The Game and the Governess (3 page)

“You don’t think that working to make my family business a success again, making my own name, would make me more of a pleasure to be around?” Turner asked, his dark eyes narrowing.

“Of course not!” Ned said with an easy smile. “If only for the simple fact that you would be working all the time! That makes no man pleasant.”

“I work all the time now,” Turner replied. “Trust me, running your five estates does not leave me many afternoons free.”

“Yes, everything is always
so
important
,
” Ned said dramatically. “All those fields that need dredging require constant updates and letters and all that other nonsense.”

Turner’s mouth formed a hard line. “Far be it from
me to bore you with business matters. After all, I was not a man of learning when I took the position. I spent the first three years untangling the old finances and teaching myself the job.”

At the mention of “old finances,” Ned visibly tensed.

“Well . . .” Ned tried, judiciously dropping that line of argument. “At least here you are in London. There is more to do and see here, more to stimulate the mind on one block in London than there can be in all of Lincolnshire.”

“More for you, perhaps.”

“What does that mean?”

“What it means is that the world is different for an earl than it is for his secretary.”

“Fellows,” Rhys tried, finally reacting to the rising voices of his friends. “Perhaps we should just play cards? I would be willing to wager a whole farthing on this hand.”

But they ignored him.

“Don’t be so boring, Turner. Nothing worse than being boring,” Ned said sternly. Then, with relish, “What you need more than anything else is a woman underneath you. Take your stick out of the mud and put it to better use for a few hours. That’ll change your outlook.”

“You might be surprised to learn that most women don’t throw themselves at a secretary with the same frequency they do at an earl.”

“Then
buy
one.” Ned showed his (very good) cards to the table, exasperated. “There are more than a few in this house who would be willing to oblige. Mme Delacroix keeps her girls clean. Hell, I’ll even pay.”

“Thank you, no.” Turner smiled ruefully. He tossed his cards into the center of the table as Ned raked up his chips. Lucky Ned had won again. “I prefer my companionship earned, not purchased.”

“Which is
never
going to happen as long as you keep that dour face!” Ned took the cards on the table, gathered them up, and began to shuffle. “And by the by, I resent the implication that I am nothing more than my title.”

“Now, Ashby, he didn’t say that,” Rhys began, but Turner strangely kept silent.

“Yes he did. He said that life is different for an earl than it is for a secretary. And while that is true, it implies that any good thing, any bit of luck I may have had in my life, is incumbent upon the fact that I inherited an earldom. And any lack of happiness Turner suffers from is incumbent upon his recent bad luck. Whereas the reverse is true. He is serious and unsmiling,
thus
he has bad luck. With his mill, with women, with life. I am in general of a good nature and I have good luck. It has very little to do with my title. It has to do with who I am. Lucky Ned.” A beat passed. “And if I have been too generous with you,
Mr.
Turner, allow me to correct that mistake.”

The hand that Ned slammed down on the table echoed throughout the room. Eerily quiet, shamed by the highest-ranking man there, the walls echoed with the rebuke. The earl was, after all, an earl. And Turner was dancing far too close to the line.

“I apologize if my words gave the impression that you owe your happier philosophy to your title and not to your nature,” Turner said quietly.

“Good.” Ned harrumphed, turning his attention back to the deal. A knave and a six for himself. An ace for Turner, and a card facedown, which . . .

Turner gave his own set of cards his attention then, and flipped over the king of hearts, earning him a natural. But instead of crying “
Vingt-et-un!
” like his employer, he simply said quietly, “But the title certainly helps.”

“Oh, for God’s sake!” Ned cried, throwing his cards across the baize.

All eyes in the room fell on the earl.

“Turner. I am not an idiot. I know that there are people in the world who only value me because of my title, and who try to get close to me because of it. That is why I value your friendship—both of you. And why I value the work you do for me, Turner. It’s all too important to have someone I can trust in your role. But I thoroughly reject the notion that
all
of my life is shaped by the title. I didn’t always have it, you know. Do you think Lady Brimley would have anything to do with me if I was nothing more than a stuffed-shirt jackanape?”

At the mention of the earl’s latest entanglement—a married society woman more bored even than Ned, and most willing to find a way to occupy them both—Turner and Rhys cocked up similar eyebrows.

“So you are saying your prowess with women is not dependent on your title either?” Turner ventured calmly.

“Of course it’s not!” Ned replied. “In my not insignificant experience—”

At this point, the good doctor must have taken a drink in an ill manner, because he suddenly gave in to a violent cough.

“As I was saying . . .” Ned continued, once Rhys apologized for the interruption. “In my not insignificant experience, when it comes to
women
, who you are is far more important that what you have.”

He took in the blank stares of his friends.

“Go ahead, call me romantic.” Ned could not hide the sardonic tone in his voice. “But if a woman found me dull, boring, or, God forbid,
dour
like you, I would not last five minutes with them, be I a prince or a . . . a pauper!”

“Well, there is certainly something about your humble charm that must woo them,” Rhys tried kindly, his smile forcing an equal one out of Ned.

But Turner was quiet. Considering.

“I promise you, Turner, it is your bad attitude that hinders you—be it with women or bankers. It is my good attitude that brings me good luck. Not the other way around.”

“So you are saying you could do it?” Turner asked, his stillness and calm eerie.

“Do what?”

“Get a woman to fall for you, without a title. If instead you were, say, a man of my station.”

Ned leaned back smugly, lacing his hands over his flat stomach. “I could do it even if I was
you.
It would be as easy as winning your money at cards. And it would take less time too.”

It happened quickly, but it was unmistakable. Turner flashed a smile. His first smile all evening.

“How long do you think it would take?” he asked, his eyes sparks in the dark room.

Ned leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin in
thought. “Usually the ladies start mooning after me within a few days. But since I would be without my title, it could take a week, I suppose, on the outside.”

Turner remained perfectly still as he spoke. “I’ll give you two.”

Rhys’s and Ned’s heads came up in unison, their surprised looks just as evenly matched. But Rhys caught the knowing look in Turner’s eyes, and made one last effort at diplomacy between his two sparring friends.

“Turner—Ned . . .” Rhys tried again, likely hoping the jovial use of Ned’s Christian name would snap him out of it, “I am in London so rarely and only for a night this trip. Can we not just play?”

“Oh, but we are playing,” Turner replied. “Can’t you see? His lordship is challenging me to a wager.”

“He is?”

“I am?” Ned asked. “Er, yes. Yes, I am.”

“You have just said that you can get a lady to fall for you within a week, even if you are a man of my station. Hell, even if you
are
me, you said.”

“So . . .”

“So, we trade places.
You
become
me
. Woo a lady and win her. And I offer you the benefit of two weeks—which should be more than enough by your estimation.”

“But . . . what . . . how—” Ned sputtered, before finally finding his bearings again.

And then . . . he laughed.

But he was alone in that outburst. Not even Rhys joined in.

“That’s preposterous,” Ned finally said. “Not to mention undoable.”

“Why not?”

“Well, other than the fact that I
am
the earl, and everyone knows it.”

“Everyone in London knows it. No one in Leicestershire does.”

“Leicestershire?” Rhys piped up. “What on earth does Leicestershire have to do with this?”

“We go there tomorrow. To see about Ashby’s mother’s old house in Hollyhock.”

“
Hollyhock?!
” Ned practically jumped out of his chair. It was safe to say any hand of cards had well been forgotten at this point, as the wager currently on the table was of far greater interest. “Why the hell would I want to go to Hollyhock?”

“Because the town has a business proposal for the property, and the land and building must be evaluated before you decide what to do with it,” Turner replied sternly. “I cannot and will not sign for you. That was a rule very strictly laid down by yourself, and with good cause, if you recall.”

The trio of heads nodded sagely. The Earl of Ashby did have good reason to be cautious with his larger dealings, and to have someone he trusted in the role of his secretary. And the sale of his mother’s house in Hollyhock did qualify as a “larger dealing.”

“By why on earth should I go to Hollyhock now? At the height of the season? For heaven’s sake, Lady Brimley’s ball is next week, I would be persona non grata to her . . . charms, if I should miss it.”

“I scheduled the trip for now
because
of Lady Brimley’s party,” Turner offered. Then, pointedly, “At which she has engaged Mrs. Wellburton to sing.”

At the mention of the earl’s previous paramour—
an actress with a better figure than voice, but an absolutely astonishing imagination—Ned visibly shifted in his seat.

“Yes, well . . . perhaps you are right. Perhaps now is the best time to be out of London. If you catch my meaning.”

“We catch your meaning, Ashby,” Rhys replied. “As easily as you are going to catch syphilis.”

Ned let that statement pass without comment. “Well, what’s the proposal about?” Ned asked, before waving the question away. “No, I remember now. Something to do with a hot spring. But, God,
Hollyhock
. Just the name conjures up images of unruly brambled walks and an overabundance of cows. I cannot imagine a more boring way to spend a fortnight. I haven’t even been there since I was twelve.”

“So there is no reason to expect that anyone would recognize you,” Turner replied.

“Well, of course they will recognize me,” Ned countered. “I’m me.”

“The physical difference between a boy of twelve and a man full grown is roughly the same as for the boy of twelve and the newborn,” Rhys interjected, earning him no small look of rebuke from Ned.

“Even if that is so, I look like me, and you look like you,” Ned tried, flabbergasted.

“And who is to say we do not look like each other?” Turner shrugged. “We are of a height, and both have brown hair and brown eyes. That is all the people of Hollyhock will remember of a boy long since grown into adulthood. And besides”—Turner leaned in with a smile—“I doubt you would find the trip to Hollyhock boring if I’m you and you are me.”

“There is the small issue of your speech,” Ned said suddenly. “Your accent is slightly more . . . northern than mine.” Which was true; when Ned had been taken from Leicestershire and raised by his great-uncle, any hint of poverty in his accent was smoothed out. Turner, having been born in the rural county of Lincolnshire and raised in trade, had an accent that reflected his lower-class upbringing.

But it appeared he had learned a thing or two in the interim. When he next opened his mouth, Turner spoke with the melodic, cultured tones of a London gentleman.

“I doubt it will be a problem,” Turner said—his accent a perfect mimic of Ned’s!—with a smile. “But if someone manages to discern our ruse by my speech, I will forfeit, and you will win.”

“Gentlemen,” Rhys broke in. “This is a remarkably bad idea. I cannot imagine what you could possibly hope to learn from the experiment.”

“I shall enlighten you,” Turner replied. “If the earl is correct, he will have taught me a valuable lesson about life. If he can, simply through his
natural
good humor, win the heart of a young lady, then there is obviously no reason for me to take the hardness of life so seriously. But if he is wrong . . .”

“I am not wrong,” Ned piped up instantly, his eyes going hard, staring at Turner. “But nor am I going to take part in this farce. Why, you want to switch places!”

Rhys exhaled in relief. But Turner still held Ned’s gaze. Stared. A dare.

A wager.

“But . . . it could be interesting,” Ned mused.

“Oh, no,” Rhys said into his hands.

“If we could actually pull it off? Why, it could be a lark! A story to tell for years!”

“You do enjoy telling a good story,” Turner said with a placid smile.

“And I get to teach you a lesson at the same time. All the better.” Then Ned grinned wolfishly. “What are your terms?”

Turner, even if his heart was pounding exceptionally fast, managed to contain any outside appearance of it. “If you are not so fortunate as to win the heart of a female . . .” He took a breath. “Five thousand pounds.”

Rhys began coughing again.

“You want me to give you five thousand pounds?” Ned said on a laugh. “Audacious of you.”

“You are the one that said life is nothing without the occasional high stakes.”

“And you are the one who said one must choose his game carefully. Which it seems you have. Still, such a sum—”

“Is not outside of your abilities.” His smile grew cold. “I should know.”

“And what if I am right?” Ned leaned forward in his chair, letting his cool voice grow menacing. “What if I win?”

Turner pricked up his eyebrow. “What do you want?”

Ned pretended to think about it for a moment. “The only thing you have. The only thing you care about.” Ned watched as Turner’s resolve faltered, ever so slightly. “I’ll take that family mill off your hands. Free you to a life of better living and less worry.” He mused,
rubbing the two-days’ beard on his chin again. “As it’s not functioning, I suppose it’s worth a bit less than five thousand, but I’m willing to call that even.”