Page 4 of King of Clubs (The Ladies’ Wagering Whist Society #9)

T he duchess took her hand and gave it a gentle pat. “It’s all right. Let’s just take a moment, shall we? I’d almost forgotten what it was like the first time I entered a ballroom. If I remember correctly, I saw spots floating before my eyes and nearly fainted.” She gave a rueful little smile. “You aren’t going to do that, are you?”

“No. I’m just… please don’t judge me. I’m just calculating in my head the cost of all these fabrics.”

The duchess burst out laughing. “Of course you are! I eyed the jewelry and wondered how much all of that cost. Being the wife to a watchmaker, I was more familiar with jewelry shops.”

Gwendolyn gave her a grateful smile. “Yes, I can imagine you would be.”

“You do actually get used to it, believe it or not.”

Gwendolyn looked at her skeptically.

“Truly. I hardly even notice any more.” The duchess gave a little laugh. “It will also be easier when you are no longer looking at what people are wearing, but at the people themselves. To do that, you must know them. Come along, let me introduce you to my friends.” She took Gwendolyn’s arm and continued along, nodding to acquaintances and giving a smile here and there.

There was a knot of ladies standing along one side of the ballroom when the duchess stopped. “The ladies of the Wagering Whist Society,” the duchess informed her.

“The what?” Gwendolyn turned her attention to the individual women. She was almost certain that one of them was Lady Sorrell, which would mean that the lady in the white gown with her back to Gwendolyn must be Cassie. And there was one other young lady who Gwendolyn didn’t know, who had beautiful brown hair, sparkling eyes, and an engaging smile.

“The Ladies’ Wagering Whist Society,” the duchess said again. “It is how I know Lady Sorrell. We are both members.”

“Oh.”

“We are a very close-knit group of friends,” the duchess explained.

“And you play whist?” Gwendolyn asked.

The duchess laughed. “Yes. We play whist every Wednesday afternoon. And yes, we wager but not for money. No, we play for secrets!”

Gwendolyn’s eyes widened as her gaze snapped back to her chaperone. “What sort of secrets?”

“Oh, all sorts. Whoever loses a game has to tell the other ladies a secret. Of course, everything said is kept within the group. Not a word is spoken to anyone.”

“How do you know you can trust everyone in the group?”

The duchess gave a little shrug. “We just do. And so far, that trust has not been broken. Come, I will introduce you.”

An older lady who looked as if she enjoyed her dinners a great deal was speaking to Cassie and Lady Sorrell when they walked up to join them.

“Lord Gorling’s other children will be there as well, and Lord and Lady Rossburke. Lady Rossburke is like a daughter to me, you know,” the lady said, a warm smile lighting her eyes.

“Did I just hear you say that Lady Margaret will be here?” the Duchess of Bolton asked with some excitement as they joined the group.

“Yes, Lady Rossburke has come for the Season. I don’t know if we’ll be seeing her tonight, but I do know that she and Lord Rossburke got into town a few days ago,” the woman said, turning toward them.

Gwendolyn was thrilled to see that it was Cassie who’d had her back to them. Immediately, she felt much more at ease.

“Gwendolyn!” Cassie said in a way that sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief.

Gwendolyn nearly laughed at the fact that they were feeling exactly the same way.

“Ladies, may I introduce to you all Miss Gwendolyn Sherman? I will be sponsoring her this Season,” the duchess told everyone. “Miss Sherman, this is the Duchess of Kendell, Lady Welles, and of course you know Lady Sorrell, and may I assume that this is your sister, my lady?”

“Yes, Miss Cassia Benton, Your Grace,” Lady Sorrell said before giving Gwendolyn a nod and a small smile.

“How do you do?” Cassie asked, sinking into a curtsey.

The Duchess of Bolton gave Cassie a kind smile and then turned back to the other young lady. “You must be especially excited to see Lady Rossburke, Lady Welles.”

“Absolutely! She, Diana, and I would go riding in the park on a pretty regular basis,” the lady explained to Cassie and Gwendolyn.

“Yes, and then last year we were so happy to include Bel into our group.” Lady Colburne turned around and joined in the conversation. Gwendolyn was happy to see someone else she recognized.

“Miss Sherman, this is Lady Colburne,” the Duchess of Bolton said, interrupting.

“Yes, er, we’ve met,” Gwendolyn said, wondering if she dared admit as much. She didn’t know if it was common knowledge that the lady had been hosting the gentleman from the accident. Gwendolyn couldn’t remember his name, otherwise she might have asked after him. The lady gave her a smile, and Gwendolyn decided she could say something privately later.

“Well, I imagine sometimes it was Bel and sometimes Bee accompanying us on our rides, but we didn’t know that at the time,” Lady Welles was saying with a giggle when Gwendolyn returned her attention to the conversation.

Gwendolyn had heard all about the exciting time her friends had had last Season. Both twins had come to London when only one of them was supposed to have been here.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve known the Kendrick twins for five years now, and I still can’t tell them apart,” Cassie said.

“No, I don’t know that anyone can if they aren’t wearing their bracelets,” Gwendolyn agreed.

At the other ladies’ obvious confusion, Cassie explained, “Bel has a bracelet with a little bell attached, and Bee has one with a bee. They wear them so that people will know who is who.”

“How very clever!” the Duchess of Bolton commented. “The four of you went to school together?”

Cassie and Gwendolyn nodded.

“Well, we sincerely hope that you and Miss Sherman will join our happy little riding group,” Lady Welles said kindly.

“Thank you,” Cassie said. “That is very good of you, truly.”

“Of course! We understand how difficult this Season is going to be for you both,” Lady Colburne said.

“So this is where the most beautiful ladies are all hiding.” A gentleman wearing a handsome deep-blue brocade coat with a paler blue silk waistcoat joined them. He paused to bow.

“Mr. Hershawn! How lovely to see you,” Lady Colburne said, giving the man a big smile.

“You’ve let your hair grow,” Lady Welles exclaimed in delight.

He pushed the waves of brown hair off his forehead, giving an embarrassed little laugh. “Thought I’d see what it would be like. What do you think, Duchess?” he asked Her Grace.

“I will reserve judgement,” she said diplomatically but gave him a little wink. “Have you met Lady Sorrell’s younger sister, Miss Benton? And this is Miss Sherman who I will be sponsoring this Season,” the lady said, indicating them both.

“No, I don’t believe I’ve had the honor,” the gentleman said. He took Cassie’s hand and bowed over it, then did the same for Gwendolyn.

“Mr. Hershawn is a good friend of ours and soon to be the duchess’s stepson,” Lady Welles told them.

“Not me, the Duchess of Kendell, soon to be Lady Gorling,” the Duchess of Bolton explained quickly.

“This is getting very confusing,” Gwendolyn said, her gaze following the direction her chaperone was looking and seeing the other older woman who had been speaking when they’d joined the group. She’d moved on and was now talking with a third older lady in a dark-blue, figured silk.

The Duchess of Bolton gave Mr. Hershawn a nod and moved to join the other group as well. Gwendolyn gave Cassie a little shrug and started to follow the duchess.

“Very,” Cassie said under her breath as Gwendolyn moved away. She did her best not to burst out laughing.

~*~

Joshua fidgeted with the book in his lap. His headache had abated some, but somehow he just couldn’t force himself to focus on the words in front of him. It didn’t help that if he strained a little, he could hear the rumble of sounds from his club below. He’d put special insulation into the walls to dull the sound from the gaming room, so the gentlemen in the reading room wouldn’t be disturbed, but he hadn’t thought to do the same to the ceiling. Now and then he could hear a shout of triumph or defeat as the men won and lost enough money to feed poorer families for years.

There was a knock on his door. Joshua wondered if it was the majordomo who he’d left in charge while he was temporarily incapacitated. It was a rare evening that some issue or other didn’t come up that needed his attention.

“Well, I am proud of you,” Rossburke said, coming into Joshua’s drawing room.

“Er, thank you?” Joshua asked, unsure if that was the correct response or not. “May I ask why?”

“Because you are here and not downstairs, of course. I was nearly sure you would be down at the club, working,” his friend said, dropping down onto the sofa across from him.

Joshua gave him a sad smile. “I would like nothing more than to be there, but I can’t even focus on this book long enough to read three sentences together. Lord Colburne told me this was a common side effect of my head injury.”

Jamie winced. “I am sorry.”

“But you could be a good friend and go down and see if Mr. Wainwright, my majordomo, needs any help.”

Jamie burst out laughing. “No. If he did, I wouldn’t know what to tell him.”

“Oh, come on, you could come up with something. Or you could come up here and ask me,” Joshua suggested.

“Joshua, leave the man to do the job you hired him to do. And maybe you should give up trying to read and just go to bed.”

Joshua sighed. He was tired, but he was also bored. He’d been sleeping more than half the day. He shook his head and then sized up his friend.

“What?” Jamie asked, glancing down at himself.

“You aren’t in evening clothes,” Joshua pointed out.

Jamie smiled. “No, I’m not. I’ve convinced Margaret to give me at least a couple of days before she started dragging me to parties. She’s a little anxious to see her friends, but as she’s not enamored with parties either, she’s happy enough to see them during the day rather than attend amusements in the evening.”

“What a shame. I like going to parties,” Joshua said with a little laugh.

“Which is why it’s better that I married Margaret and not you,” his friend said with a chuckle.

“Goodness, yes! We wouldn’t have gotten along at all,” he agreed. That did make him think about what sort of girl he would get along with. “I need someone outgoing,” he said, voicing his thoughts.

“Absolutely. A beautiful young thing who loves to socialize,” Jamie agreed.

“Yes. I should be able to find someone like that, don’t you think?”

“I’m certain of it.”

With that decided, Joshua returned his attention to what he could do right now to amuse himself. His eyes hit upon a deck of cards that were sitting on the small inlaid table to his side. “Say, what about a game?” he asked, putting his book aside and picking up the cards.

“Sure! But I can’t stay too late. I told Margaret I would just check in on you and then be back.”

~*~

“How many ladies are there in the Wagering Whist Society, Your Grace?” Gwendolyn asked. She had danced with two very kind gentlemen and then stood by while the duchess had chatted with her friends for perhaps another quarter of an hour.

“Eight, why?”

“Oh, no reason. I was just wondering if all the ladies I’d met this evening were members,” Gwendolyn said.

“I don’t believe you’ve met them all,” the lady said, thinking about it. “I don’t believe Lady Moreton is here this evening.”

“Ah. Well, you do seem to be a rather close-knit group, as you said.”

“That we are!” the duchess smiled, clearly taking great pleasure in having such close friends—and well she should, Gwendolyn thought.

They stood by quietly for a moment, each taking in the sights of the ball.

“I’ve heard she has a significant dowry.” A woman’s voice wafted over to them.

“Really? Maybe I should make myself known to her.” A man answered. “I could use the money.”

“Oh, my dear, you couldn’t use it, you would lose it just as you have all the rest of your money,” she answered.

“Which is why I need it,” he agreed.

“Well, good luck with that,” the woman said with a laugh.

“I’m sure I won’t need that much good luck, she is a cit after all. How many suitors could the girl expect to get?”

Before they could hear any more, the duchess grabbed Gwendolyn’s arm and pulled her away toward the refreshments. “Don’t listen to them. They are some of those hateful people I warned you about.”

“How do they even know about my dowry?” Gwendolyn asked. She suddenly noticed that her hands were shaking. She hadn’t wondered at the knot that had slowly grown in her stomach as they’ve overheard those people talking, but never had she actually begun to shake. She wondered if it was nerves or anger. She did a quick survey of her feelings. Anger. Yes, definitely anger.