Brightly Burning(55)

“Braxton!” Hugo lowered his voice so just the four of us could hear. “You shall wager a public confession about how you’ve spent all night trying to run your hand up Stella’s skirt.”

I nearly fell out of my chair. Braxton narrowed his eyes to slits, staring down Hugo, then pushed back from the table noisily, throwing his cards down. “Frex you, Hugo Fairfax, and your frexing games.”

Hugo was unmoved. “Stella, you shall wager both your tabs. Reading and drawing.” He knew how much they meant to me—?they were my sole and primary hobbies, and if Bianca won, I’d never see them again. But from the way Hugo was looking at me intently, the gentleness when he suggested it, I knew he thought I could win. He’d surely given me incentive—?save my beloved possessions, get my room back from Bianca.

I accepted his proposal, repeating the wager and drawing just one card. I hid my disappointment that my luck had not held. Maybe I could still go for a flush.

“And finally,” he said with a flourish, “for me: I wager my bachelorhood and, in turn, my ship. Whoever wins will get to decide whether or not I will marry Bianca.”

Frexing hell.

Bianca made a choking sound, which blossomed into something of a growl. “Hugo, what are you playing at?” Each word was tight, almost violent.

“I’m just putting something on the table that’s very valuable to me,” he said. I didn’t miss the way he looked to me as he said it. He was challenging me to fight for my place aboard this ship. Electricity traveled down my spine.

“Me or the ship?” Bianca asked through clenched teeth.

“Both,” Hugo replied, glib.

Bianca was not yet satisfied. “And what if you win?”

“Then nothing will have changed. I’ll honor my commitment.”

“And if she wins?” She spat her pronoun like a curse, jerking her chin in my direction. I froze under their collective stares. Did I really have to answer that? Hugo saved me the burden.

“I would hope that Stella would follow her heart.”

If looks could kill, Bianca’s would have stopped said heart dead in my chest. Then her eyes flitted back down to her cards, and her hard look morphed into one of vicious delight. “Then I call. We go one more round to draw, should we need to; then we show our cards,” she said, clearly convinced her hand was a winner, or at least that the odds were in her favor. Two out of three that she’d get her way. She pointedly did not take any new cards.

I examined my cards again, sure to keep my features impassive. I had a flush, which would be enough to win if Bianca and Hugo had mediocre hands. Should I swap out the card keeping me from a straight flush, taking the chance? Or stick with my cards, assuming Bianca was bluffing with her cat’s grin? The tiniest ball of panic sprang up in my belly, ballooning into a pressure that pulsated with my heartbeat. Looking at Hugo made it worse. I could live without my tabs if I needed to, and getting my room back would be poetic justice, but it wasn’t a real need.

But the chance to stop Hugo from marrying Bianca, to keep the Rochester from the Ingram family’s greedy grasp . . . I wanted it desperately. Even if I was a fool to nurse feelings for Hugo, I wanted to save him from her. Everything depended on the cards in my hands.

I blinked slowly, breathing steadily like there wasn’t a full-scale panic happening inside. “I’m good,” I said, forgoing the deck. I just had to hope my flush would be good enough to make a stand.

Hugo looked at Bianca and me in turn, then put his cards on the table. “I fold,” he said, to Bianca’s frustrated groan. Her odds just went down. But mine went up. And it was time to show our cards. Bianca stared me down, willing me to go first. I refused. Fine ladies of the fleet before governesses and all that.

Bianca read my impassive expression and lack of action as the challenge it was, and finally turned over her cards, laying them out on the table with a flourish. The wicked glint in her eyes told me she was confident her straight was a winner. I let my face fall, increasing her triumph for just a second. Then I laid my cards out for all to see.

“Flush,” I said. “I win.”

Bianca was struck speechless, choking on disbelief and rage. I refused her the satisfaction of gloating, though I couldn’t help a small smile as the tab table registered the win, transferring all the bets that had been laid down into a column with my name on it.

“Good game,” Hugo said, turning to his apoplectic would-be fiancée and attempting to offer some comfort. “I’m sure your cousins won’t mind doubling up again.” Bianca glared at him hard, and I stifled a laugh. He had to know that wasn’t the part of the wager she was upset over losing. The full realization washed over me. I held both their futures in my hands. No, not just theirs, everyone’s on this ship. Captain Ingram and his wife, Braxton, Justine, the nameless cousins, Lizzy, Preity, even Griegs. Their ship was dying, and we were their only hope.

Guilt replaced any sense of triumph. There was far more on the line with this marriage than Hugo’s—?or my—?happiness.

The rest of the Ingram party finally noticed that a showdown of epic proportions had gone down, swarming the table and Bianca, gasping at the contents of the winning tally, bombarding both Hugo and Bianca with questions. I slipped away quietly before they could turn their attention to me. But I wasn’t fast or far enough when Bianca caught up to me in a dim corridor halfway to my quarters.