The Player (Rockliffe Book 3) (4 page)

‘Amberley, I should think – and maybe Jack
Ingram.
 
The three of them are still
thick as thieves despite all having been caught in the parson’s mousetrap.
 
But much as he likes being three steps ahead
of everybody else, Rock doesn’t generally gossip for no reason … and, as I
said, I don’t think he was completely certain.’

‘Then I’ll have to hope it stays that way or be
prepared to brazen it out. I’ll be
persona
non grata
in enough places as it is without L’Inconnu coming to light.’

 
‘That’s the
trouble with having such a colourful past,’ said his lordship, pouring more
ale.
 
‘So what can I do to help?’

‘Allow my name to crop up casually in conversation
and see what the reaction is.
 
Then, if
there are a few people
not
making the
sign against the evil eye, I was hoping you might use your connections to gain
me one or two invitations.’
 
He
paused.
 
‘Do you think I’ve any chance at
all of gaining membership at White’s?’
 

‘We can try.
 
I’ll sponsor you myself and I can probably get Harry Caversham to join me.
 
He’s married my little sister, by the way –
so being open-minded is something of a necessity.
 
Of course, if we could enlist Rock the thing
would be as good as done.’

‘Considering that your brother is the one person
with a fair idea of precisely how I’ve been spending part of my time recently,
I don’t somehow see him lending a hand in my social rehabilitation,’ returned
Adrian dryly. ‘Do you?’

 
‘He’s done
stranger things.
 
As far as opening doors
goes, he and Adeline are hosting a soir
é
e
tomorrow evening so I suppose …’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘No.
 
That won’t do.
 
You’re going to run into Rock sooner or later
but the first time needs to be on neutral ground.
 
The night after, then. We’ll put in an
appearance at the Lintons’ ball.’

‘Since I have no idea who the Lintons are and
don’t have an invitation --’

‘That doesn’t matter.
 
Lady Linton is the most disorganised hostess
in Town and his lordship will most likely be three sheets to the wind so no one
will care whether you’ve an invitation or not. You only need to show your face
for an hour or so, so we’ll time it for late in the evening.
 
Tell you what … we’ll dine at Sinclair’s,
play a few hands of piquet and fortify ourselves with a couple of bottles of
decent claret before we go. Trust me.
 
It’s perfect. Just promise you can turn up looking more like an Earl
than you do right now.’

‘French tailoring, Nick,’ came the smug reply. ‘You’ll
be wholly cast in the shade.’

‘Don’t count on it.
 
Where are you living, by the way?’

‘I’m leasing a house in Cork Street.’

‘Oh.
 
Chuffy
Hobart’s place, I suppose.
 
The word is
that his wife gave him a choice.
 
Stop
catting around and tend the family acres or abandon hope of an heir.’
 
His lordship shook his head despondently.
‘That’s what marriage does for you.’

‘You’re not contemplating it, then?’

‘I’d sooner take up embroidery.
 
And fortunately, being a younger son, I don’t
have to.
 
Unlike yourself, of course.’

‘Gloating is an extremely unattractive quality,’
observed Adrian mildly, as he rose to replace his hat and cloak. ‘I’m off to
Sinclair’s.
 
Send me a note about the
ball or anything else you think I need to know.’

Lord Nicholas also stood up.
 
He said flatly, ‘I’ll say one thing right
now.
 
Tell Aristide to stop Marcus
Sheringham’s credit before it’s too late.
 
The fellow’s so deep in debt, he’s drowning in it.’

‘I heard he was chasing an heiress.’
 
Adrian strolled to the mirror, intent on
placing his hat at precisely the right angle. ‘Some cloth-merchant’s daughter
from Halifax?’

‘Grand-daughter,’ Nicholas corrected.
 
‘Yes.
 
He is.
 
But he’s in competition
with every other fortune-hunter in Town.
 
And the betting at White’s is favouring Ludovic Sterne because the
girl’s being sponsored by Lily Brassington.’

‘And that makes a difference because?’

‘Like the rest of the family, Lady B is short of
money so she takes on these girls for a fee – but she’s good
ton
and is received everywhere.
 
She’s also Ludo’s second cousin and, for
years now, has been on the catch for an heiress whose family might not realise
what a wastrel he is.
 
The cloth chit is
the best bet so far – which means Sheringham’s playing with a handicap.’

‘I see. It seems I’ve a great deal of catching-up
to do.’

‘Dev, my dear fellow, you have no idea.’

*
 
*
 
*

The smart, exclusive gaming-club known as
Sinclair’s occupied a prime location in Ryder Street, just off St. James. Adrian
surveyed the discreet exterior and devoted a moment’s thought to the man he
would meet inside.
 
Although he knew that,
sooner or later, he was going to have to settle into his role as the Earl of Sarre,
there was no need to do it quite yet. Smiling to himself and eschewing the
glossy front door, he slid around to the rear and let himself in with his own
key.

It was a little after two in the afternoon and the
quietest time of day.
 
The main floor and
all the private rooms would have been cleaned hours ago and preparations for
the evening wouldn’t start until around five o’clock.
 
His lordship took the back-stairs, cut
through one of several concealed passageways and emerged in the manager’s office.

Apparently unruffled by this surprise visitor, Aristide
Delacroix looked up from his ledgers and said in French, ‘We were expecting you
last week. I suppose it would have been too much trouble to send Bertrand round
with a note?’

‘I wanted to see if the plans you sent me of the
geography of this place worked.’

‘Plainly, they do.
 
Equally plainly, if your memory had proved faulty, you might have ended
up in my sister’s bedroom.’

‘In which case,’ replied Adrian blandly, ‘I’d have
screamed.’

Fair-haired, blue-eyed and exquisitely-dressed,
Monsieur Delacroix rose from the desk to shake hands with the man who, for the
last two years, had been his business-partner.
 
He said, ‘I assume from your appearance that you’ve no wish to be
identified.’

‘Not yet – though you seem to have had little
trouble doing so.’
 
Once more removing
the various parts of his disguise, he glanced around the office, noting an
entire wall devoted to large drawers.
 
‘Is there a gentleman in London you
don’t
have a file on?’

‘Very few.’
 
Aristide gestured to a chair and turned away to pour two glasses of the
very best French brandy.
 
‘Do you want to
see the books?’

‘Not particularly.
 
Your last report was sufficiently detailed.
 
But if there’s anything new, you can pr
é
cis it for me.
 
And then I’d quite like to visit your domain.’

Aristide nodded, swirling the contents of his
glass as he warmed it in his hand.
 
Like
everything else, he took his drinking seriously.
 

‘Membership has risen again in the last month and,
on average, we’re making seven to eight thousand a night.
 
With all our improvements and refurbishments
now complete, day-to-day running costs – wages, food, wine and so forth – are
beginning to settle to a steady level and I should be able to put a fairly
accurate figure on them in the next week or two.’ He smiled suddenly. ‘Your
share of the profits for the last quarter is just short of twenty thousand and
the return on the next quarter should be even higher.
 
Personally, I’m delighted.’

‘Personally,’ remarked Adrian, ‘I’m amazed.
 
In the short time the club has been operating
and with everything that needed to be done, you’ve made remarkable progress.’

‘Getting the right staff was the key to that.
 
There were a few mistakes in the early days –
but lessons were learned.
 
Mr Cameron,
our floor-manager, has eyes in the back of his head and can spot a sharp at
twenty paces.
 
Naturally, that was one of
the first tests I set him.’

A gleam of amusement lit his lordship’s eyes. ‘Caught
you, did he?’

‘Immediately,’ replied the Frenchman with immense
satisfaction.

Adrian sometimes found it hard to equate this new,
business-like Aristide with the fellow he’d first encountered on the other side
of a Parisian card-table.
 
In the space
of two lengthy sessions, they’d each discovered the other man’s secret.
 
Adrian had recognised that Aristide Delacroix
was the best card-sharp he’d ever seen; and Aristide had eventually realised
that the reason Adrian rarely lost and could detect dishonest play most men
would never notice was because he had an uncanny ability to count cards.

Inevitably, the two of them together created a
marriage made in heaven – and Sinclair’s was its natural progeny.

‘Lord Nicholas has been immensely helpful in
bringing the place into fashion,’ Aristide continued.
 
‘He plays here himself occasionally – but
never so often that anyone would remark on it.
 
And his brother, the Duke, has been in a handful of times with the
Marquis of Amberley and others.’

‘That wouldn’t have been Nick’s idea,’ murmured
Adrian.
 
‘Rockliffe has a certain
reputation – of which his brother, like most people, is justly wary.’

‘Well I can vouch for the fact that his Grace
plays a fair hand of piquet,’ came the faintly disgruntled reply.
 
‘But to resume … Gaspard, our chef, is a true
culinary genius; Jenkins runs the best security system in town; and Madeleine
has charge of housekeeping and spends part of each evening in the more
exclusive rooms upstairs – that being the only place she’s safe from
importunities.’

‘In my experience, girls as beautiful as your
sister aren’t safe from importunities in even the most respectable of circles.’

‘I daresay,’ remarked Aristide grimly.
 
‘But those girls aren’t being guarded by a
couple of ex-pugilists masquerading as footmen.
 
She refuses to stay out of the club completely, so I set the rules.
 
And our members know what’s at stake.
 
The last one who crossed the line was
escorted from the premises forthwith and had his membership terminally revoked.’
Aristide finally took a sip of his brandy. ‘Speaking of which, I’m assuming
you’ll want membership yourself?’

‘Naturally.’

‘I’ll see to it.
 
But I’d appreciate it if you’d confine your activities to Hazard and
Pharaoh.
 
Anything, in fact, that doesn’t
allow scope for your particular skill.
 
First off, we run a clean house here – and second, it wouldn’t take
Cameron long to become suspicious.’

‘Duly noted.
 
When do I get the tour?’

‘In a moment.
 
There’s something I want to discuss first.’

‘Ah.’
 
Of course.
 
There would be
. ‘I suppose it relates to that request I made of you
some months ago.’

‘Yes. I’ve done as you asked.
 
But I’d like to know how much longer it’s to
continue.’

‘I’m not sure.
 
What is the current liability?’

‘Ten thousand, give or take – and little or no
chance of getting it back.
 
The word is
that he’s mortgaged up to the hilt and the duns are swarming all over him.’

‘And yet he still throws good money after bad at
the tables?’

‘Yes – in the establishments that will still let
him.
 
He’s the worst kind of gamester –
addicted and desperate.’ Aristide eyed his partner thoughtfully. ‘Are you
trying to ruin him?’

‘Not at all.
 
He appears to be managing quite well without any help from me.’
 
His lordship achieved an elegant shrug.
 
‘On the other hand, I’ve no objection to
allowing him to ruin himself.’

‘That’s what I thought.
 
Am I allowed to ask why?’

‘You can ask. But you must forgive me if I prefer
not to answer.’

‘Then I suppose there’s no more to be said.’
 
Monsieur Delacroix set down his glass and
came to his feet.
 
‘The grand tour,
then.
 
We’ll start with the main
floor.
 
And when you’ve had a good look
at the place, I suggest you sample the catering by dining with me in one of the
private rooms.
 
I may be biased … but Sinclair’s
offers the best French food in this land of over-cooked beef and blood
pudding.’

~
 
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