Amanda blinked at the cards, then raised her eyes to Martin's face, a question in the blue.
He felt his lips curve. "We've won."
Her lips formed an O. She looked down at the cards with greater interest. With increasing delight.
The crowd watching from afar had dwindled, but all present now woke up, leaving the tables to learn of the outcome. Within minutes, an excited hum of conversation and exclamation lapped around them.
Against it, Connor, in quite gentlemanly vein, considering the circumstances, explained his fault to Amanda, and how the penalty had handed them the game and thus the rubber. Then, with an almost comical switch in his tone, he pushed back his chair and stood. "Well! That's that, then!"
He scowled down at Amanda.
Amanda blinked, wary of the mischievous, malicious light that gleamed in Connor's eyes.
"I'll send the mare around first thing tomorrow morning-Upper Brook Street, ain't it? Enjoy her in good health."
That last was said with unholy glee. Reality crashed down on her. "No! Wait-" Where the devil was she to stable this horse? How could she explain how she'd come by such an animal? And it was odds on that Demon, currently in town, would drop by the instant he heard, recognize the beast, know to whom it had belonged-and start asking all manner of awkward questions.
"Let me think…" She glanced at Reggie, blinking owlishly, half asleep. No help there; Reggie resided with his parents and his mother was her mother's bosom-bow. "Perhaps…" She glanced at Connor, still standing over her. Could she refuse the horse? Or, given the incomprehensible slew of rules surrounding male wagers, was even suggesting such a thing a base insult?
"I daresay-" Martin's deep voice, cool and calm, cut across her whirling thoughts.
She and Connor turned to him, a conquering hero elegantly at ease in the large chair, a glass of champagne in one long-fingered hand.
"-that Miss Cynster might not have room in her stables at present for the mare." His changeable green gaze fixed on her face. "My stables are large and only half full. If you wish, Connor can send the mare to my establishment and you may send word whenever you wish to ride her, or to move her, once you've had time to make the necessary arrangements."
Relief swept her. The man was a godsend in more ways than one. She beamed. "Thank you. That would suit admirably." She glanced up at Connor. "If you would be so good, my lord, as to deliver the mare to Lord Martin's house?"
Connor stared down at her, his expression inscrutable. "Lord Martin's house, heh?" Then he nodded. "Very well. Consider it done." He hesitated, then reached down, took her hand and bowed. "You play remarkably well for a female, my dear, but you're not in my class-or his." With his head he indicated Martin. "In your future forays into the hells, you'd be wise to remember that."
Amanda smiled sweetly. Thanks to Connor's wager, the need for further forays into the hells had evaporated, and she had no intention of forgetting Martin.
Releasing her hand, Connor stumped off. Meredith, who had said not a word throughout, rose stiffly, bowed, and murmured, "It was a pleasure, Miss Cynster."
With that, he followed Connor through the gloom and away.
Amanda turned to Martin and favored him with her best smile. "Thank you for your offer, my lord-I would indeed find it difficult to accommodate the mare on such short notice."
He regarded her steadily, that gentle, somewhat wistful amusement very evident, at least to her. "So I would imagine." He raised his glass to her, then drained it and set it down. He rose; she did, too.
"I must thank you, too, for your assistance throughout." She smiled again, her mind skating over his offer to partner her, his replacement of her champagne with water, his arranging for the candlelight, the many moments during the play when his steady, moss-green, gold-flecked gaze had kept her from panicking. She let the thoughts light her eyes, and held out her hand. "You were indeed my champion this night."
His lips kicked up at the ends; he took her hand, long fingers closing strongly about hers… and hesitated. Amanda looked into his eyes and realized they'd changed again, grown darker. Then he bowed and released her.
"Connor was right-hells like Mellors are no place for you, but I fancy you've realized that." His gaze roamed her face, then he reached into his pocket and drew out a silver card case. He extracted a card and offered it between two fingers. "So you know where to send for the mare. Send a message and one of my grooms will bring her around." His gaze touched her face again, then he inclined his head. "Good-bye, Miss Cynster."
She brightly reiterated her thanks. As he turned away, she glanced at his card. "Good God!"
The exclamation escaped her despite her years of training. Without thinking, eyes fixed on the card, she caught the sleeve of the man who had been her partner through the night. Obediently, he halted.
She couldn't, at first, drag her eyes from the card-a simple, expensive rectangle of white with a gold crest upon it. Beneath the crest was stamped one word: Dexter. Beneath that was an address in Park Lane, one she knew had to belong to one of the huge old mansions fronting the park. But it was the name that turned her world upside down.
Hauling her gaze from it, she looked up at him. It took a moment to get enough breath to even gasp, "You're Dexter? "
The rakish, rumored-to-be-profligate, elusively mysterious Martin Fulbridge, fifth Earl of Dexter. She certainly knew of him, of his reputation, but tonight was the first time she'd set eyes on him. She realized she was clutching his sleeve and released him.
That self-deprecatory amusement was back in his eyes. When, stunned, she continued to stare, he raised one brow, cynical, yes, but world-weary as well. "Who else?"
His gaze held hers, then moved unhurriedly over her face, returned to her eyes. Then he inclined his head, and, as always unhurriedly, left her.
Chapter 2
Exiting Mellors, Martin sauntered out into Duke Street. He walked along, senses honed in a more dangerous world instinctively noting that there were no miscreants lurking in the ink-black shadows.
A projecting store front cast its own front door into stygian gloom. He stopped, cloaked in the darkness, and waited.
Three minutes later, a footman hauled open the door of Mellors, peered out, then whistled and beckoned; a small black carriage that had been waiting down the street rumbled forward. Martin inwardly nodded in approval. Mellors appeared, escorting Amanda Cynster and Reggie Carmarthen to the carriage. They entered, the door was shut, then the driver shook his reins and the carriage lumbered off.
A statue in the dark, Martin watched it roll past-caught a fleeting glimpse of honey gold hair, saw Carmarthen leaning forward, lecturing determinedly. Martin grinned; quitting the shadows, he continued on his way.
The night enveloped him. He felt completely at home walking the London streets in the small hours, completely at peace. Why that should be so was a mystery, but he'd long ago learned the futility of questioning fate. Peculiar indeed that here, surrounded by the society into which he'd been born, the society he now eschewed, was one of the few places on earth he felt at one with all about him, even though all those who would rush to recognize him were snoring in their beds, oblivious as he walked past their doors.
Turning into Piccadilly, he lengthened his stride, his mind sliding back to the fascinating question of what game had been played out that night.
His initial interpretation had been that Connor, the lecherous old toad, had set his sights on Amanda Cynster, but as the challenge had played out, he'd grown increasingly unsure. Connor's wording of the wager had left her, win or lose, in no danger, but playing a rubber with Connor had prevented her from interacting with Mellors' other patrons. What Connor hadn't foreseen was that Carmarthen wouldn't-presumably couldn't-partner her, landing her in an invidious position that Connor hadn't, he felt sure, intended at all.