Page 39 of Beyond Scandal and Desire
“What’s it worth?” Brown Coat asked.
“A hundred quid.”
Brown Coat laughed, a mocking sound that grated on Aslyn’s nerves. She didn’t know this game, didn’t understand quite what was happening. Would Kip win if the man didn’t pay that amount? Was that his plan? To reverse the tables and win by default?
“All right, mate. In for a penny, in for a pound.” He picked up a handful of coins and tossed them negligently into the pile as though they were worth nothing. “Let’s see what ye got.”
Aslyn held her breath even though she had no idea what a winning hand might look like. Kip set down three cards and announced, “Three aces.”
“Not bad,” Brown Coat said.
He laid down the rest of his cards. “And two threes.”
Brown Coat’s eyes widened and he grinned. “Not bad at all.”
Did that mean Kip had won? His theatrics at displaying his cards made her think he did indeed have a very good hand.
“I can see why you was willing to risk so much,” Brown Coat said. “Unfortunately, for the lady, I’m holding . . .” He flipped his cards one at a time onto the table. “Four eights.”
Kip didn’t laugh or shout with joy. Instead he seemed to shrink before her, his shoulders rounding.
“Kip?”
With a shaking hand, he reached for his glass and tossed back the amber contents.
“Spud, take me winnin’s from the lady.”
Spud was much thinner than his friend, and she wondered if his motley face had anything to do with his name. While he looked regretful approaching her, she still didn’t want him touching her. “I’ll do it,” she announced, and, without hesitation, reached back and unlatched her necklace. Carefully she pulled the comb from her hair. With the reverence they deserved, she placed them gently on the table.
Kip twisted his head up. “Have you anything else on you?”
He could not be serious. And yet he appeared to be deadly so. “No. I believe it’s time we went home.”
He shook his head. “Aslyn, all I need is one more chance. I was so close. All I need is one more hand.”
Was this the future he was planning for them? What about the investors he’d been so keen to meet? This creature to whom she’d handed over her pearls and comb could not be a successful businessman. He’d never be allowed in the duke’s parlor to discuss investments.
“It’s time for you to leave, my friend,” Mick said, as he wrapped his hand around Kip’s arm. Although the words may have come across as a suggestion, there was a steeliness in his tone that indicated they were a command. She wondered how long he’d been standing there, if he’d witnessed her humiliation. If so, he gave no indication, seemed merely intent on the task at hand, getting Kip to his feet.
Kip didn’t object, but he did stagger back once he was standing. “I lost to a bloody bricklayer. He probably can’t even read.”
There was a slurring to his words she hadn’t noticed before. “You’re foxed.”
“No, but the room is spinning. What an odd thing to put in a hotel. A spinning room.”
“Your betrothed is correct, my lord,” Mick said. “It’s time you were away.”
It became clear rather quickly, when Kip rammed into a table, that he couldn’t walk a straight line without assistance. Mick provided it once again.
“Lead the way,” he instructed her.
She nodded. Much better to march forward than to follow behind, while Kip stumbled, in spite of the support the hotel owner provided him. Avoiding eye contact with anyone, she charged straight ahead, grateful when she finally burst through into the hallway where there was less smoke and she could at last breathe again, and her eyes weren’t smarting. She blinked back the tears and they didn’t return. She would not think about what she had lost. She would not.
If her parents’ deaths had taught her anything, it was that nothing was to be gained in mourning what could not be changed, in railing against it. Anger, tears, fists did not alter an outcome once it was realized.
When they reached the lobby, she spied Fancy near the stairs where she’d first seen Mick, and spun around, obviously catching him by surprise because he nearly rammed into her, in spite of his sagging burden. “If you’ll give me a moment, I wish to say goodbye to your sister.”
He nodded. “I’ll take him outside, send someone to fetch your carriage.”
