The Watchmaker's Daughter (Glass and Steele #1)(85)

And then it struck me. She was going to offer herself to Lord Travers as payment.

I picked up my skirts and raced after Duke and Matt. I found them confronting Willie in her room. She'd applied some color to her cheeks and lips, and her hair flowed around her shoulders. She was beautiful.

"You look like a whore!" Duke snarled.

"That's the point," she shot back. She eyed Matt, standing with rigid shoulders, his entire body expanding with his deep breaths. I suspected the deep breathing was an attempt to control his temper, but it wasn't working particularly well. I was glad the hard gleam in his eye wasn't directed at me.

I stepped between them. "I'll lend you the money," I told Willie. "I have some coming to me shortly. Perhaps Lord Travers will accept a promissory for now."

Willie blinked at me, but it didn't stop her eyes filling with tears. "You would do that for me?"

"Of course."

"I can't accept it. This is my predicament, and I'll get myself out of it. Thank you, but I don't want your money. Or yours, Matt."

"I'm not offering you any," he snarled. "I'm going to win the locket back for you. Get your coat." He turned and marched out of the room.

"Is he a good poker player?" I asked when he was out of earshot.

"He's the best there is," Willie said quietly.

"Was," Duke said. "He hasn't played since the gunfight with his grandfather. He gave up all his gambling and drinking ways after that."

"It's not something you forget," Willie told him.

"You better hope not. Come on, let's go."

"I'll get my coat," I said, hurrying to my own room.



Mr. Unger agreed to the private game between Lord Travers and Matt. The hush that had descended upon our entrance lifted as excited voices eagerly placed wagers on who would win. All the games were suspended so everyone could watch. Unger rearranged the furniture and Travers and Matt took their seats.

Lord Dennison wedged himself between me and Duke. The scar on his forehead from the wound inflicted by the clock looked red and raw.

"What a pleasant surprise," he murmured thickly in my ear. "If your friend loses, will you wager yourself this time? I'll be tempted to play—"

He was suddenly ripped away. Matt held him by the collar, pulling it tight and high at Dennison's throat. Dennison's struggles only managed to give him a red face, and score a few laughs from the others at his expense. "Is this the fellow?" Matt growled at me.

I lifted my chin. "If it is, what will you do to him?"

Matt looked to Dennison then to me, then to the table. "Take him for every last penny."

"In that case, yes it is."

Excited whispers rippled through the crowd. They scented a dangerously thrilling game ahead. Matt shoved Dennison down onto a chair. "If you don't play, I'll take you out the back and flog you."

"This is outrageous!" Dennison spluttered. "Do you know who I am?"

"Enlighten me."

Dennison plucked at his collar and stretched his neck. "I'm Lord Dennison! The son of the Earl of Morecombe."

Travers snorted. "He's not important. Come now, let's play." He lit a cigar and leaned back in his chair.

"Stand," Matt ordered.

"Pardon?" Travers chomped on his cigar and didn't move.

"Stand up so I can see that you're not hiding anything."

"Check his pockets," Willie said.

"Bloody hell!" Travers muttered, but he pushed his chair back and heaved himself up. "Never been treated this way by an Englishman.

Duke checked Travers's pockets and the chair itself, and declared he'd found nothing untoward.

Travers snorted as he sat. "I'm not a cheat."

I elbowed Willie when she opened her mouth to protest. She shut it with a grumble.

"Deal," Matt ordered the dealer. "What have you got to stake?" he asked Dennison.

"Nothing," Dennison said. "Lost it all at hazard."

"Did you come in a conveyance?"

"Of course."

"Then I accept that."

Lord Dennison lost his conveyance on the first hand. He slunk away from the table, his head low, muttering how his father was going to rake him over hot coals when he learned what he'd lost.

"Stay where I can see you," Matt ordered Dennison, pointing to a spot well away from me.

Travers was a little harder to beat, but Matt did it with only a pair of eights after a mere ten hands were played. Travers could have won with his pair of jacks but he folded too soon. He handed over the locket.

Willie swooped on it and slipped it around her neck. Matt rose and nodded at the dealer and Unger.

"Wait!" Travers cried when he realized Matt was leaving. "Another game. Give me a chance to learn from you. Your skill is sublime. I couldn't get your measure at all, not even a little." He grabbed Matt's arm as he went to walk off, but missed and almost toppled off his chair. "Come now, sir, we can make it as interesting as you like. I'm a bloody rich man. Ask anyone here."

Matt gave him a look of utter contempt. "Good evening to you." To Dennison he said, "Come and point out your carriage and tell your driver he's no longer required."