Perhaps he was too long widowed. Poor Alice had died four winters ago now. He was in the prime of his life and he had needs like any other man. But he was loath to buy a woman's favors--even if most of his men had no such problem. He should never have come here tonight--had in fact vowed he wouldn't enter the Grotto again after his disturbing reaction to the madam on his last visit.
Yet here he was, vow or no vow, and moreover he was gambling for Aphrodite herself tonight. His blood heated at the thought even as he watched her nimble fingers shuffled the cards into a bridge.
Swiftly she dealt three cards to each man.
Isaac picked up his hand wondering if she'd merely wanted to replace Hyde at the table or if she had a plan in mind. His cards certainly didn't indicate any mechanism--it was a poor hand at best. He glanced at the madam under his brows. But then perhaps she had no wish to help him win.
Melancholy thought.
He pushed it from his mind as the game commenced. All survived the first and second hands, but in the third round both the youngster and the man with a tick didn't pick up tricks and, after being forced to loo to the pot, dropped from the game. Half an hour later the country squire stomped from the room, muttering about London card sharps.
Isaac sat back and watched as Aphrodite shuffled the cards. She'd called for wine to be served to the players, but he'd declined. The fact was that he might be able to continue one or two more rounds, but after that he'd have to drop from the game as well. He'd only hung on so far by his wits and luck--if his hands were indeed luck.
Aphrodite dealt the cards and Isaac looked at his hand with a sinking heart. This would be his last round--he had no more money to loo the pot--but he'd play it as well as possible. The round began and the skeletal man grinned as Isaac passed on the first trick. Aphrodite dealt two more cards to each man and Isaac picked them up without much hope. Then he had to struggle to maintain his face. He had the Pam--the Jack of clubs--and four hearts. A flush.
He glanced at Aphrodite, but her eyes were downcast. Had she slipped him the Pam? Impossible to know.
Meanwhile Lord Howling drained his glass of wine and pushed his remaining pile of coins into the pot in the middle of the table. "Night's getting late. End this, shall we?"
The skeletal man raised an eyebrow, but followed suit. He turned to Isaac, his twisted lip raised in a sneer. "I'm afraid you'll have to bow out, Captain."
"Not yet," Isaac said quietly and laid his hand down.
For a moment there was stunned silence and then Hyde began to clap. "Oh, well done, sir, well done!"
The man with the twisted lip stood abruptly, his chair falling backward. "She slipped him the Pam!"
Isaac rose slowly, his hand on his sword, his heart beating hard.
Then Lord Howling snorted. "Don't be a fool, Whistler. The captain won fairly. Let him enjoy the spoils of victory. Come, I'll stand you a bottle of wine."
Whistler went reluctantly, urged on by Howling, and Isaac didn't let go his sword until they had left the room.
"I congratulate you, sir," Hyde began. "If you want to begin your, ah, victory celebration, I can assure you--"
"Not now," Isaac interrupted the foul little man. "Have you a bag for my winnings?"
"Naturally." Jimmy Hyde smirked. "We wouldn't want guineas falling out of your pocket as you walk the East End. I'll fetch a purse for you."
He left and Isaac frowned after him, wondering if Hyde planned to have him waylaid and robbed on the way home.
"You can take Billy with you," Aphrodite murmured.
He turned back to her. She stood beside him, as lovely and wanton as always. "What?"
"Billy." She indicated a bully boy idling by the door to the salon. "He can be trusted to guard your back on the way to your ship."
"Ah. Thank you." He eyed her, wondering what was going on behind that golden mask.
She glanced down. "It is I who should thank you."
He cocked his head. "Why?"
"You know why," she said low. He'd never heard her sound so serious before. Gone was the whore who'd drawled ribald comments to him just hours before. "You gambled your own money and saved me. Thank you."
Isaac sighed. "I'm sorry to shatter your illusions of me as a bollocks-less white knight."
Her head reared back and her green eyes narrowed behind her mask. "What do you mean?"
He smiled and took her hand, bending over her white knuckles as he murmured, "Only that I fully intend to enjoy my prize."
Chapter 3
As the wind whistled through the Ice Princess's snowy halls it made a kind of music, high and sweet and strange. The Ice Princess herself seemed to sing as well, although her frozen lips never moved and her song had no words. Nevertheless, the eerie melody was carried on the north winds far and wide. Her wordless song told of longing and grief and a passion so deep it could never be fulfilled. . . .
—from The Ice Princess
Coral stared at Captain Wargate for a moment, her eyes wide behind her golden mask. It had never occurred to her that the puritanical captain would demand his prize. But wasn't he a man like any other? And all men were base fools when one came right down to it.
She straightened her shoulders. The curl of her upper lip was hidden by the mask, but her voice dripped with scorn when she said, "Of course, Captain. I wouldn't dare to deprive you of anything you'd rightfully won."
If her distain perturbed him, he made no sign. His black hawk eyes were scanning the room as if her presence hardly mattered to him. "Your graciousness overwhelms me, madam. Ah, Hyde."
This last was addressed to Jimmy who'd come strutting back into the salon with the sack Wargate had requested for his coins. Jimmy waved it in front of Wargate like a flag before a bull. "Here you are, Captain! I hope it's large enough for your winnings. Of course it doesn't fit the most delectable prize." He leered at Coral.
She stared back stonily, long since inured to Jimmy and his crass ways.
"Now, then will you be wanting guards to walk home with you?" Jimmy asked with mock sympathy. "It's dangerous hereabouts for a lone man with bulging pockets, but I think we can lend you a couple of our boys, say at a half crown each?"
"No need," Wargate snapped.
Jimmy made a fussy little moue. "I know you're a big, strong man, Captain, but remember pride goeth before a fall. Why walk alone when—"
"There's no need," Wargate interrupted Jimmy's prattle, "because I have no intention of walking back tonight. I'll claim my first night tonight."