Montrose’s expression of relief hitched a bit. “If you insist,” he said with a puzzled face.
“I do,” Ellen said, grinning at him over the top of the cards she’d just been dealt. She peeked at Joseph, and her smile widened.
Ellen didn’t go in for the kill immediately. They played a few hands with low stakes. Ellen won a few and Montrose won a few. Joseph wasn’t certain if it was just the cards they had each been dealt or whether Ellen was luring Montrose into an even bigger trap, but as the minutes wore on, Montrose lost his relaxed, victorious air and began to frown again.
The man’s nerves seemed to be bristling with impatience when Ellen finally smiled at her cards and straightened her back slightly, like she was about to move in for the kill. After swapping out two of her cards for two new ones, she peeked to Joseph as if to tell him to get ready.
“Do you know, Mr. Montrose,” she said as she surveyed the money in front of her, pretending to count, “I have gotten quite sleepy. We’ve been playing for a long time, have we not?”
“Are you ready to end things?” Montrose asked uncertainly.
“I believe so.” Ellen pushed all of her money into the center of the table. “I’m all in.”
Montrose beamed triumphantly. “Then you are out of luck, madam.” He pushed all of his money into the center as well. “I see you and raise you another thousand pounds.”
If Montrose expected Ellen to flail and back down, he was disappointed. Ellen hummed, then reached into the pocket concealed in her skirt and took out her wallet.
“A thousand, you say?” She counted through the bills she had with her, tossing a thousand pounds into the center of the table. “And I have a bit more to raise you,” she said, placing the entire wallet in the center of the table. “Five thousand, perhaps?”
Montrose’s jaw dropped, and his face went pale. “I…I…don’t know how to answer that,” he said in a wheezy voice.
Ellen shrugged. “Do you believe in your cards?”
“Yes, I do,” he answered quickly.
She nodded. “As I understand it, you are a shareholder in the land development deal His Grace is involved in.”
“I am,” Montrose asked, going tense all over.
Ellen smiled. “I would be satisfied if you called me with those shares, your stake in that deal.”
Montrose thought about it for a long, long moment. The air in the room crackled. Joseph spotted Long trying his level best not to laugh or make a sound. The tough behind Montrose was apparently giddy with joy as well.
Finally, Montrose said, “I agree.”
“Bring him a slip of paper and have him write that agreement down,” Long said with a sly grin. “I don’t trust him to keep his word.”
“How dare you, sir?” Montrose protested. He didn’t complain when Westminster fetched paper and a pen from the table behind him and plunked them in front of Montrose, though.
Montrose stared anxiously at Westminster for a moment before hastily scribbling his promise to transfer his shares in Westminster’s building scheme to Ellen if he lost the hand. He signed his name, and as Westminster took the paper, the game resumed.
Or rather, the game ended. In spectacular style.
“There you go, Mr. Montrose,” Ellen said with a smile, turning over her cards to reveal a straight flush.
Montrose gaped at the cards, his face losing all color. He shakily presented his hand. He had a full house with eights and jacks. It was a good hand, a very good hand, but it didn’t beat Ellen’s straight flush. Ellen had won the game.
Chapter Twenty
Ellen fully expected Montrose would react to her straight flush and to losing the game. She didn’t expect the explosion of terror that happened as she reached toward the center of the table, an admittedly smug grin on her face, so that she could pull her winnings close.
“No!” Montrose sounded, standing so quickly that he knocked his chair over. “No, I will not accept this. There has been a mistake. I have been tricked. This entire game was a trap from the very start.”
“It all depends on your definition of a trap,” Long said with the sort of casual shrug he seemed so fond of.
Montrose did not accept that comment lightly. “You cheated,” he said, lunging around the table as though he would attack Long or Westminster, who now stood close to each other. “You fed that girl cards. You somehow communicated to her which cards I held.”
“They did nothing of the sort,” Ellen protested, feigning more horror than she felt. In truth, she’d had the same accusations hurled at her several times, and they no longer bothered her.