Chapter Seven
On the ride to Lord Adam’s home, Mattie gave her new friend the abbreviated version of the recent events involving Markham, which took them right to the door of the town house they’d been invited to. Not dissimilar to her father’s town house, this was in an area more in demand, with a parkland in the lot down the road.
Lady Adam St. Peters greeted Mattie with a hug. “Call me Mary Jane, please. A friend to Charlotte is most certainly a friend to me.”
“As I told you, Mattie, she’s quite excited to meet you.”
“I’m an old married woman now,” Mary Jane said. “I no longer attend the majority of assemblies, so I don’t meet as many new people as I wish.”
She led the girls into the drawing room and motioned for them to sit. “My husband will join us shortly. And we’ve invited a few others to spend the evening with us. Do you know the Duke of Thornton and Lord Markham?”
Mattie’s chest froze and she couldn’t inhale.
Charlotte saved her. “I met Lord Markham at his sister’s wedding, but Mattie has known him for some time.”
“Yes,” Mattie squeaked. She cleared her throat. “We’ve been acquainted many years.”
The irony! While she had come there to avoid boredom, she’d hoped to cross paths with Markham at some point. To have it happen so soon in her visits was better than she’d imagined.
She tried to focus on conversation, and blamed her travels for her inattention, when either woman asked. Tiredness couldn’t explain why she jumped at every sound from the street, or footsteps in the hall. When would he arrive?
Finally, the butler announced the two men.
Thornton entered first and Mattie joined the other two women in curtseying. He was handsome enough, but he didn’t compare to Markham in the least.
Markham, himself, entered next, looking more handsome than she remembered. Well, she’d gone longer than a few weeks without seeing him and noticed no change, so her attraction to him must be what had changed.
He smiled, even in his eyes, when he met her gaze. “Lady Matilda, I had no idea you were in Town.”
“I only arrived today. I’m staying with Miss Harrow. You remember her from the wedding?”
“Yes.” He nodded to her. “I’ve known her for some time. Are you acquainted with His Grace? Thornton, Lady Matilda is one of my sister’s dearest friends.”
One of his sister’s dearest friend. No mention of their own friendship. That should be all she needed to hear to put aside all thought of him.
But she’d thought of him so long, she didn’t believe she could ever stop.
Lord Adam entered behind his friends, and Mattie was introduced to him, too. Not long after, they ate a splendid meal with four courses, and returned to the drawing room sated.
Markham stood behind Mattie’s shoulder, resting a hand on the back of her chair. “What brings you to Town? Merely your friend, Charlotte?”
“Yes. We got on quite well at Stanhope Abbey.”
“How charming. And what will you do for entertainment?”
She was about to claim she wasn’t easily bored, but that was precisely her reason for coming. That, and the hope of seeing him, and she couldn’t mention that, either. “We…haven’t decided. As I said, I’ve only just arrived.”
“Well, I can make some recommendations, if you wish.”
“I thank you, but Charlotte has many ideas, and not everyone has returned to the country. We’ll attend the opera, or the theatre. Charlotte’s brother and his wife live not far…you see, we have many entertainments at hand.”
“Very good to hear.”
Was that disappointment in his voice? She glanced back at him. “Of course, I include you among my friends, Lord Markham. May we look forward to your company before I return to Nottinghamshire?”
His smile gave her shivers. “I’d be delighted.”
***
Taking their leave from Lord and Lady Adam, Markham and Thornton rode to White’s to begin their search for Sir Rollo. As luck would have it, they found him there and were able to join his table.
“Markham and Thornton. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Sir Rollo was banker, as usual, and he dealt to the two of them as well as the other three men at the table.
“I never miss a good game of Vingt-et-un.” Markham turned up his face-down card. Added to the face-up one, he had a total of seventeen. He’d watch the others before deciding to ask for another card. Most importantly, he watched Sir Rollo.
“I’m surprised you aren’t at Shipley’s tonight,” Thornton said.
“Once I’ve beaten a man repeatedly, he rarely wants to join me again.”
Markham stared at the man with his near admission of cheating. “Do you attend a different club every night? Or do you have to go to more than one in an evening?”
Sir Rollo chuckled. The others requested additional cards or stuck with what they had, and Sir Rollo flipped his second card to show a pontoon. He’d had an ace showing, and revealed a king. Twenty-one.
No one else held more than twenty points, so the money went into the bank. Sir Rollo wasn’t a meticulous player, leaving the coins piled rather than stacked. Even if he wasn’t concerned about the man stealing coins from the bank, the sheer disorder of it all drove Markham mad.
In the next hand, Sir Rollo went bust, dealing himself twenty-three, so he paid back the bets.
Several hands later, Thornton’s face up card was an ace, increasing the odds he had a pontoon. His expression after checking his first card didn’t change, so Markham had no idea what he held.
Markham went bust, and he watched the other players finish their play, all waiting to see what the dealer, Sir Rollo, had. He turned up two tens.
The other three men flipped their cards, muttering about losing again. Thornton waited until last, watching Sir Rollo’s expression when he turned up a jack. His pontoon beat dealer’s twenty, so the bank and deal moved to Thornton.
This was what Markham had been waiting for. Thornton slid the pile of coins in front of him and very slowly and carefully stacked them so everyone—most importantly Markham—could calculate the total.
Not knowing how much was in the bank before they arrived, Markham couldn’t determine how much, if any, the total was off. But now he could keep track. They might have to play late into the night to have the bank return to Sir Rollo and then back to one of them, but they’d do so tonight, and the next, and as many as it took to catch the man at his game.