Carole Mortimer - Historical Romance – The Best Of The Year

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Lethbridge was a cheat. Hallam was as certain as he could be without proof that the count had been systematically robbing his friends at the card table, perhaps for months or even years. He was not certain whether Lethbridge marked the pack or kept important cards tucked into the frills at the ends of his sleeves. He was almost certain that he’d seen a card disappear into the count’s sleeve, but he’d also noticed him stroking the corner of a card as if feeling for a mark, though he could not have sworn to either at this stage.

What was certain was that the count was very careful if he was cheating. He usually lost the first couple of hands and then began to win steadily throughout the evening. He was said to have the devil’s own luck, but it seemed no one suspected him of cheating—though Hallam had seen someone else watching him closely at the table.

He decided to seek Captain Mainwaring out and ask him his opinion. After searching various coffeehouses and clubs, Hallam ran his friend to earth at Cribbs’s Parlour, where he had been watching a bout between one of the professionals hired to help the gentlemen learn the science of the game.

‘I had begun to think you had gone out of town,’ he said. ‘Lunch with me at my club, Mainwaring? I want to ask your opinion of something.’

‘Delighted. I’ve been wanting to see you. I heard a rumour I think may interest you, Hal.’

Hallam waited as his friend watched the bout conclude, paid a small gambling debt, and then they left together, strolling through the chilly streets towards White’s, where they could be sure of a decent meal.

‘You’re interested in Lethbridge, aren’t you?’ Captain Mainwaring said as they began to walk. ‘Mind telling me why? I have my own reasons for being interested.’

‘He is a bully and a brute and mistreats his wife,’ Hallam replied. ‘If you will keep this to yourself—I intend to do my utmost to set her free of him.’

‘That will not be easy. Lethbridge is a jealous man, which was why I was surprised to see her flirting with Rochdale the other evening—until I heard a whisper concerning a certain evening at the card table...’

‘What happened?’ Hallam raised one eyebrow. ‘I do not follow you?’

‘Lethbridge lost a great deal of money to the marquis—several thousand pounds, I understand.’

‘But he can stand the nonsense.’ Hallam frowned. ‘He is very wealthy, I imagine?’

‘He was certainly wealthy even a year or so back, but I’ve heard whispers that he has lost money in other ways...investments that turned bad. And he had a long run of bad luck at the tables, until it miraculously turned.’

‘Miraculously? You think there is a reason for his change of luck?’

‘Lethbridge is a cheat.’

‘Yes, perhaps but can you be certain? On the face of things, he appears to be a gentlemen of unblemished character.’

‘Hardly that, Hal. He is known to haunt certain vice dens of the worst kind, besides being a cheat and perhaps more.’

‘What do you mean more?’ Hallam asked. ‘I knew he was a bully and I suspected him of being a cheat—do you know how he does it?’

‘I think he must mark the cards very lightly, because he never wins at the first or second hand, which means he must need time to mark a few cards.’

‘Yes, I thought it might be that—a pinprick or something no one would notice unless they looked for it.’

‘Yes, I dare say.’ Captain Mainwaring frowned. ‘I believe him to be responsible for the death of my young cousin Roger some years back. The lad came into his fortune at eighteen and his only guardian was his mother, who could deny him nothing. Imagine the result when he found himself let loose on the town with money to burn. I was fighting in Spain at the time, but his mother tells me Roger played too deep and was found with a pistol to his head in his lodgings.’

‘My God! You suspect Lethbridge of fleecing him at the tables?’

‘He and a few others, I dare say—but I do not believe Roger killed himself. He was badly dipped, but the estate was intact. He could have recovered with some careful management—and a magnificent diamond parure was missing, which he’d taken from the bank. As far we know it did not form part of any wager he made, though he may have sold it to pay his debt.’

‘You think he was murdered?’

‘Yes, I do.’ Captain Mainwaring frowned. ‘I do not think it was merely robbery—there must have been another reason, perhaps a fear of blackmail. Something that Lethbridge feared to have known.’

‘What leads you to believe so?’

‘Because of something I discovered in my cousin’s things.’ Captain Mainwaring frowned. ‘I discovered it only a few weeks ago. Roger’s mother asked me to sort out her son’s personal possessions, because she could not bring herself to do it. Everything had lain untouched for four years...and I found a letter addressed to Lethbridge. It was the letter of a young man with more passion than sense—and it threatened to reveal a secret. But it had never been sent.’

‘A secret?’

‘The secret was that Lethbridge was a cheat. It was written just before Lethbridge married, and spoke of “the means you used to force that sweet lady to wed you”—which suggested some sort of coercion on the count’s part. When you told me she had been forced to wed him I knew that I must be correct in my assumptions.’

Hallam stared at him in horror. ‘So he cheated Sir Matthew at the card tables and then blackmailed him into allowing Maddie to marry him. He is a worse rogue than I imagined.’

‘A cheat, a blackmailer and a murderer,’ Captain Mainwaring agreed, looking grim. ‘We need say nothing of his other vices, for he is not the only one to have such secrets—but cheating at cards and blackmail are surpassed only by murder.’

Hallam nodded, his expression grave. ‘Where does the marquis come into it?’

‘I believe he’s won rather too much money from Lethbridge of late—but there may be more.’

‘I am not sure I understand you?’

‘Supposing Rochdale knows that he is a cheat and has threatened to expose him?’

‘He would want to lure the marquis into some kind of a situation where he could be rid of him?’

‘If Rochdale has some hold over him, Lethbridge must murder him or face exposure...unless he can buy the marquis off in some way.’

‘My God!’ Hal shuddered with disgust. ‘Maddie told me that her husband had ordered her to entice the marquis. He would sacrifice her to keep his secret? His own wife! Could any man be that vile?’

‘A man such as Lethbridge would do anything to save his own skin.’

‘Yes, I dare say,’ Hallam said, his mouth curling in distaste. Captain Mainwaring’s revelations were so disgusting that it made it imperative to free Maddie from her marriage—and urgent.

‘I must get her away from that devil!’

‘And how do you intend to do that?’

‘I can see only one way—and that’s to accuse him of being a cheat in public. If I did so in private and asked for her release, he would simply deny it and find a way to murder me. No, I must contrive to play cards with him and accuse him in front of reliable witnesses.’

‘He will call you out if you do, for he has no choice.’ Mainwaring frowned. ‘He is a crack shot, Hal, and good with the foils.’

‘I am also thought an excellent marksman and sufficiently skilled with the foils.’ Hallam’s jaw hardened. ‘It is the only way to put an end to her misery, Jack. And if what you believe is true, he deserves to die. I cannot allow him to use her...to sell her to Rochdale in return for his silence.’

‘I should have liked to see him hang, but as yet I have no proof that his hand was on the pistol that took Roger’s life. Though I would swear I’ve seen him cheat.’