Page 15 of In Compromise with the Earl
“That Lady Carmichael is a bore,” Quentin commented, referring to the young lady Oswald had been partnered with, as they walked over to the bar to fetch brandies. “I’ve been at soirees with her and she is notorious for talking about home remedies. I’ve danced with her and now I know all five proven cures for colic. I felt terribly sorry for you when I saw who you were seated with.”
“Well,” Oswald answered with a shrug. “If you were paying attention, I had very little work to do to maintain the conversation.”
Quentin laughed, “So, Lady Aphrodite, I suppose?”
“No,” Oswald said after a drink that he, luckily, managed to swallow. “God no. she only intervened before I made some half-cocked excuse to leave the dinner party. Lady Carmicheal was not exactly an exciting dinner partner.”
“Ah, I see.”
Oswald grew suspicious and narrowed his eyes at his newest friend. “What?”
“Nothing,” Quentin said and after Oswald glared, he admitted. “It just seems to me that the two of you have a connection that I cannot explain. You have met, what, twice now?”
“There is no connection,” Oswald defended. “She is a flirt and I do not abide with flirts.”
“If she truly did rescue you from the boring Lady Carmichael, I’d think she is more than a flirt.”
“A smart and intuitive lady can also be a flirt,” Oswald said, ready to end the conversation about Lady Aphrodite. He did not want to be reminded how he had broken his own rule and kissed her. “How about a game of billiards? We are here, after all. Care to go a round?”
Quentin glanced over to one of the three baized tables and shrugged. “Yes. But shall we play for something more interesting than a match?” he suggested.
While feeling a bit of trepidation, Oswald gave his friend a penetrating look. “Such as?”
“Whoever loses the game must answer a question of the other’s choice,” Quentin said.
Oswald arched a brow, “And if it’s a tie?”
“We both must answer.”
“And what is that question?” Oswald asked, his eyes narrowing.
“I’m not going to say,” Quinton replied while striding to the table. “Just as you are not going to ask. Are we agreed?”
His scarred eyebrow lifted. “All right. One game of twenty shots. Will you name the first shot, or should I?”
“I will,” Quinton lined up the shot, jabbed his mace and broke the set, his white cue ball hit the far end of the table and rolled back, stopping at an angle Oswald found perplexing.
“Your turn,” he said.
Removing his jacket as he found it a bit constricting, Oswald casually slung it over a chair and took his position at the table. He found his cue ball and aimed at his object pall, flexing with one solid fluid thrust.
The ball glided across the table, hit the object ball and sent in rolling into the pocket at the far end. Quentin grinned and lined up his shot that too sunk. “The game is on, my friend,” he grinned, making Oswald let out an exasperated huff.
They played alternate hands and at the twenty-point mark, Quentin sank the decisive ball. Men were still talking around them, playing cards and drinking, when Quentin gave a wide grin.
“I should have told you that I partially supported myself by hustling men at billiards during my time at Oxford.”
“I should have known,” Oswald snorted. “Did you let me win the first shot to lead me in?”
Quentin’s grin was the other earl’s answer, but instead of getting angry, Oswald laughed. It was the first time he felt so much amusement in days. “All right, all right, out with it. What is your question?”
Replacing his mace, Quentin said, “If it’s all right with you, I think I will hold off on asking you yet. I don’t think the time is right.”
Rolling his eyes, Oswald snorted. “It serves me right to get a cryptic fellow as my closest comrade in this place.”
“That is the first time I have been accused of being enigmatic,” Quentin snorted. “According to my aunt, I am blunter than a shot between the eyes.”
“We’ll have to wait to see if she is right,” Oswald said, while plucking his timepiece out from his jacket. “I think it’s best for me to retire, because who knows what fresh hell we will be faced with tomorrow.”
