Page 62 of One Night with a Prince
In a matter-of-fact tone, he explained that partners would be randomly chosen. The chorus of groans that followed did not deter him from moving on to the next change in the rules.
“Once we start the eliminations,” he said, “the losers will be asked to leave the estate.” His gaze settledGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlbriefly on Christabel. “At my discretion, of course.”
Christabel fought to hide her panic. What if she hadn’t found the letters by then? What if she didn’t make it to the eliminations?
And what exactly did Lord Stokely mean by “at my discretion”? Other people were furiously muttering complaints. Apparently, they’d all assumed they would be enjoying his hospitality to the end.
“Why the change?” Byrne’s voice rose above the others’ to pose the question no one else would ask. Lord Stokely shrugged. “So that we don’t have a lot of hangers-on milling about during the final games. There’s too much potential for cheating.”
Lady Jenner snorted. “Be honest, Lord Stokely. You’re only doing this because Byrne changed partners. And the rest of us are being punished for his roving eye.”
All eyes, roving and otherwise, turned to Christabel, who couldn’t prevent a blush from rising in her cheeks.
Lord Stokely’s demeanor changed suddenly, becoming icy cold. “I am doing this because last year there were complaints about Byrne and me always winning the pot. I will not have anyone accuse me or my friends of cheating. This merely makes everything more fair. And it is my house, after all. My house, my rules.”
No one could argue with that, but it didn’t stop people from grumbling as they rose and headed off to the evening’s entertainment.
When they reached the ballroom, which had been turned into a massive card room for the week, Christabel was relieved to find herself partnered with Lady Hungate. Lady Hungate didn’t look quite so pleased. “I do hope you intend to show your true mettletonight, ” the older woman remarked.
“I won’t disappoint you,” Christabel replied, remembering that afternoon at Lady Jenner’s. No, indeed. She wasn’t about to risk being evicted from the estate as one of the losers. Even if it meant flirting with Lord Stokely.
Damn Stokely and his manipulations. After five hours of card play, Gavin still couldn’t figure out what the man was up to.
First, the changes in the rules, then his cursed interest in Christabel. And the man had brought Anna here. Anna, of all people. Gavin had hoped never to see her again. That she was here now turned what was already sure to be a difficult week into a potential nightmare. Especially since Stokely clearly knew what she’d once been to Gavin. Was that what he’d been whispering to Christabel at dinner? The last thing Gavin needed was the inquisitive little widow plaguingGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlhim with questions about Anna. She already knew too many of his secrets for his comfort. Gathering up the trick he’d just won, he glanced over to the next table, where Anna partnered Stokely against Lady Jenner and Lady Hungate. What in God’s name had Stokely hoped to accomplish by inviting her? Did he hope Anna would put Gavin off his game, now that Gavin had chosen to partner someone else? If so, it wouldn’t work.
Anna caught Gavin staring and shot him a brilliant smile.
He tensed. Tearing his gaze from her, Gavin led a card. In his youth, he would have fought a regiment of Cossacks for one of those smiles from her, but she was thirteen years too late. After his initial shock at seeing her, he’d realized that she no longer had the power to move him. Or if she did, she moved him to sadness. Because years of marriage to the toad-eating Viscount Kingsley didn’t sit well on her. Yes, she was still beautiful, and yes, she still possessed a musical laugh that would melt most men’s hearts. But it held a brittle edge now, as if tears always lay just beneath the surface. She’d thrown him over for Kingsley, and look what it had brought her—a dull marriage to a pompous fellow whose only advantage lay in his title, since it had taken her own family’s wealth to fill the man’s coffers. So why couldn’t he exult over her misery?
Because it seemed like such a waste of a fine woman. Suddenly he was tired of the waste, tired of watching women suffer from their husbands’ neglect. He was tired of seeing once-hopeful young females turned into coldhearted, dissipated bitches whose only choices were to pine away at home or live the same reckless lives as their husbands.
He was tired of watching good women forced to extreme behavior because of their gambling husbands’
foolish actions. Women like Christabel.
As a magnet follows iron, his gaze swung to where she sat halfway across the spacious card room. Not once all night had he and Christabel been paired as partners, yet every moment he’d been aware of her. Where she sat. Whom she played. How often she laughed at a joke or responded to some idiot’s flirtations.
He wondered how she fared. Was she winning? Losing? Panicking over losing? That very real possibility squeezed his chest in a vise. He should never have brought her here. She didn’t belong—seeing her with the others made that easily apparent. She could soak in a pool of debauchery for hours and still have none cling to her skin. And the truth was, he would hate to see her besmirched by it.
Why was that? Wouldn’t it be easier to get what he wanted from her if she’d just slide down the slippery slope into sin?
Yes, but at what cost? Bloody hell, Christabel had said that very thing to him once—but at what cost to his soul?Now he was even starting to think like her. And that wouldn’t do. As if she felt his eyes on her, she met his gaze from across the room, and the vise around his chest tightened unbearably. Until she smiled, telling him that everything was all right.
“Byrne?” Talbot asked. “For God’s sake, stop ogling your mistress and play your card. You’ll haveGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlplenty of time for ogling later.”
“If Stokely doesn’t get to her first,” said Talbot’s present partner, Markham. Biting back an oath, Gavin played his card. “You’re assuming that Lady Haversham would choose Stokely over me. And that’s not bloody likely.”
Markham smirked at Gavin. “Unless she thinks it will help her gain the pot.”
“Lady Haversham may not need Stokely for that,” Talbot put in. “She and Lady Kingsley gave me and Lady Jenner a run for our money. We won, but only because we had better cards. And from what I hear, she and Hungate destroyed the two they played against.”
Gavin couldn’t squelch a burst of pride at Christabel’s success. He’d known the woman could do it if she really put her mind to it.
“How did you meet Lady Haversham, anyway?” Colonel Bradley asked.
“I knew her husband,” Gavin said evasively.
“That fool couldn’t win at whist if his life depended upon it,” Talbot said. “He should’ve made his wife partner him. Then he’d never have been in debt.”
