“But how?” Francis asked, trying to be involved. “Some of us have spent months trying to thwart the man. I’ve no doubt there are gentlemen out there who have spent years trying to bring him down.”
Ellen huffed a laugh as she grinned at baby Archie. “They should have asked a woman to defeat him, then. One of us would have done the job much faster and more effectively.”
Joseph grinned affectionately at Ellen, but he didn’t take her casual comment seriously.
Not until he noticed Long staring at her as though he had the beginnings of an idea.
“You know, you may have a point, Miss Garrett,” he said.
Ellen snapped her gaze up to meet his eyes. “Do I?”
“Does she?” Francis echoed.
“She might,” Long said. He rested his weight on one leg, crossed his arms, and tapped his mouth with one finger. “The thing that makes women such brilliant and deadly adversaries is that men like Montrose—and Westminster, for that matter—have been told to discount women entirely. They are delicate, simple creatures who are best suited for a life in the home, raising children.” He nodded to Archie in Ellen’s arms. “But I think we all know that the women in our lives are our deadliest weapons.”
Francis smiled with sudden, unusual fondness. “They are that,” he said.
“And it strikes me that we have a particularly deadly specimen standing right here with us,” Long went on.
Ellen laughed. “I’m uncertain whether that is a compliment or an insult.”
“Most definitely a compliment,” Long said. His smile widened to something downright wicked. “Miss Garrett, did you not tell me when we first met that you not only have an inheritance from your father, but that you have earned a great deal of money on your own as well?”
Francis looked shocked at that statement.
Joseph knew what Long was referring to, and the implication knocked the air right out of his lungs. He suddenly had an inkling of what Long was plotting.
“I do,” Ellen admitted sheepishly. “But I doubt anyone in London society wants to know about how I sharped my way into a small fortune at the poker table.”
Ellen suddenly froze as well. All four of them seemed to be in accord all of a sudden.
Francis was the one who spoke with, “Mr. Long, you aren’t suggesting…you cannot mean that…that Miss Garrett should gamble with Montrose as a way to bankrupt him.”
“That is precisely what I’m saying,” Long said. “Montrose is no stranger to gambling and vice. He might like to think he takes the high road by bringing down noblemen who indulge in vice, but that is how he himself earned the capital he needed to begin his mission of terror. And how else do you think he knew which men to target?”
“So are you saying I should find out where Montrose plays cards, figure out how to become a part of a game, and win all his money away from him?” Ellen asked, sounding as confused as Joseph felt.
Long shook his head and shifted his stance. “I’m saying that we should be as upfront with Montrose as possible. We should call him out and tell him we know precisely what he is planning. Then we should offer him double or nothing.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Joseph said with a frown.
Long seemed to be far too delighted with the idea he was forming. He smiled broadly and said, “We invite Montrose to a very private evening with me, you, Westminster, perhaps a few other known gamblers among the upper class, and Miss Garrett.”
Francis shook his head. “Montrose will never agree to it. He would certainly never agree to play cards with a woman.”
“Do you know that for certain?” Long asked as if he didn’t think much of Francis’s doubt. “Montrose is greedy and desperate. If he thinks he can double his money and walk away with a portion of Westminster’s land deal on top of it, he’ll be lured to the table. And as long as Miss Garrett’s presence at the table is downplayed until the stakes are at their highest, I’m certain he won’t even notice her there.”
“But then everything depends on me winning,” Ellen said. “I cannot always control the cards.”
“Perhaps not,” Long said with a shrug. “But you’ve had good luck in the past, or so it would seem.”
“I have,” Ellen admitted with a grin.
For a moment, the four of them stood there, considering the mad plan. It was an enormous risk. If it failed, Montrose would have more power than ever.
But if it succeeded, they truly could defeat Montrose once and for all.
At last, Joseph shrugged and sighed. “I’m willing to give it a go if you are.” He glanced to Ellen.