Bertrice Small - The Duchess

"That would be perfect, Mr. Brummell. I have never before experienced the wicked life here in London," Allegra said. "Perhaps I should, just once before I return to the country." She smiled at him, and gave him her hand to kiss.

He did so, and smiling in return said, "Until tonight, Your Grace.

“Neither your husband, nor your father would approve of you gambling, Your Grace," Charles Trent said quietly as he stepped from the door of his personal billet.

"I shall want a thousand pounds, Charles," Allegra told her father's secretary. "I shall not, I promise you, lose any more than that. I am not addicted to gambling, and have self-control."

"No one is addicted at first, Your Grace, but the lure of the games is irresistible. Go with Mr. Brummell if you will, but take your own carriage. That way you are free to return home whenever you desire."

Allegra nodded in agreement. She valued Charles Trent's advice, but just this once she would do something impractical and wicked. Just once. Then she would return home to Hunter's Lair to tell her husband that she was breeding, and would deliver him an heir before year's end. If Dr. Bradford confirmed Lady Bellingham's conclusion. She hurried upstairs.

She wore black and silver, and carried an ermine muff that had a ruby and diamond pin fastened to it. Her jewelry was also rubies and diamonds, including a hair ornament nestling within her smooth elegant chignon, which was not at all fashionable, but which suited her quite well as Mr. Brummell observed. At her suggestion he released his own hired coach, helping Allegra into her vehicle. Then giving the coachman directions, he joined her. Within a very short time they arrived at St. James, the carriage-stopping before a well-kept house that was all alight at every window. They stepped from the coach.

"Good heavens, isn't that the Duchess of Devonshire?" Allegra asked, staring at the very beautiful woman just now entering the mansion.

"Indeed it is," Mr. Brummell replied. "I understand that she has already gone through her allowance for the year. Several hundred thousand pounds, I am told. She is not a lucky gambler, I tear."

"Where does she get the ready to gamble with then?" Allegra wondered.

"The moneylenders, friends, relations, sometimes even strangers," Mr. Brummell replied. "She is quite charming, and people tend to like her, so they indulge her terrible vice, even though most of them know they haven't a chance of regaining what they have loaned."

He escorted her up the two marble steps into Casa di Fortuna. Footmen, attired in sky blue and gold silk livery, and wearing powdered wigs, took their outer garments. Others offered them wine in exquisite Venetian crystal goblets.

"What shall we play first?" Allegra asked him. "I have never been to a gambling hell, and I am entirely in your hands, Mr. Brummell."

"I suppose you play Whist," he said.

"I do, but I have also learned a new game with dice that is called Hazard. Do they play Hazard here?"

"Perhaps later, Your Grace," he said, guiding her to a large ornate room where there were many players at many tables, playing Whist. Mr. Brummell seated her at a table that was just being opened up, and placed himself opposite her. They were quickly joined by a Lord and Lady Kenyon. They played for an hour, and to her surprise Allegra won each and every hand. Finally she grew bored, and stood up.

"I have enjoyed your company," she told Lord and Lady Kenyon. "Come Brummell, and let me see what else Casa di Fortuna has to offer us tonight." She stuffed her winnings in her muff, and moved on into another room where a wheel game was being played. "What is it called?" she asked her escort, curiously.

"Even-Odd, or E.O.," he said.

"Let's play," Allegra told him, enthusiastically.

"This is not a good game, Your Grace," he advised. "The odds in this game are usually very much in favor of the house. It is, in fact, illegal, although many of the hells have it."

"Three spins of the wheel, Mr. Brummell, and then we shall move on to the Hazard tables," Allegra promised. Then she bet on the next three turns of the wheel, and to everyone's surprise won all three turns. "How boring," she remarked, and stuffed her additional winnings into her muff once again.

Brummell was astounded. Because Allegra did not gamble she did not realize that she was having an extremely lucky night. She wanted to play Hazard. Well, he thought, why not, and he led her into another room where the game was being played. The players stood about the green baize table watching and waiting until the caster threw crabs, and lost. Such play was a bit rich for Brummell's blood and so he stood behind the Duchess of Sedgwick as she waited her turn. Next to her stood an equally beautiful woman, who noting Allegra's rather good diamonds, smiled and said, "I am the Contessa di Lince. Do you come here often?"

"It is my first, and probably last time," Allegra said with a small smile. "I am the Duchess of Sedgwick."

"You do not like it?" the lady said.

"I do not gamble as a rule, and my husband would be very angry with me if he knew I was here. He does not approve of gambling," Allegra explained to the lady. "You are English, and yet you have an Italian title, madame."

"Yes," the contessa replied, returning Allegra's smile. "I was born in England, but my late husband was Italian. I have returned because it is impossible to live decently in Roma right now with those damned French overrunning the countryside. I have taken a small house in Hanover Square. Gambling is a form of amusement for me, but offers little challenge for I rarely lose. The proprietor of this place likes me to come for I make it appear that people win," the lady laughed.

The dice were now passed to the contessa, but with a smile site handed them to Allegra. "I will only win," she said shrugging her elegant shoulders.

Allegra began to play, and once again she was overcome with luck. Soon the table at which she played was surrounded by admiring gamblers watching as she won toss after toss of the dice. Finally with a laugh she said, "I must stop. My muff will not hold all my winnings." She handed the dice to the next players, and turned to the contessa. "Shall we have champagne, madame? Brummell, do be a dear and fetch some champagne for the three of us. We shall seat ourselves in the foyer."

They found a quiet corner, and settled themselves upon a satin striped settee.

"Are you always so lucky, Your Grace?" the contessa asked.

"I don't know," Allegra said honestly. "I have, as I said, never spent an evening gambling."

"But you play cards, and you knew how to play Hazard," the contessa noted.

"We all learn to play Whist. Didn't you as a girl? As for Hazard, my friends and I cajoled their husbands into teaching us, but I have never before played for the ready."

"Your husband is not in town?" the contessa inquired of Allegra.

"No," she replied. "He doesn't like London. Quinton is a country gentleman."

"But you do like the city and its highlife?" the contessa pressed. "Ah, I was once like that, too. My first husband was a rather dull fellow, I fear."

"No, no!" Allegra said. "I don't like London at all, but we argued, and so I came up to town. However, after I spoke with my friend, Lady B., I realized how foolish I have been. I will go home in another day, madame."

"Then you love him," the contessa remarked. "One must love truly and passionately to become so angry. I never felt that with my first husband, but with my second it was a different matter altogether." She smiled softly "True love is a precious commodity, Your Grace. Treasure it. You are most fortunate."

"I was certainly lucky tonight," Allegra replied with a grin.