the fallen cards without taking his eyes from Hensleigh’s face, and waited.
After a moment, expressionless, Hensleigh handed over the rest of the pack.
‘Thank you,’ said James, shuffling with an expertise he hadn’t used earlier. Hensleigh’s mouth tightened, but he said nothing. James ignored him, continuing the shuffle with unconcerned ease. Carefully he tilted the cards just so, as they ran through his fingers, catching the light. He didn’t really need to see, but he wanted Hensleigh to sweat.
The man’s eyes widened.
‘Is this what they cashiered you for, Hensleigh?’ James asked.
Hensleigh swallowed. ‘The devil you say?’
‘The army,’ James said. ‘It was the army, wasn’t it? They don’t like Captain Sharps in the army. Or the navy, but you don’t strike me as the seafaring sort.’ He continued to shuffle. ‘Or perhaps I’m insulting the army and you invented your rank. Horse Guards didn’t know anything about you when I enquired.’ He smiled humourlessly as Hensleigh paled. ‘Rather clumsy, the markings on this deck,’ he went on. ‘I can feel the wax lines on the backs quite easily. The other deck was less obvious.’
Hensleigh rallied. ‘You are mistaken, sir. But we can call for another deck.’
James shook his head. ‘No. We settle up. Now.’
‘You agreed to double or nothing—’
‘With an unmarked pack,’ James said. ‘All bets are off now.’ He gathered the cards with a practised flick. ‘Do we leave quietly, or shall I make it public?’
Hensleigh looked around nervously and clenched his fists. ‘Damn you.’
James shrugged. ‘Just sign your vowels, Hensleigh, and we’ll have them countersigned by the management.’ He wouldn’t put it past the swine to disavow them if he thought he could get away with it. ‘And don’t even think about playing here again until you’ve paid me,’ he added.
Hensleigh glared. ‘You were stringing me!’
James bowed. ‘Absolutely.’
Two weeks later
Trying not to breathe any deeper than absolutely necessary to support life, James trod up the narrow, creaking stairs. The aroma of last night’s fish—hell, possibly last year’s fish—and over-boiled cabbage followed him with putrid tenacity. Another flight of stairs and he tried to persuade himself that the smell was losing heart.
A week after their card game, Hensleigh—surprise, surprise—had neither turned up at James’s house to settle his debts, nor returned to the Cockpit. After a further week of hunting, courtesy of a chance sighting on the Strand, James had found his prey’s bolt-hole. The bolt-hole, according to what he’d been told, where Hensleigh kept his woman.
Third landing, the landlady had said.
Haven’t seen ’is nibs, but the girl’s up there.
The landing creaked, sagging ominously under his weight. He could see the announcement in the Morning Gazette... “Lord C met an untimely end collecting on a debt of honour by falling to his death when a landing gave way...”
He glanced around, wrinkling his nose; the rancid fish was just as odoriferous up here as down below. He might not need the money Hensleigh owed him, but by God he was going to break him. By the time he was done, Hensleigh wouldn’t be able to keep himself, let alone any sort of woman. If Hensleigh wasn’t home, then his mistress could deliver the warning that his vowels were about to be sold on.
He rapped sharply, noting with faint surprise that the door was actually clean...
The door opened and a girl enveloped in a grimy apron and clutching a rag stared at him. A few coppery tendrils of hair had escaped from her mob cap and brushed against a creamy-fair, slightly flushed cheek. A familiar odour that had nothing to do with fish drifted from the apartment. He sniffed—furniture polish? Yes, and something else, something sweet and indefinable that drifted through him.
‘Are you looking for someone?’
James’s world lurched a little at the slightly husky and surprisingly well-bred voice. His gaze met wary green eyes and an altogether unwelcome heat slid through his veins. How the hell did pond scum like Hensleigh acquire a woman like this one? Even as he wondered, the girl began to close the door. ‘You must have the wrong address.’
He stuck his foot in the door. ‘The devil I do.’
* * *
Lucy wondered if several foolish and altogether unlikely daydreams had become tangled with reality. The dreams where a tall, dark-haired, handsome gentleman came and swept her away into a life of safety. Only in her dreams, when this gentleman appeared at the door, she was somehow garbed in the latest fashions, with a dainty reticule dangling from her wrist. Not clad in a worn-out gown and grubby apron, and clutching a polishing rag. Nor in her dreams did the gentleman have cold, storm-grey eyes that looked at her as if she were something stuck to his shoe. Nor did he scowl. Her dream gentleman went down on one knee and offered her his heart. She wasn’t holding out for a prince, however, just a kind, respectable man who didn’t gamble and had a comfortable home. Nor did she insist on the glass slipper, which she thought would be most uncomfortable, but clearly, if she had a fairy godmother at all, the fairy’s wand had a slight flaw.
‘I’m looking for Hensleigh.’
For a moment the deep, velvet-dark voice froze her so that she just stared dumbly. It wasn’t so much that he was tall, although he was, but that there was something about the way he stood. The way he seemed to fill the landing. Perhaps it was his shoulders? They seemed very broad, much broader than Papa’s. Whatever the reason, her mind had scrambled.
She cleared her throat. ‘I’m sorry, sir. There is no one—’ Her mind cleared and her stomach chilled at her near mistake, at the cold eyes that raked her. ‘That is, he’s not here.’ She clutched the polishing rag to steady the sudden trembling of her hands. Hensleigh, not Armitage. Papa had drummed it into her years ago not to use their real name. Ever. The name he used changed periodically, but it had been Hensleigh for weeks now. Before that it had been Hammersley and before that...well, something else starting with H. According to Shakespeare, a rose would smell as sweet by any other name, but she thought the rose might find it confusing to be renamed every few months.
Cold eyes narrowed and her pulse beat erratically. His voice, lethally soft, curled through her. ‘Of course a rose by any other name may smell as sweet.’ She flinched. Was the man a sorcerer? ‘Although I’m sure it does become confusing.’
