Then Came You (The Gamblers #1)(44)

“Yes, that’s it,” Henry said, looking impressed with her astuteness. “Exactly! Oh, I know how Alex comes off at times, but he’s a capital fellow. Hang me if he ain’t.”

Lily couldn’t help smiling at that. “Dear boy, it doesn’t matter what I think of your brother.”

“But if you knew Alex, really knew him, you’d like him. Tremendously.”

“I don’t intend to know any more of him than I already do.”

“Did I tell you about the puppy he gave me for Christmas when I was seven and—”

“Henry, is there any particular reason you’re so determined that I should like your brother?”

He smiled and averted his blue eyes, seeming to consider his answer carefully. “You’re going to stop Alex from marrying Penelope, aren’t you?”

Lily was perturbed. Wryly she thought that she’d made the same mistake most adults did, underestimating a child’s intelligence. Henry was a perceptive boy. Of course he would have grasped the situation between his brother and the Lawsons. “What gave you such an idea?” she parried.

“You’re all very noisy when you argue,” Henry informed her. “And the servants have been talking.”

“Would you be sorry if I did stop the wedding?”

The boy shook his head. “Oh, Penelope’s all right. As far as girls go. But Alex doesn’t love her. Not like…”

“Caroline,” Lily said flatly. Each time the blasted woman’s name was mentioned, she felt an unpleasant stabbing sensation. What had been so bloody marvelous about Caroline that Alex had gone so mad over her? “Do you remember her, Henry?”

“Yes, quite well. Though I was just a boy then.”

“And now you’ve reached the grand old age of…what is it, eleven? Twelve?”

“Twelve,” he said, grinning in response to her teasing. “You’re rather like her, you know. Except you’re prettier. And older.”

“Well,” Lily said wryly, “I hardly know whether to be flattered or offended. Tell me what you thought of her.”

“I liked her. Caroline was a lively girl. She never made Alex angry like you do. She made him laugh. He hardly ever laughs now.”

“A pity,” Lily said absently, remembering Alex’s brief, dazzling smile when they played cards in the gallery.

“Are you going to marry Derek Craven?” Henry asked diffidently, as if the matter were of merely academic interest.

“Good God, no.”

“You could marry Alex, after you get rid of Penelope,”

A laugh burst from Lily’s lips. “Get rid of her? Heavens, you make it sound as if I’m going to dispose of her in the Thames! First of all, my dear, I don’t intend to marry anyone, ever. Second, I don’t even like your brother.”

“But didn’t I tell you about the time when I was afraid of the dark and Alex came to my room and told me—”

“Henry,” she said in a warning voice.

“Just let me finish this one story,” he insisted.

Lily groaned and settled back, resting her head against the morocco sleeping cushion while the list of Raiford’s virtues continued.

Derek and Worthy bent over the desk in the central gaming room. The mahogany surface was covered with a multitude of notes concerning preparations to be made for the upcoming masked assembly. The only thing they had agreed on was that the gambling palace should be decorated to look like a Roman temple. Derek wanted the ball to reflect the grand decadence of the Roman civilization at its zenith. Unfortunately he and Worthy had conflicting ideas on how the effect should be achieved.

“Awright, awright,” Derek finally said, his green eyes glinting with exasperation. “You can ’ave the columns an’ silwer swags ’angin off the walls—but that means I gets my way about the wenches.”

“Painting them all white and draping them in sheets to resemble statues?” Worthy asked skeptically. “What would they do for the entire evening?”

“Stand on their bloomin pedestals!”

“They wouldn’t be able to hold their poses for longer than ten minutes.”

“They does what I pays ’em for,” Derek insisted.

“Mr. Craven,” Worthy said, his usually calm voice edged with frustration, “even if your idea were feasible, which it is not, I believe it would lend the event a tawdry and lurid atmosphere not in keeping with the usual standards at Craven’s.”

Derek frowned. “What the ’ell does that mean?”

“He means,” Lily’s laughing voice came from behind them, “that it would be outside the bounds of good taste, you lowbrow cockney.”

Derek’s dark face lit with a smile as he turned to see Lily standing there. Dressed in a lavender gown embroidered with silver thread, she resembled a dainty confection. Lily launched herself at him, laughing as he swung her around and set her on her feet.

“ ’Ere’s Miss Gypsy, back from the country,” Derek said. “Did you give Raiford ’is come-uppance?”

“No,” Lily replied, rolling her eyes. “But I’m not through with him yet. She gave a sigh of pleasure at being in the familiar atmosphere of the club, and beamed as she caught sight of the factotum. “Worthy, you handsome devil. How have things been without me?”