A Sister's Secret (8 page)

At a little after midnight, a servant entered to announce that the duke’s coach had arrived. At that point, Cumberland owed the captain four hundred and ninety guineas. He also owed Robert seventy-five.

‘Ye’ve a way of turning the tables, Burnside,’ he said. ‘What d’ye say, a cut of the cards before I go, to double what I owe ye or conceding quits?’

That was sharp practice on the part of any gambler who made it difficult for a creditor to collect from him. However, Captain Burnside indicated he was willing, and thereby earned himself a sharp look from Caroline.

Robert shuffled the pack with expertise, and set it down. The duke sat back and glanced at Annabelle. His smile drew a faint flush from her.

‘Your honour, sir?’ murmured Captain Burnside, and Cumberland made his cut with a careless flourish. He showed the king of clubs. Caroline, disapprovingly, watched Captain Burnside make his own cut with deliberation. Cumberland’s smile became wolverine, for the captain showed the ace of diamonds.

‘By God, ye’ve a talent for uncovering the prettiest pictures,’ said Cumberland, and came to his feet.

‘You’ll oblige me, Your Highness?’ said the captain.

‘Ye’ll take an IOU and carry it forward for a return game?’

‘You ain’t possessed of the ready, sir?’

‘Nigh a thousand guineas? That I’m not, man. We’ll play again in two weeks’ time.’ The duke was plainly set on revenge. ‘Here? Ye’ll allow us, m’dear Caroline?’

‘With pleasure, Your Highness,’ said Caroline.

‘Set the sum down,’ said Cumberland to the captain, who used the table quill and a sheet of paper to inscribe the IOU. Cumberland signed with a rasping scrawl. ‘I’ll skin ye alive next time, Burnside,’ he said, then wished his hostess goodnight, allowing his lips to linger on her fingertips. His goodnight to Annabelle was almost perfunctory, but she did not take offence. She knew his first consideration was discretion.

Robert and Cecilia left with him, accepting a lift to their house in his coach.

With the guests gone, Annabelle said, ‘You surely did excel, Captain Burnside, in thinning the duke’s pocket. You all have a profitable way of using cards.’

‘Oh, luck tonight,’ said the captain, musing on the blueness of her eyes. ‘Misfortune next time, perhaps.’

‘I vow the duke took his losses in generous and manly fashion, did you not think so?’ said Annabelle, tingling pleasantly as the captain smiled. Caroline, standing apart, thought her sister coy and the captain very self-possessed. ‘Any other gentleman might have shown a most unpleasant temper.’

‘It ain’t too cheerful, being out of pocket to that extent,’ said the captain, ‘and I dare swear, Miss Howard, that few gentlemen would have taken it as graciously as the duke.’

‘I declare, you are gracious yourself,’ said Annabelle, ‘for the duke is a much maligned gentleman.’

‘But sails bravely above it,’ said Captain Burnside, and Caroline gave him a hot look. What was he doing in praising Cumberland to the one person he should not?

Annabelle’s bosom sighed. Catching her sister’s eye, she said, ‘I must retire. You all will excuse me, Captain?’

‘A little reluctantly,’ said the captain, and Annabelle laughed.

‘You surely are very fitting to be an old friend of Caroline,’ she said, and kissed her sister goodnight.

Left alone with the captain, Caroline said, ‘What are you about, sir?’

‘With your sister, marm?’

‘Yes, with my sister, sir. Are you seeking, in your praise of him, to drive Annabelle into Cumberland’s arms?’

‘It ain’t sound tactics, marm, to slander a rival. Preferable to be in praise of him. It’ll induce affection in Annabelle.’

‘Affection for whom?’ asked Caroline.

‘Your humble servant, marm.’

‘I see.’ A slight smile touched Caroline’s firm lips. ‘But regarding the card play, sir, you risked losing the IOU you held by consenting to a cut of the cards.’

‘A matter of running with Lady Luck,’ said the captain cheerfully. ‘She’s fickle, being very feminine, d’you see, and if you don’t—’

‘Feminine?’ Caroline acquired her cool look. ‘Sir, I find it offensive to hear a man associate fickleness with my sex, for I doubt if any man can be trusted to be wholly faithful.’

‘You’ve a point,’ said the captain. ‘I should have said sensitive. It means that if you don’t run with Lady Luck when she’s taken a fancy to you, she’ll play the very devil with you next time you need her favours.’

Caroline looked questioning. ‘Do you tell me, sir, that it was all a matter of luck tonight, that you did not make use of your vaunted skill or your professional knavery?’

‘
Vingt-et-un
requires no great skill, marm,’ said Captain Burnside; ‘it’s a game of pure chance, although one can sometimes sum up what the other fellow holds. The luck favoured Cumberland in the beginning.’

‘To what extent?’

‘I was down almost five hundred guineas.’

‘Five hundred?’ Caroline stiffened. ‘You take my breath, sir. You expected me to meet this sum?’

‘It was, I agree, a trifle excessive.’

‘It was a sum, sir, that would be a fortune to many people.’

‘Ah, but the game wasn’t over at that point,’ said the captain.

‘At that point you were almost five hundred guineas down due to luck being against you, if I have it right. You might subsequently have doubled that loss if luck had continued to be unfavourable. I warn you, Captain Burnside, I have not hired you to test your luck against Cumberland, I have hired your professed talents. If you insist, sir, on gambling with airy impunity, don’t look to me to settle your debts, for I shan’t. I haven’t given you unlimited access to my purse, nor shall I.’

‘I shan’t hazard every penny of your wealth, marm, I assure you,’ said Captain Burnside earnestly, ‘but should it look as if I am, then I shall cheat my way to the front as skilfully as you could wish.’

‘You had better, sir, yes indeed you had better. It occurred to me at the end of the play that the IOU of almost a thousand guineas could have been enough to make Cumberland discharge the letter to you. Now, however, you are committed to giving him the chance to win the IOU back. I trust you will deny him such victory, and that by the end of the next game his further losses will compel him to do what you require of him: namely,
give up the letter. Also, by that time, I shall expect you to have fired my sister’s interest in you.’

Captain Burnside rubbed his chin. ‘It’s my opinion, marm, that one can’t set fire to a burning house,’ he said. ‘I shall win your sweet sister, have no fear, but it will not happen tomorrow.’

‘Nor at all, unless you show yourself attentive. Annabelle is fond of the river. I’ve suggested to her that she might like to enjoy an outing with you. She is quite in favour, and wishes a picnic hamper to be taken.’

‘Excellent,’ said the captain, ‘but you should come too, of course.’

‘I’ve no desire to.’

‘But, d’you see, marm, it won’t do for you to throw me at her. She’ll guess what you’re at. Young ladies suffering infatuation don’t take kindly to obvious attempts to cure ’em. It’s preferable for all three of us to go on the outing.’

Caroline frowned. ‘Yes, I see,’ she said. ‘Very well. In a day or so.’

‘Your servant, marm. May I say goodnight?’ He bowed, but she refrained from giving him her hand. She watched him depart for his bed, and as the door closed behind him she wondered if Annabelle might not eventually be in as much danger from him as from Cumberland. In his way, he was, after all, as much of a villain as the duke.

The handsome brown carriage ran smoothly, the pair trotting, Captain Burnside at the reins. Annabelle was perched beside him, her parasol not only protecting her from the July sun but adding the decorative touch that so complemented a lady’s outdoor look. Annabelle had expressed a wish for a ride to the park on this fine day, and that had given Caroline the opportunity to arrange for Captain Burnside to escort her and drive her.

Annabelle, having developed a liking for the extremely personable captain, was happy to have his company, and to talk to him. He was a most agreeable listener. After some harmless sociable discourse, she came casually to that which was so often on her mind. ‘Captain Burnside, do you think the Duke of Cumberland an impressive man?’

‘Impressive?’ said the captain. ‘Cumberland, I dare say, can be accounted a magnificent prince.’

‘Oh, I do declare you all of sympathetic,’ enthused Annabelle, parasol casting light shade over her prettiness. ‘So many people say the unkindest things about him, and even about his looks. But his scar is an honourable
one, and gives him, I vow, the mark of a brave soldier. In uniform, he is truly magnificent.’

‘A martial lion, Miss Howard.’

‘Please call me Annabelle. It’s a pleasure to know you and Caroline are old friends, and that I may consider you my newest friend.’

‘One could say the pleasure is pre-eminently mine,’ said the debonair captain, wheedling the glossy chestnuts into an adroit passing of a lumbering stagecoach. ‘I’ve always been an admirer of your sister, and have already come to the conclusion that you’re a sweet young lady.’

‘Oh, you all are so gallant,’ said Annabelle, and smiled at a lady who fluttered a hand at her from a passing carriage. ‘There, that was Lady Russell, a very dear friend to Caroline, and much devoted to her husband, Sir George Russell, who is like you in being charitably disposed towards the Duke of Cumberland. The duke rendered him much help and kindness when he broke his leg at a country house party many months ago. How I wish …’ She sighed to a halt.

‘Come,’ said the captain warmly, ‘confide in me, dear girl. I’ve noticed your tendency to sigh at times. Count me a true friend. The reverence in which I hold your sister inclines me to lend you a sympathetic ear.’

‘Reverence?’ Annabelle laughed softly. ‘Reverence, Captain Burnside?’

‘Well, she comes close to being a goddess,’ said the captain.

‘A goddess? Caroline?’ Annabelle laughed again. ‘She is surely handsome of figure, but a
goddess
?’

‘Olympian,’ said the captain, gentling the pair through the rough and tumble of traffic.

‘Sir, you stand in awe of Caroline?’

‘While you stand in admiration of Cumberland?’

‘Truly, he is the most exciting man in England, and I cannot think why your goddess, my sister, should regard him so uncharitably.’ Annabelle sighed again, and the carriage sighed with her as it sedately approached the park. ‘I confess to an affection for him.’

‘Which he returns, I don’t doubt,’ said Captain Burnside.

‘He has declared himself enchanted,’ said Annabelle, casting her eyes about, ‘but so have many gentlemen who have kissed my hand, and who can say if all of them, including the duke, aren’t merely being gallant?’

‘Ah,’ said Captain Burnside, allowing the carriage to proceed on a sauntering encirclement of the park, ‘but have Cumberland’s gallantries been accompanied by his hand on his heart or a squeeze of your waist? Has he, in fact, in one way or another, shown you more than mere gallantries?’

‘Oh, because I feel you are already the kindest of friends, I must confess yes, he has even kissed me.’

‘Capital,’ said Captain Burnside, ‘for Cumberland ain’t given to bestowing royal kisses on every young lady in London.’

‘But gentlemen are apt to steal kisses from all of us,’ said Annabelle.

‘Well, I ain’t,’ said the captain firmly, ‘damn me, no. And Cumberland’s too high and mighty to rob any young lady unless he has a royal fondness for her.’

‘Oh, do you mean, dear Captain Burnside, that you think he could have an especial fondness for me?’ breathed Annabelle. ‘It’s true he has actually declared a loving regard. But I’m not so simple as to believe it an especial regard, or that he would consider marrying me. Do you think he would?’

Captain Burnside glanced at her. Beneath the shade of
her parasol and bonnet, her profile showed the musing softness of a young lady living in hope.

‘Well, one thing is certain,’ he said, ‘he ain’t yet married to anyone else. Nor need he marry a princess, a woman suitable to become a queen, for he ain’t the King’s heir. His four older brothers all precede him. So he might marry his own fancy, and a fair young flower from South Carolina might well be his especial fancy.’

‘I vow you to be so encouraging,’ said Annabelle, eyes searching the environs of the park.

‘You’re set on him, that I see, even though he’s no Adonis. But I dare say he’s no wish to be pretty.’

‘A gentleman’s looks are not as important as a lady’s,’ said Annabelle. ‘A lady prefers a gentleman to be first and foremost a man. The Prince of Wales decks himself out in pretty satins and frills, but isn’t half the man the duke is. Now Beau Brummell dresses to perfection, but never at the expense of not looking a man. And the duke is of all things manly.’ Annabelle sighed yet again as she thought of the sheer masculine nobility of Cumberland’s thighs. ‘But marriage, Captain Burnside, that is the question.’

‘So it should be,’ said the captain, lifting his brown beaver hat to two strolling ladies who had raised flirtatious eyes to him. They at once hid themselves beneath their parasols and giggled. ‘Well, Annabelle, you must let Cumberland know that only marriage will bring you into his arms. He may be magnificent, but I’ll wager you own enough sweet subtleties to reduce him to frailty. I don’t doubt his ardour, so be firm as well as subtle, or he’ll attempt to pull you into his bed. To speak plain, he ain’t above attempting that with any lady as delicious as you.’

Annabelle blushed. Her eyes alighted on a standing black coach in the near distance. ‘Mercy’s sake, Captain Burnside, I never did encounter a franker gentleman
than you, nor one who advised me better. You are truly a friend, and in friendship will you set me down here while you take several turns around the park? Will you give me fifteen minutes to myself?’

‘Ah,’ smiled the captain, observing the black coach and bringing the carriage to a gentle halt, ‘I’m to assist you to keep an assignation?’

‘If you would be so kind, and in the strictest confidence,’ begged Annabelle. ‘I’d not want my sister to know, or she will rail at me in the most upsetting way, as if I were a child of ten.’