Chapter 79

Kendall didn't dispute it was and that he could find his way out of it as easily as his handkerchief could his top pocket. His failure the other day made him aware of the burning need to prove it.
Much as that desire flooded his veins, he was also forced to admit that his failure to master his impatience the other day had also resulted in him being kicked out of the chess competition. It had resulted in his best boots being ruined and him nearly losing a toe, not to mention having to throw his lot in with this strawberry-haired specimen.
A woman goading him into grasping her cuff was nowhere he hadn't been before. Only think of when he'd first discovered that the temple he lived in with Marietta was as rotten as the one Samson brought down. It was somewhere he'd hoped never to be in again, yet plainly was, or this snit wouldn't remind him quite so scorchingly of his need for the leeching Babs.
So this business of this being checkmate? He swallowed the bitter bile scalding his throat, thrust his fingers into his waistcoat pocket with as much aplomb as he could manage, when they felt as if they'd been burned to the bone. His fob watch, the only thing his father had left him-God spit on his soul with acid-was here somewhere.
"Yes, it is." He flicked the watch open, stared at the ivory face for a second or two. "And unfortunately it is also time to leave."
"Time to-"
"Yes." Acknowledging he possibly needed to be less impatient was one thing, sitting here letting her take his piece off that board was another. "Nine o'clock."
She brought her coffee-colored gaze over the spectacle rims and feasted it in the direction of the marble mantelpiece. "But that clock there-"
"Is wrong, if that is what you are looking at. The grandfather in the corner has the correct time."
He snapped the watch shut. It was obvious she couldn't see a damn thing in these spectacles. To look that distance would mean giving the game away.
"We need to get there in plenty time. The worst thing is to arrive with none to spare. We'll walk, take the air. It's only across the park."
"But-"
"Unless you didn't come here alone? You brought your own conveyance?"
What would that be, given the impoverished state of that lodging house and its gin-ridden mistress he'd visited yesterday? Something from the knacker's yard with hooves still attached if not necessarily in working order? A lump of horse meat? He flicked a dust fleck from the back of the watch. Oh, please don't tell him she was about to get prickly because he hadn't said how clever she was at cheating, so now she'd changed her mind about the tournament. She had cheated. He hadn't seen her do it. So really, so long as no one else did either, did it matter if she did it again? Beating Baxby was the priority.
"Your Grace, I-"
"Or perhaps you came with your friend? What is his name, I confess I have forgotten?"
"Gabriel? Gabriel has other matters to attend--"
"Gabriel?"
She scraped the chair back. "Gabriel Rodriguez. But-"
He sighed and tucked the cold disc of the watch back in his waistcoat pocket. "And he is?" He might as well find out. He was being nice, wasn't he?
Whatever he thought about warning shots and firing them if she got any more awkward, blackmail made his flesh crawl. There were other ways of keeping a rat from leaving the sinking ship. Women liked to be talked to, flattered, shown how terribly clever and more importantly interesting, men thought their sadly drab lives were.
"He is my cousin's betrothed. Not that it's any of your business. But-"
He deliberately picked up his own hat and gloves, not that he ever wore either. He loathed hats and gloves as much as he loathed everything else he loathed. She was engaged to that little squid? His mind reeled slightly from the thought, making it more a question than a statement of fact. While he admitted there was no accounting for a woman's taste in men-look at Marietta-the squid didn't seem half classy enough for a woman of Lady Splendor's standing. For a woman of her cheek either.
Did she have that standing at all, though? Or was that another invention, the reason that until the tournament, until she sat under his nose, he had never come across her? In the ton? In any of the glittering arenas of London life? Rodriguez? He hadn't heard of him either. Was that why she wanted that money? So, having come from the counties as a nobody, she could somehow worm into London's ballrooms? Make a match the way these country wenches did? That made no sense if she was already engaged.
There must be a very good reason why the whippersnapper let her fight that duel though. Not much of a man, was he? Especially when she was even less of a shot.
"He and Lady Splendor are engaged?"
"For some time now. Yes."
His eyes roamed the ill-fitting jacket. Of course, having seen her in the tight-fitting day dress, he knew exactly why the jacket was so baggy. She had the shapeliest breasts he'd ever seen. That wasn't the best of it. These women who arrived at balls with their skirts strategically soaked so the fabric clung to their legs were a damned nuisance that way. He had stopped wearing beige trousers to balls long ago as a result because of the staining and it looking as if he'd had an accident. Besides, he knew exactly what a woman's legs were like, he'd been between them often enough. This one though, with hers so obviously on display in these breeches, dried his throat, because the legs were better than the breasts.
Imagine? He was. How the hell was that possible when his hunger was all for Babs?
A pity he hadn't kept his mouth shut about the runt. This was what he got for trying to be nice-a hard ache in his trousers. After all, it was best not to bother.
Certainly not in here, where he might be thought a damned daisy lusting after some boy.
"Engaged?" Despite abhorring hats, he set his on his head. "How old is she?"
"Ninetee- There is something wrong with being engaged, Your Grace?"
"Absolutely. Is she mad? But then marriage is sheer folly at any age. What idiot wants to suffer that fate? Still, do give her my heartiest congratulations."
Her mouth dropped open.
"I ... Of course I shall do that, Your Grace. When next I see her."
"Well, that won't be long, I imagine, seeing as you live in these delightful lodgings with her."
"I do?"
Her face colored, all the way to her hairline. This little game was not without its merits. In fact, this little game was almost as interesting as the one he was playing with Babs.
"I mean ... I will. Providing I see her. She is very busy. Weddings take all manner of time to prepare. Then there is her work of benefiting the poor."
"Benefiting the poor?" He did his best to arrest his dropping jaw.
"It is what she and Gabriel do in their spare time together."
"What the hell for? Is he mad?"
He had a hussy with legs like this, and all they wanted to do was benefit the poor? What was wrong with the runt? How boringly deprived could one man's life be? As for all this damned charity, the nation was better without. Where was that charity the day he learned the truth about Marietta? Or the other day with Babs? Or any of the things that had befallen him? His father's debts, built up by some squandering serving wench he'd got in tow with? The child Kendall had thought of as his, some other man's bastard?
A long time ago for some things never to have left him. He cleared his throat. "What I mean is-"
"They benefit the poor for the goodness of his heart. And hers."
Jesus suffering Christ. He really must get out of here. Before he ruined his intention to be amenable by wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. Before her words found a way to his heart and acted on its crusted chasms, like a salve. When there wasn't a thing about her that was true.
"Is that why you both live in that dump?" he finally managed to ask and, seeing her face, hurriedly continued. "I mean, is that why you want the ten thousand? I mean we want to be at Boodle's on time. Chiltren will be. He always is. Getting the feel of the room. Finding out what he can about the opposition. If you pull another stunt like this ..." Although it killed him, he indicated the board. "You'll win hands down. There is simply no doubt about it. Now, let's go."
"Now?"
"In an hour's time, it will be too late."