The Valet Who Loved Me - Valerie Bowman Page 0,25
notice, Miss Notley.”
“Where did ye learn ta do that?” she asked.
“Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast. Here’s how we’ll play. For each hand, the winner gets to ask the other a question.”
Marianne watched him closely, her eyes narrowing as she considered this proposition. On one hand, this could end up being a dangerous game. Especially if Mr. Baxter was as good at cards as his skill at shuffling would have her believe. On the other hand, she was much better at playing cards than he knew, or most likely suspected.
In the end, her curiosity won out. She had some questions for him, and she fully intended to win and ask them.
“Very well, Mr. Baxter. I accept the challenge,” she told him with a resolute nod.
He continued to shuffle the cards as he said, “Please call me Nicholas. You’ve been in my bedchamber after all.” His words were accompanied by a wink and an unrepentant grin that actually made his seemingly indecent request seem perfectly normal.
A rush of heat shot through her core. But she forced herself to reply in her most unflappable tone. “I suppose ye may call me Marianne…” She gave him an impish grin. “Since I have been in yer bedchamber. But please don’t call me that in front of the other servants,” she added for good measure.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Marianne,” he replied with another disarming wink.
Nicholas quickly dispensed the cards into two piles: one for her and one for him. Then he put his hand atop his pile and flipped over the first card. Marianne flipped hers. Two more from each of them. “I win!” he declared after his next card was a king.
Marianne shifted in her seat. Confound it. He was better than she’d guessed. She was obviously sitting opposite a worthy opponent. She steeled her resolve to answer his question. Hopefully she could answer it truthfully.
“Very well, Nicholas,” she said, liking the way his name sounded on her tongue. “Ask yer question.”
He gathered the cards back into his hands to shuffle again. “Why were you in my bedchamber? What were you hoping to find?”
She cocked her head to the side and gave him a slight smile. “That’s two questions, and ye only get one per hand. That was the rule, if I’m not mistaken.”
His mouth quirked up in the semblance of a grin. “Very well.” The cards flew into an arc between his hands again. “Allow me to rephrase. What were you hoping to find in my bedchamber yesterday?”
She lifted her chin and met his gaze. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, picking up the cards as he dealt them to her. “Something suspicious perhaps…like a burnt letter.”
His half-smile bloomed into a full one. “What? You don’t burn your letters?”
“Not usually,” she replied, laying down her first card.
He won again.
She took a deep breath. “Ask away.”
“How did you leave Lady Courtney’s employ and make it to the Copperpots’?”
Her eyes went wide just before she narrowed them. “How did ye—?”
He pushed the deck toward her. “Now, now, questions are for the winner.”
She scooped up the deck intent on winning this time. He flipped one over from the deck. Then another. This time she handily won.
He whistled. “Seems you’re not bad at cards yourself, Marianne.”
She gathered the cards this time, trying not to think about what it did to her middle to hear him call her by her Christian name. “My brother taught me. He was excellent at it.”
Nicholas’s eyes narrowed immediately. “You spoke of him in the past tense. Is your brother deceased?”
She shook her head, forcing herself to push away the painful memory. “I believe it’s me turn ta ask the questions, Nicholas.”
“You’re right.” He inclined his head. “What’s your question for me?”
“How do ye know I worked for Lady Courtney in Brighton?”
He shrugged. “Never underestimate servants’ gossip.” He took the cards back and shuffled once more before he dealt and won the next hand.
Marianne sighed, resigned to answering another question.
“You mentioned a brother. Do you have any other family?” he asked.
“I did have. Me mother and me father are dead. The only family I have left is me eldest brother, David.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nicholas said, looking genuinely concerned before smiling again and asking. “Does David play cards too?”
She settled back into her chair. “That’s another question, and we haven’t played our next hand yet.”
The confounded man won the next hand too, but he surprised her by not repeating his question about David’s skill at cards. “You never did tell me