3 Service for Two (16 page)

“Correct. I suppose we couldn’t simply ask them?”

“I think that might be a little dangerous, don’t you think, Baxter? We don’t want to alert the culprit to our discovery. I will need time to work out how to inform the constable of his identity without incriminating the hotel.”

“I was hoping you had already worked out that part of your plan, madam.”

She pulled a face at him. “I can’t think of everything at
once. No, first we discover the ringleader, then we decide how to bring him to justice.”

Baxter looked thoroughly alarmed. “I do hope you are not planning on taking matters into your own hands in that respect?”

“I certainly hope it won’t be necessary.” She waved an impatient hand at him. “Let’s take one problem at a time, Baxter. Listen to my plan, and I think you will agree it is a good one.”

He crossed his arms and waited, his expression that of a prisoner awaiting sentence.

“I have arranged for a card game,” Cecily announced. “This very night, here in the hotel. In the room with the trapdoor. I have invited all three suspects to participate.”

She waited for his reaction, but he merely stood like a rock, his gaze fixed on her face. Beginning to feel a little less sure of herself, she continued.

“I have told them that you were once a professional poker player, notorious in fact, with a reputation for being practically unbeatable. I explained to them that you had given up playing when you narrowly missed death at the hands of a distraught opponent whom you had thoroughly trounced.”

She started to unbutton her gloves, unnerved by the expression on his face. “I informed them that you sorely missed the excitement and the challenge of the profession. I explained to them that I wanted to reward you for the extra work you will be doing for the wedding, and I had decided to surprise you. Therefore, I would like to arrange a card game for this evening, so that you could challenge the three best men in town.”

She paused, waiting for his reaction. From somewhere outside came the sound of crashing dishes, and she winced. Not more broken plates. She would have to replace them before the summer season. If there was to be a summer season.

Anxiously she looked up at Baxter’s face. “So what do you think?”

He pursed his lips for a moment, then said quietly, “I take it all three gentlemen accepted?”

“Yes, they certainly did. How could they refuse such a challenge? Now the plan is quite simple. All I have to do—”

“Madam.”

She stopped speaking and stared up at him, an uneasy feeling already beginning to rise.

“Forgive me for interrupting you, but there is something you should know.”

“It’s far too late to raise objections now, Baxter. The whole thing is set up. The gentlemen will be arriving at nine o’clock sharp.” Whatever he had to say, she thought defiantly, she was not going to let him refuse to do this. No matter what argument he could give her, she had a better one.

Time was running out, and this was a solid plan. It would work, she was sure of it. It was most likely her only chance left to avert disaster. Whatever it took to persuade him, she was going to see this through, whether he liked it or not.

“Perhaps you should have consulted me first, madam. There is one small problem with this plan as I see it.”

“And that is?” She was getting impatient with him now. Why didn’t he just spit it out?

“I’m afraid, madam, that I cannot play poker.”

Momentarily having the wind knocked out of her sails, she looked at him in silence for several moments. Then she collected herself. Of course he was nervous about it. Who wouldn’t be? After all, she’d set him up against three excellent players, all expecting him to be better than they were.

She hurried to reassure him. “Now, don’t worry, Baxter. You really don’t have to be that good. Any weaknesses on your part will quite easily be attributed to your lack of practice. After all, you haven’t played in years. You are bound to be a little rusty.” He started to say something, and sensing another protest, she hurried on. “As long as you place your bets conservatively, we won’t be in the game long enough to lose too much. All that is necessary is to get by until we obtain the information we want. Then I’ll fabricate some excuse why we have to go.”

Her little twinge of uneasiness developed into a bigger concern when Baxter shook his head. “You don’t understand, madam. I do not have the faintest idea how to play poker. I have never played the game in my life. I am afraid I would not fool your guests for one instant.”

CHAPTER
16

Unable to believe her ears, Cecily exclaimed, “But you must know how to play. There isn’t a man alive who doesn’t at least have a rudimentary knowledge of the rules.”

“I’m afraid there is, madam. And you are looking at him.”

Speechless, she could only sit and stare at him.

He ran a finger around his collar and cleared his throat. “Not only do I not have the slightest knowledge of the rules of poker, I am afraid I am completely at a loss when it comes to playing cards in general. I have never been interested in playing cards.”

“I suppose,” Cecily said in a small voice, “that’s it’s too much to hope you can at least shuffle them?”

“I’ve never made an attempt to do so, madam. I am afraid there is little doubt that your three gentlemen will not be taken in by my performance.”

She sat for several more seconds, tapping her fingernails on the cluttered surface of his desk. Then she rose and reached for her hat and cape. “They will have to do without you in the dining room tonight,” she said grimly. “You and I have some work to do. I’ll have a pack of cards sent to the library immediately. I will meet you there in ten minutes.”

For once he didn’t give her an argument, though his expression turned desperate as he plunged his fingers through his hair and muttered, “Yes, madam.”

Gertie finally found Ian in the stables, loudly scolding one of the young grooms. She had to wait in the cold until he’d finished chastising the lad. By the time the boy had scuttled out of the stables and Ian strode toward her, she was beginning to have second thoughts about making it up with him. Supposing he yelled at her like that, if she didn’t do what he wanted?

Her heart gave a little skip when he lifted his lamp and she saw the expression on his face. “What’re you doing out here?” he muttered. “You’ll catch your death of cold standing there without your shawl.”

“I was looking for you, wasn’t I.” She felt a little better. At least he cared enough to worry about her catching her death.

“So what for?”

“I want to talk to you, Ian.”

“What about?”

“About the wedding.”

“There ain’t going to be no bloody wedding.”

“That’s what I want to talk to you about.” She chewed on her lip, her heart bouncing against her ribs. He looked as if he couldn’t care less about it. Now that he was acting stubborn, there was nothing she wanted more than to put things right between them.

“So all right, let’s have it.” Ian folded his arms across his chest, the lamp still dangling in his hand. He stood with his feet braced apart, his breeches tucked into long leather boots. His thin face above the lamp looked gaunt in the shadows. Gertie thought she’d never seen him look more handsome. Or more unapproachable.

“Well … I done a lot of thinking … like … and I … I changed me mind.”

“Oh, you have, have yer? Well, what if I said I haven’t changed mine? About you working, that is?”

She looked down at the ground and miserably drew a line with the toe of her boot. She watched her skirt settle around her ankles again, then said slowly, “I s’pose, if it means that much to you, I could give up me job.” She looked up with a flash of defiance. “I’m not going to say I’d like it, mind, but if that’s what you want …”

She waited, hardly daring to breathe, as he continued to look at her without speaking. “Well, I done a lot of thinking, too,” he said after what seemed like an hour. “Since we’d still be working in the same place, like, I s’pose it would be all right if you worked—”

The rest of his sentence was muffled as she threw her arms around his neck and deposited a kiss full on his mouth. Staggering back, he tried to hold her off with one hand. “Let me finish, will yer? Three mornings a week, though, that’s all. No more, even if they ask you. Got it?”

“I got it,” she said happily. Then she grinned. “Come here, Ian Rossiter. I want to give you a bleeding taste of what you have to look forward to on your wedding night.”

Ian shot a startled glance around the stable yard. “’Strewth, Gertie, not here. Someone might see. Come into the stable. It’s nice and warm with all that straw—”

She didn’t wait for him to finish the sentence. She was too busy dragging him by the hand toward the stable door.

Cecily paused outside the door of the card room. Judging by the sound of raucous laughter, she assumed the three men inside were enjoying a joke. She brushed away her moment of misgiving and glanced back at Baxter, who stood behind her, his set expression betraying his tension.

“I wish you had concocted a different plan,” he muttered. “This is no place for a lady. No place at all. If anyone should find out—”

He clamped his lips together when she fiercely shook her head at him. “It was the best I could do on the spur of the
moment,” she whispered. “Don’t worry, Bax, it will work. Trust me.”

He ran a hand through his hair and groaned.

Ignoring him, Cecily tapped on the door, which opened immediately. Jeremy Kent stood in the doorway, a huge bear of a man with ginger curls and a bushy mustache. He was wider at the waist than he was in the shoulders, and took up most of the doorway as he stared at her in surprise.

“Mrs. Sinclair? I didn’t expect to see you down here tonight. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have ever seen you down here.”

At the mention of her name, the other two men in the room rose noisily to their feet, hastily buttoning their jackets.

“Oh, please, gentlemen,” Cecily said graciously as she walked into the room, “don’t stand on ceremony with me. Just make yourselves comfortable and pretend I’m not here.”

Martin Campbell, the bank manager, looked most uneasy. He harrumphed a great deal and nervously tightened the large knot in his silk tie.

Jeremy Kent still stood holding the door, while Baxter hovered uncertainly in the doorway. “And is there a reason for your presence, madam, if you will permit my asking?”

“I was intrigued by this match, of course. Since I was responsible for setting it up, I wanted to see the outcome for myself. Mr. Baxter was quite delighted with my little surprise, were you not, Baxter?”

Baxter cleared his throat and gave a slight nod. “Yes, madam.”

She signaled at him with her eyebrows, and he took a hurried step forward into the room, allowing Jeremy Kent to close the door.

Seating herself on a vacant chair, Cecily smiled up at the four men. “Please, I beg you, just act as if I’m not here. I don’t think we have to stand on ceremony in the privacy of a gambling room, do you?”

She ignored the shocked look that crossed Baxter’s face, and smiled sweetly at Lord Chickering. “I do hope you don’t object to my presence, my lord. I have never witnessed a
poker game before and I thought it was about time I discovered what all the excitement was about.”

Lord Chickering’s smile fluttered weakly. “Not at all, madam, not at all … pleasure to have your company, I’m sure.”

Cecily transferred her smile to the bank manager’s face. “Martin? I trust you have no objection?”

“Oh, why no … absolutely … jolly nice to see you, Mrs. Sinclair.”

Cecily met the narrowed gaze of Jeremy Kent. “Mr. Kent?”

“I can offer no objection, madam.” His lips smiled, but his eyes revealed his displeasure. As for Baxter, he looked as if he would like to sink right through the trap door he was standing on.

Cecily gave him a look that was meant to reassure him, but he swiveled his glance away, and stared at the cards on the table with an expression of near horror.

“Well,” Cecily said more heartily than she felt, “that’s settled, then. Shall we begin? I’m sure you gentlemen are anxious to enjoy the experience.”

If they were, they certainly showed no signs of it, she reflected uneasily as she settled back in her chair and waited for the four men to seat themselves. It didn’t help her composure to know that in all probability she was sitting at a table with a cold-blooded murderer.

As arranged, Baxter sat next to her, and she pulled her chair slightly behind him, as if distancing herself from the group at the table. Luckily there wasn’t much room to maneuver, so she was forced to sit fairly close to him—close enough to surreptitiously deliver the series of jabs that they had agreed upon for signals.

She could only hope that Baxter would remember the code. He could get very confused when he was nervous. His one sketchy lesson in the basics of poker, which was all she’d had time for, would hardly get him past the first round.

But as long as he remembered the procedure, and their hastily devised code, she hoped to get him through the ordeal without too much suspicion being aroused.

Fortunately he turned up the low card and would be the last
to deal. Jeremy Kent picked up the pack and with an expert flick of his fingers split it in two, then fanned out the cards in each hand. Deftly he weaved them back together to re-form the pack. A perfect shuffle.

Cecily saw Baxter’s shoulders rise, and she silently willed him to relax. She had taught him the basic shuffle, and although he hadn’t mastered it by any means, he could at least look halfway proficient.

The first round went quickly, with Cecily touching Baxter’s foot with hers to indicate that he fold. She was no expert, but she’d persuaded James to teach her the game, having become interested in it when the gambling rooms were opened.

Determined to beat her late husband at least once, she’d studied every page of Schenck’s book of rules, which had been widely adopted by the players at Queen Victoria’s court. She never had been able to beat James.

Now she was relying heavily on luck, and her ability to destroy the concentration of the players if need be. She wouldn’t be too popular, she’d warned Baxter, but with luck they would have obtained their objective.

By the time it was Baxter’s turn to deal, he’d lost two guineas. A bad start, but nothing to be alarmed about. Cecily decided she had better start talking, however, before he lost the entire hotel.

She’d had to jab him quite firmly in the middle of his back a couple of times already. She knew he was discomforted by the contact; she could see the back of his neck turning red.

Holding her breath as he took the cards in his hands, she hoped his nerves would be steady enough for him to at least appear capable of handling them.

He began to shuffle, and in his anxiety gripped the cards a little too firmly. Several of them flipped out of his grasp and scattered about the table.

Cecily managed a fairly loud sneeze before the last card had settled, jostling Baxter’s arm as she did so. She apologized profusely to him for disrupting his deal, and gave him a meaningful glare, adding a slight shake of her head.

He glowered at her, with a message in his eyes that did not
bode well for a discussion with him once this was over. To her utter dismay, he again performed a rather clumsy shuffle, then began to deal.

All three men looked at him a little strangely.

“It has been longer than I thought,” Baxter said with a ghastly smile as he fumbled a card and had to start again. “It is amazing how quickly one loses the touch.”

“Amazing,” Jeremy Kent said dryly. His sharp gaze rested briefly on Cecily’s face. “You neglected to tell us exactly how long. Obviously our friend here has forgotten it is not customary to shuffle without full agreement from the table.”

“Mr. Baxter is used to playing by the old rules,” Cecily countered smoothly. “I’m sure he will be happy to adopt the recent one concerning shuffling.”

“Oh, quite, quite,” Baxter said desperately.

“Mr. Baxter didn’t want me to mention this,” Cecily went on, “but he suffers from arthritis. His fingers are not as supple as they once were, I’m afraid.”

Lord Chickering made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Oh, I say, old chap, how damned awkward for you. Painful thing, that. Slows one down, so to speak. That’s the trouble with growing old.”

Baxter sent Cecily a murderous look. “It is indeed,” he said through gritted teeth.

Cecily gave him a bright smile. “Oh, he manages beautifully, don’t you, Baxter? He just has the occasional bad day.”

“Do you think,” Jeremy Kent said loudly, “that we could continue with this game?”

“Yes, yes …” Martin Campbell muttered. “Please, let’s do.” He was winning so far and obviously didn’t want to lose his streak.

Cecily glanced back at the hand Baxter had dealt himself and nearly gasped. Three tens and two aces. A full house. Hoping that the rest of them hadn’t seen her start, she glanced at their faces. Each one of them stared at their cards as if they were reading the morning newspaper.

Excitement zinged all the way down her spine. If Baxter could just win big on this hand, that would allay their
suspicions and give her a stake to work on while she put her plan into action.

She leaned forward and dug her elbow into Baxter’s side twice. The code for him to continue betting.

Lord Chickering looked up from his cards and coughed. “Do I have your permission to smoke a cigar, madam?”

“Of course, my lord, please do.” It was on the tip of her tongue to add that she’d like one, too, but Baxter’s warning glance stilled her words. She watched Lord Chickering light his cigar, and the pungent fragrance of it made her long for just one puff.

“Call,” Jeremy Kent said suddenly.

Cecily started and turned her attention back to the game, just in time to see Baxter lay his cards face up on the table.

“Good lord, man,” Kent said, staring at the cards. “You threw that one away.”

Baxter looked confused and shot a startled glance at Cecily.

Realizing he’d misread the code, Cecily got hurriedly to her feet. “Would you gentlemen like some refreshments?”

All four men immediately rose. “Not right now, madam,” Jeremy Kent said through clenched teeth. “I do believe there has been enough lack of concentration as it is.”

“Rash move there, old chap,” Lord Chickering muttered. “Cannot imagine what you were thinking of.”

Martin Campbell sighed. “I wish I had been so fortunate with my hand. I couldn’t even find a pair.”

Cecily moved over to the sideboard and picked up a tray of food. “Well, I’m sure someone would like something,” she said loudly, avoiding Jeremy Kent’s gaze.