Lady Susan Plays the Game (40 page)

His face creased a little. ‘Is that what they say? Well I might have a mine or two but that was not the source of my wealth.'

‘Oh?'

‘No. It was a lottery ticket.'

They were both silent. Then he spoke again ‘Gambling is open to all ranks, my lady, and all people, English ladies and gentlemen, commoners and foreigners alike can indulge.'

Lady Susan realised she'd been led into rudeness. This was foolish. She changed her tone. ‘Sir Philip,' she began, ‘however you came by your money is of no moment. We all try to flourish in our own way. I need to know only one thing: what is the amount I owe you now? I must hear this before I can think how to proceed.'

‘You force me to a disclosure I'd rather not make,' he replied, a half smile on his lips.

She nodded and sipped her chocolate, smiling back.

‘So be it. The sum is fourteen thousand and four hundred pounds.' He paused, then added, ‘A considerable amount.'

‘It is, Sir Philip.' She was silent a moment, ‘I did not ask for this money, nor do I believe that my expenses have amounted to the sum, although I grant you they have been great.'

‘My accounting is meticulous, madam. But I say again, I have no wish for crude repayment. I advanced the money willingly.'

‘But I accepted it involuntarily and must pay it back.'

He smiled fully now.
How ugly he is
, she thought,
frowning suits him better
.

Her dilemma was almost – but not quite – overwhelming. She wanted to keep what she had – or rather no longer entirely had – even obtain more money if possible. Yet she feared being in the power of this man, any man. Her new understanding of their shared past was starting to stifle her. She shouldn't have probed; she should have followed her usual habit of not questioning or calculating where money was concerned. Then she might have remained ignorant. But, even as the thought crossed her mind, she realised that Sir Philip would have ensured that she did not.

‘Even if you truly wished it you could not place that sum in my hands, I fear.'

‘Money can be raised.' She was marking time while thinking. Could he hear her heart beating in her voice? She must not appear weak; yet it wasn't clear how to play her hand.

‘I truly cannot see how,' said Sir Philip leaning forward to offer Lady Susan a cake. She gestured refusal. He took one himself. ‘You have nothing against which to borrow and you are not a lady to economise.'

‘That remark is unbecoming in you, Sir Philip.' Her control slackened for a moment. ‘How dare you presume to know what I do and do not do?'

Surprisingly, her flash of anger provoked him. ‘I dare, as you see,' he said coldly. ‘You understand your predicament. You would not, nor would I, want this to come into the view of the law. Of course not. Why should it? It was a gift, after all. Even less perhaps you would wish it bruited about town. But I have never been a man for public pleasure – as you know. I am a person who hugs the shadows.'

‘Come, Sir Philip,' she cried, ‘you are acting in a drama. You frequent the theatre?'

‘I assure you I am in earnest, though I may express myself too floridly. I have, as I say, had the pleasure of watching you in public from the shadows; I would have even more pleasure watching you in private.'

Again she ignored his words. ‘I can raise the money from another source.'

‘No one would lend more to you. It is, madam, if I may speak bluntly, water into a sieve. Mr King is no longer available for that purpose. I alone have been prepared to be your banker, your provider. I have acted a husband's part and with my help there have been games and gowns, servants and fine lodgings.'

He pushed back his chair, got up and walked to the window, then turned to face Lady Susan, his back to the light, his face in darkness. ‘You accuse me of being theatrical. That is unfair. I do not suddenly rush upon you crying “angelic creature” or anything of that sort. I do not try to force myself upon you. I am no actor. I am simply a well-wisher, a man with an obsession, perhaps, a gambler like you, although I do not play the cards. I have done you much service. I can do you more. As we have discussed, I am a rich man.'

It was a strange encounter. She had so recently dealt with Jacob King and lawyer Burnett and neither meeting had been pleasant. This was of a different order. She must play for time. The mention of the law was preposterous for a lady such as herself and yet the word had been spoken, the threat expressed. So much had been hinted, so much, stretching back into her life, even into Frederick's. She was for the moment nonplussed; she needed to consider and plan.

‘It's not that I am unmoved by such sign of – may I say? – devotion,' she said at last. Should she mention her widowhood? No, it would not serve. The remarks of Jacob King flashed through her mind: had Sir Philip been with her husband at his death? That was impossible, for Frederica had not recognised him. But he or Mr King had visited not long before. Strange thoughts were tumbling through her head unchecked. Could he have had a hand? Surely not. ‘I am not used to being surprised,' she said coldly. ‘You have indeed shocked me.'

She must get away from the house – she was sure of it now – but she must leave everything to be played for. The man was repulsive. He was also compelling – probably because she sensed being in his power.

‘I myself am surprised, Lady Susan. I have been seeing you so often that I have come to assume – wrongly it appears – that you have noticed my presence. Indeed, sometimes I thought you have smiled at me in the shadows.'

‘What do you mean? You have been in my lodgings?'

‘No, no, nothing so indecorous. Though had I wished I might have been there. I could have bribed all your servants and everyone around you.'

She passed over the boast. ‘Then where?'

‘At play of course.' He moved from the window and sat down again so that she could now see his face clearly; it had assumed a wistful expression. ‘I like the way you gamble. It suggests a kind of strength, a hazarding with life, a fineness, shall we say, a hunger for experience and sensation. I see it in your eye' – he corrected himself – ‘I have seen it there. I myself have sunk into the wallpaper and the shadows but your ladyship has always shone in the light. That is why, it appears, I have seen you and you have not noticed me. You have played with such intensity.'

He stopped again, gazed momentarily out of the window, then addressed her once more, his expression more focused. ‘It is an expensive vice but not a degrading one – except perhaps in your eyes now, since it has brought you here.' He inclined his head, as if he wished a polite demurral.

‘How could you have been there without my knowing? I don't see at great distance but I'm not blind. And who invited you? I do not frequent the public halls.'

‘You saw a figure but you did not recognise it. As for the other, I am a man not of great birth as your ladyship has implied, but I have connections, and money is acceptable everywhere. It was not difficult to find you. Indeed, I might say, if I wished to be unkind, that notoriety can have few secrets. And Mr Fortuny …'

She looked at him sharply. ‘How do you know him? What have you to do with Jack Fortuny?'

‘We have much to do with each other,' smiled Sir Philip. ‘Mr Fortuny and I go back far in time and perhaps a long distance.' He saw her just a little out of countenance. ‘Don't worry, Lady Susan. There is no betrayal in the matter. It simply meant that you were never quite out of my sight.'

She did not answer and he continued, ‘I have myself no interest in your kind of gaming – but you – I saw the passion, the excitement, and it excited me, I will admit it.' He paused. ‘Why do you look at me with such hauteur when I mention excitement? I am not an old man. I'm not young but not old. I have vigour and health. Why should I not be attracted by the charms which you yourself know you so abundantly possess?'

She recoiled – but only a little. She mustn't appear agitated. What did he mean about Jack Fortuny? Had her enemy and her friend been in league all along? But why? She'd
always thought she could trust Jack Fortuny with her life. Had she done so? She swallowed twice quickly. Could he have been acting as her pimp? He had been there with Lord Gamestone and now this.

The thoughts were jumbled in her mind. And yet beneath, below everything, she still felt warm towards her old friend, a fellow feeling. If Jack Fortuny had been betraying her all the time, taking money to watch her and manoeuvre her towards this man, he had been thinking of her, and her needs. She began to see Sir Philip as a kind of ringmaster. He had been playing a game and she had been at its centre. The idea was not quite distressing.

Sir Philip caught the movement in her delicate white throat and gazed at her. She turned her head so as not to meet the gaze. He was speaking before she attended to him. ‘I have waited a long time, Lady Susan,' he was saying, ‘and we none of us have unlimited hours.'

It was another insidious threat. Her sister-in-law's horror at her seduction of young Reginald had prompted an uncharacteristic thought of age in Lady Susan. Sir Philip implied something more. That one day she would reveal the decay so apparent in Lady Glint in the early morning hours. But she wasn't frightened: she had another good ten years and, when the inevitable came, she would paint and keep to darkened pink-shaded rooms; besides, her voice, her silky voice, would not age. The thought recovered her. She would not be threatened.

‘Sir Philip, if I read you aright, you are being ungentlemanly again. You surely cannot imagine that I could enter such a transaction as I suspect you are proposing.'

‘I have waited a long time,' he said again more slowly, ‘and rendered you considerable service. In a way you have already entered what you are pleased to call a transaction.'

‘The money shall be paid.'

‘How, madam? If you truly believe the gaming tables can ever repay you, you are a greater fool than I took you for.'

She saw he regretted his words as soon as they were spoken. He was not used to talking with ladies; he had none of Jack Fortuny's easy charm. ‘The cards are stacked against you. The bank will always win.'

‘Not always.' The words slipped out before she could stop them. ‘Of course I know the odds are bad, but – there are chinks of fortune.'

He waved the notion aside. It was not the conversation he wished to be having. ‘And your daughter? Can I be repaid for this?'

Another silence followed.

‘Madam, let's not flail around so. I say honestly and boldly that you fascinate me, entrance me. I have watched and – yes – plotted for you for many months, it may be longer. You have inspired such passion before, I am well aware, but I fancy that no one has gone to the trouble I have.'

He seemed to be smiling inwardly. Was he enjoying the game? ‘Your daughter was fortuitous. Sir James Martin is indiscreet. He made no secret at Tattersalls that he'd come to town to see Miss Vernon. I thought you might arrive too. It happened I was there when she slipped out in rather elaborate secrecy. She was quite conspicuous, although I couldn't at once be sure it was she. I'd only had a glimpse of her at your husband's funeral and she was unaware of me. When I saw her without her hood I was more convinced; the miniature of Mr Vernon confirmed her identity. So I saved her.'

‘At the expense of her reputation,' said Lady Susan.

‘I made clear what had happened.'

‘That you drugged her and left her in a public inn.' She kept her tone level.

‘That I gave her a sleeping potion to prevent her wandering the streets.' He was growing impatient. ‘Miss Vernon is no concern of mine except as your daughter. I saved her – and I think you might accept my testimony here – I saved her for you.'

‘Kindly done,' said Lady Susan. ‘Then sent her back to me.'

It was Sir Philip's turn to be startled. Had he understood what he'd heard? ‘Back to you intact. Was that not a chivalrous act?'

‘That you omitted to rape a defenceless girl? Very chivalrous. And this chivalry is to be paid for by the honour of the mother, is that what you propose?'

‘You are very frank, madam, as frank as I must be. What have we to do with honour? I could marry you but for the matter of a wife, long lost and in another country, but still a wife.
In any case you would try to refuse. I have given you such living as a husband would provide; I offer it in the future too, now in your full knowledge.'

It was strange. Here they sat discussing lust – love, whatever it was – adultery, fornication, and whoredom as decorously as if they were planning a meeting in town or a trip to the theatre.

‘It would be a private treaty,' he said.

‘It's insupportable,' she responded.

‘You forget, madam, I have watched you play. I know you to be a creature of sensation. I see your craving, your mouth a little open, your breath short, that control you have over your social self thrown to the wind—'

‘Enough Sir Philip.' She felt emboldened by his unseemly remarks. ‘And you propose to take away the freedom you describe.'

‘And you, madam, have long since taken my repose.'

She laughed a little tinkling laugh; there was after all something absurd about the man. ‘Do stop this gallantry, Sir Philip. It ill suits you.'

Lady Susan looked around the library. Above the level of the books there were Italian paintings of – she was not sure what, but from the final picture with its golden shower it looked like a series telling the tale of Zeus and Semele.
How apt
, she thought wryly. This man liked the idea of overpowering women. The vibrant colours picked up the red and blue of the bindings and upholstery. The silver candlesticks glinted. The ambiance was oppressive, too opulent. She became aware of the heat from the fire. Of course some of the books she recognised must have come from Vernon Castle.