Page 62 of Fortune Favors the Viscount
“Whist,” said Nick lazily, watching Emilia. She blushed, but gave in when Lucy begged to learn the game.
Charlotte made Lucy laugh by sending the cards flying from one hand to the other.
“That’s amazing,” breathed Lucy, watching the cards seem to spring from Charlotte’s grip.
“Oh! Nick can do ever so many more.” Charlotte slapped the deck in front of Nick. “Show her how you make a two into a king.”
Nick grinned. He’d learned any number of card tricks, and a great many cheats, too. He showed Lucy the trick, which was little more than sleight of hand, and then several others. Then they played whist, everyone helping Lucy. Nick, who partnered her, routinely dealt her good cards, and took unexpected pleasure in seeing her eyes grow wide.
“Oh, Millie, look!” she cried, wiggling on her chair in excitement. “I won!”
“Well done. A victor must have some spoils.” Nick pulled a small bag from the pocket of his greatcoat and presented it to her.
Lucy gasped as she peered inside. “Lemon drops! Oh, thank you, sir!” She popped one into her mouth, then held out the bag to Charlotte.
Emilia shook her head with a smile, when offered the bag as well. “You won them! They’re yours. But don’t eat more than two or three, or you’ll have a sick stomach tonight.”
Lucy grinned, cradling the bag like a treasured prize. “I won’t.”
Emilia took the girls up to get ready for bed, and Nick sent for another bottle of wine. They were forty miles from London, had left with virtually no warning to anyone, and James had reported that he saw no one watching them with untoward interest. He judged it unlikely they’d been followed.
Perhaps such caution wasn’t necessary, but when one set out to destroy a man like Fitchley, one didn’t take chances.
For the better part of an hour Nick was left alone with his thoughts and the wine. It had been a very long time since that had happened, especially at this time of day. Night, he amended with a glance at the darkening sky outside the window. Normally he would be at Vega’s, walking the salon, tending to problems, ever watchful for trouble.
And there was always trouble at a gaming hell, even one as sophisticated and discriminating as the Vega Club. Nick had seen all manner of cheating, lying, fighting, coercion, and cajolery. It was the life he’d chosen—and reveled in—but it was also... wearing. Playing cards tonight with Emilia and the girls had brought home to him how vigilant he had to be most of the time. Most people weren’t that way; Emilia wasn’t. She hadn’t even suspected that he was deliberately dealing high cards to Lucy, just to see the child’s eyes light up in shocked delight when she won a trick. It was the most enjoyable thing Nick had done since...
Well, since he’d fixed a game of loo the previous year, beggaring a ship owner who’d been violating the Slave Trade Act. Nick had takengreatpleasure in that bit of cheating. Smiling at the memory, he got up and went to close the shutters at the windows.
The door behind him opened and closed. “They’re in bed, but I doubt either will sleep, what with a bag of sweets and the excitement of the journey,” said Emilia.
Nick grinned, closing up one window. “They can sleep in the carriage tomorrow.”
“Yes.” She was quiet for a moment. “What are we going to do at Beaufort Hall?”
He shrugged. “Walk around the grounds. See if the house is fit for habitation. Stop in the village and have a pint. Shake the vicar’s hand. Whatever a lord of the realm would do upon inheriting his title and domain.”
“Oh.” Emilia pursed her lips, which fascinated Nick to an unhealthy degree. “You didn’t need to tell Lucy this was for my benefit. I know you were trying to reassure her, and I do appreciate that, but...”
He rested his shoulder against the side of the window embrasure. “Come here.” She hesitated, and he motioned toward the window. “See the sky.”
She came across the room and he stepped back to let her closer to the window. “Look there.” He raised his arm and put his head near hers as he pointed. “That is Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky. Sailors rely on it for that reason.”
She looked at him in surprise, then moved to get a better view. Her shoulder brushed his chest, and he touched one hand lightly to her waist to guide her closer. She leaned into him, smelling of honeysuckle. Nick kept his gaze on the stars but felt surrounded by her, her scent, her warmth, her trusting presence nearly in his arms.
“I remember lying on deck, counting the stars, imagining the ancients doing much the same thing, thousands of years ago,” he went on. “The navigator taught me the constellations and how to mark a journey by them. Without the stars to guide us, the seas would have remained as vast and mysterious as the heavens, because only a few people would ever have made it back to where they began. The stars, though, show the way.
“That constellation is called Lyra, after the lyre of Orpheus.” He traced it with one outstretched finger. “Orpheus calmed the Sirens with his lyre, allowing the Argonauts to sail freely past, which was enough to make him a hero to sailors everywhere. But he also took his lyre into the Underworld to save his wife, who had died. Imagine the nerve, to take such a gamble! But Hades actually agreed to let her go, provided Orpheus didn’t look back at her. Eurydice would have to follow him out. But at the very end, on the precipice of winning his unthinkable prize—bringing his beloved back from the dead!—Orpheus lost his nerve. He looked back. She remained dead, and he was thrust back into the world of the living, condemned to live with the knowledge that he could have saved her, but failed.” Nick paused, remembering those nights at sea. “Vega is the principal star in Lyra, the brightest one at the top.”
She tipped back her head, almost resting it on his shoulder. “And that’s why you named your club Vega.”
He smiled without humor. “My lucky star. A reminder of where I came from, and a guidepost on my way. A warning, never to try my luck too far.”
She turned. She was almost in his arms. He could feel her body brushing his. All he had to do was lower his head to kiss her again...
Which he would not do. He flexed his arms to keep from pulling her closer. In this private parlor, away from the Vega Club, there was nothing to interrupt, if he kissed her. If he put his hands on her. If he pushed her against the nearest wall and—
Emilia looked up at him, her blue eyes soft and inviting. Nick clenched his jaw and looked away.
