Page 58 of The Secret Life of the Elusive Governess
“A round of Cassino, Caroline,” Moses replied while shuffling the cards. “I will be laying some cards face up on the table and the aim for you is to capture the cards by playing a matching card from your hand. If fortune decides to smile on you, it is also possible to capture several cards.”
“So,” she said while digesting the words while something churned in her stomach, “A matching game.”
“Verily so,” Moses added. “But I can sense that you want something more from it.” He then leaned in so closely that his eyes were a handbreadth away from hers. “What more do you want, Caroline?”
Look away!She cried internally,please look away, your eyes do unnatural things to me.
Yanking her control back, Caroline dipped her head and considered, “I would like to know about you, from your words directly. Not by the assumptions I have gained about you by proxy.”
“And what would those assumptions be?”
“That, by your posture, you have spent some time in the military, and by your meals, that you had a strange fondness for Indian pepper,” Caroline added. “The fractions are wonderful but they do not make up the whole of you.”
A hand rubbing over his chin was soon moved, “Very well, Caroline, I think I will answer your questions… if, in the end, we tally the score of each round and we will know the winner.”
“You, sir, are a very conniving blackguard if I do say so myself,” Caroline huffed, “You are trading secrets for…amusement?”
“And sherry,” Moses said while reaching for a bottle.
Pouring them both some of the potent liquid, the Duke then took up the stack of cards, “Are you in?”
“I…” Caroline looked at the man she was in love with and knew she could never say no to him. “Yes, I will play.”
* * *
The Silver Swan, London
The Silver Swan was nothing more than a one-way ticket to the Devils’ domain, but a wonderful mask, one that would transform iniquity into a semblance of virtue, coming from the strains of classical music pouring from the establishment. Peregrine had never encountered a place so sinful that had such a sublime appearance.
The Earl of Crampton peered at his pocket watch in the dim lighting and noting the time, crammed it back into the tiny pocket on his waistcoat.
At interims, raucous laughter rang out, or the smashing of a breaking bottle cut through the classical music. The warm musty smell of bodies, whiskey, and cigars drifted outside. Once or twice, Peregrine could spot a known viscount or a baron meandering by with a woman of ill repute on his arm.
Taking a gulp of his drink, Peregrine scowled into the cup.Where in the name of God is this man? I have things to do and no time to waste.
“My concerned party, I imagine?” a smooth voice, almost as shadowy as the cigar smoke lingering around him, said suddenly.
Peregrine looked up and barely noted a man with sharp features and a tight smirk, “I must say, you are a brave man coming to such a dangerous place alone.”
“That is what you think,” Peregrine said with a nasty smile while shifting to let the barrel of his pistol peek over the edge of the table. “I can hold my own, sir...”
“Albion, Baron of Rowe. And you are?”
“Peregrine, Earl of Crampton,” the seated man said while holstering his weapon. “I am delighted to meet—”
The man held up his hand, cutting the Earl off midsentence, “Not here in this assembly of degenerates. I have a private table at the back, let us go there. Please, accompany me.”
Grumbling mentally about the man’s audacity, Peregrine stood and followed him to the back of the establishment where a table was pushed in a corner. As they approached, a man melted out from the darkness of a nook and stopped Peregrine in his stride.
“Excuse—”
“Stand down, Mr. White, he is the man I have arranged to meet,” Lord Rowe said, while sliding into his seat, “It is the other ne’er-do-wells you need to look out for. Lord Crampton, please sit.”
Shooting the bodyguard a superior look, Peregrine slid into the seat and folded his hand on the table. Lord Rowe reached for a bottle of liquor and two glasses, “Some wine?”
“I do not accept a drink from men I just meet,” Peregrine said with a suspicious eye, “Enemies, you know.”
“All too well,” Lord Rowe said, while pouring out a measure of the wine and taking it up, drank the whole lot. He sat there for moments then said, “Are you satisfied now? I am not suddenly dead or twitching on the floor like a spastic.”
