Page 59 of Affair

Juliana flushed. “It would be best if you left now, Miss Arkendale.”

“I do not intend to leave here without an explanation.”

“I have no explanations to give.”

Charlotte said nothing for a long moment. Then she walked over to the small ebony table. “These are not the sort of cards one uses for whist.”

“No.”

Charlotte bent down to pick up the deck. She examined the ornate decorations on the backs of the cards and then she glanced at the strange figures on the facing sides. She had seen such cards used once long ago at a masquerade party.

“Do you tell fortunes, Miss Post?”

Juliana watched her warily. “I read the cards in order to advise young ladies in matters of love and marriage.”

“For a fee.”

Juliana’s smile was cold. “Naturally.”

“When your housekeeper answered the door just now she assumed that I had an appointment. Did she think that I had come here to have you read the cards for me?”

“Yes.”

Charlotte glanced meaningfully around the room. “I must commend you on your establishment. You have created a most intriguing atmosphere in which to practice your profession.”

“Thank you.”

“It would seem that your business is a profitable one.”

“I manage.” A bitter anger flashed across Juliana’s face. “I have become quite the rage among a certain set of fashionable young ladies. Some of them find it amusing to have me read their fates in the cards. Others take it more seriously. Either way, they are prepared to pay for the entertainment I provide.”

“Have you been in this career very long?”

“Since shortly after my dear guardian finished off the last of my inheritance.” Cynical amusement lit Juliana’s eyes. “That occurred when I was eighteen. Once the money was gone he no longer found it convenient to have me in his house.”

“He sounds as if he came from the same mold as my stepfather.” Charlotte set down the deck of cards. “Do you know, Miss Post, I believe we may have something in common.”

“I doubt that very much.”

“I, too, have a small business that caters to ladies. And I was also obliged to invent a career for reasons not unlike your own.” She smiled faintly. “At least we both managed to escape the usual fate of women in our situation. Neither of us became a governess or was obliged to walk the streets.”

“Please leave,” Juliana whispered. “You should not have come here today.”

“It is not easy for a woman to make her own way in the world, is it?”

The small bells attached to Juliana’s crimson robes jangled dissonantly. She clenched her hands at her sides. “Do not think that you can cozen me into telling you what you wish to know. I will tell you nothing.”

“I am prepared to pay for the information I seek.”

Juliana gave a crack of mirthless laughter. “You’re a fool if you think that there is any amount of money in the world that would persuade me to answer your question.”

“Do you feel so much loyalty, then, to the person who hired you to play the part of a cast-off lover?”

“I made a bargain. I have kept my end of it. What happens now is none of my affair. I must insist that you leave at once.”

Charlotte caught her breath as intuition struck. “You are afraid.”

“That is nonsense.”

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