Jack of Clubs

by Barbara Metzger

  Miss Silver started coughing. Jack looked at Snake—Calloway—pleadingly.

  “Right, cap’n, tea and chocolate. An’ another bottle of brandy.”

  That was why Jack kept a former convict on his payroll. The man understood his needs. After Calloway left, Jack turned back to Miss Silver. “While we are waiting, why do you not tell me your part in this?”

  “My part? My last duty as an instructress at Miss Semple’s School was to deliver Harriet to her grandparents. I do not wish to sound mercenary, but the funds given me for the journey were insufficient, so—”

  Jack brushed that off. What were a few coins in the face of catastrophe? “I shall reimburse you, of course. But what were your plans?”

  “I fear you have not been listening, sir. I admit I was hoping to be asked to stay on as governess with Lord and Lady Hildebrand until I could find another position or they found another school for Harriet, but that was all.”

  “You came to London with no position and no place to go?”

  “I had no choice.” She stood, and bent to reclaim her cloak from where Harriet had dressed the old dog in it. “I think I will leave you now, though, now that I have fulfilled my commission. You and Harriet need some time to grow accustomed to each other, and as you pointed out, I have to find a place to stay.”

  “You are going to leave? Like hell! That is, not without supper. And not without a plan for Miss Harriet’s future. I do not know anything about little girls!”

  Allie sat back down. She was hungry, and her throat was sore. Tea sounded heavenly. So did Captain Endicott’s desire for her to stay with Harriet. She would not have to go off on her own in the city this very night, thank goodness.

  Relieved at the schoolmistress’s silent acquiescence, Jack continued his inquiry. “Very well, let us think. Have you anywhere you might take Harriet? Family? Friends in town?”

  “None.”

  “Then perhaps another of her schoolmates would invite Harriet to spend some time with her family?”

  “Harriet had no friends at school. That is, no particular friends.” Before he could ask about that, Allie hurried to say, “Mr. Burquist, the Hildebrands’ man of affairs, suggested your family might take in Harriet.”

  “Yes, Nell would take in any number of foundlings. She even kept a pet goose because she could not see it eaten. That is not the point. Nell and my brother are not in London. The family town house is being renovated so I cannot even send you there with the servants.”

  “We could go to…Northampshire, did you say?”

  “Yes, but Nell is increasing and having a difficult pregnancy. Not as difficult as my brother is having, I understand. I cannot send them company at a time like that.”

  Allie could understand. “Of course not. Harriet would be underfoot.”

  “And they wouldn’t want me,” Harriet added from the corner where she was pouring out the contents of Jack’s decanter for the dog to lap off the floor. “Not with babies of their own. I don’t like babies anyway. I like your dog, though.”

  “He’s a good old—What the deuce are you doing, feeding him my most expensive brandy?”

  Miss Silver quickly asked, “Why could we not stay here? It is not what I might wish, being a bachelor’s residence, but you will find another school for Harriet in short order and I shall find a new position. Your home seems ample for a single gentleman.”

  “Stay here? A child? For a night or two, perhaps, but I had a hard enough time getting the proper licenses as is.”

  “Licenses?”

  “You know, to run a dice table and a roulette wheel. I had to grease a hundred palms before I could open. The magistrates would close the place down in a flash if they saw Harriet here. They frown on children in gaming parlors.”

  “Roulette?”

  “Yes, a game with a wheel and a tiny ball that men with tiny brains watch endlessly. They are paying my bills.”

  Her voice was growing fainter. “This is a…gaming house? Not your home?”

  “Well, it is that, too. I saw no reason to take separate rooms when there was space here. And now I do not have to leave near dawn to find my own bed when the club finally shuts its doors.”

  “A club?”

  “Well, it is technically an exclusive gentlemen’s club, with membership by subscription, but in actuality anyone with the fee can join.” Jack proudly added, “We already have a great number of members. The Red and the Black will be a great success.”

  She barely whispered, “The doors?”

  “I thought that was a clever touch. So you see why we have to find somewhere else for Harriet to stay permanently. I would rent a little cottage for you, but I am below hatches at this moment. I sank everything I had into the club and I am not seeing any profit yet. Tonight is our first big event. I invited General We—Where are you going?”

  Miss Silver was on her feet again. Good manners dictated Jack also stand.

  “Anywhere. I cannot stay here. Surely you can see that.”

  “I can see that you cannot desert me like a rat leaving a sinking ship. How the deuce am I to care for the chit tonight? What do I know about putting her to bed? For that matter, I have to be down in the club all night. I cannot babysit a—Deuce take it, that is my new coat from Weston she is dressing the dog in! You cannot leave!”

  “I must! I have to think of my reputation, my references. I will never find another position if I spend a night under the roof of a gambling den.”

  “Of course you will. Nell can write you new references. She’s a regular Trojan. Who knows, she might have a girl this time and need the services of a governess.”

  “In five years! For now she is in childbed, and I have to make my own bed. Good grief, not with your fancy pieces. Now I understand about all the women. This place is no better than a brothel!”

  “Now hold, Miss Silver. The girls—the young ladies—are dealers, nothing else. Gentlemen like to look at pretty women when they are out on the town. The ladies deal and serve drinks. I am not running a bordello.”

  “What of Miss Poitier? Or should I say Mademoiselle? I should not even be speaking of women such as she!”

  “Rochelle does not live here. She has rooms of her own. I don’t suppose…” At the schoolmarm’s gasp he said, “No, I thought not.”

  “You considered that I would stay in the same house as your mistress?”

  Now Miss Silver’s husky voice was loud enough to be heard in Hampshire! “Sh. Remember the child.”

  The child had tired of dressing the dog and was looking at some of the picture books on Jack’s shelves. Pictures of—“Thunderation, put that book back!”

  Harriet looked up at him. “You don’t have to marry your ladybird, if you don’t want. I don’t mind not having a mother, you know.”

  Jack turned to Miss Silver. “Good grief, you cannot leave me with her!”

  “I cannot stay.”

  Jack was ready to pull his hair out, or pull his pistol out to threaten her into staying. No, he had locked the guns away. Oh, lord, what was he going to do? Beg, he supposed. First he asked, “Where will you go?”

  “A hotel, I suppose.”

  “A single woman with no companion? They will slam the door in your face.”

  “That would not be the first time today. An inn will do, then.”

  “A single woman without protection? You would not be safe. No, you absolutely have to stay here for the night. I insist.”

  “But you have no right to insist about anything. I do not work for you.”

  “I hereby hire you.”

  “Impossible.”

  “I’ll hold my breath if you go,” Harriet warned.

  Now why had Jack not thought of that?

  Miss Silver ignored the child, pulling on her cloak after brushing dog hairs off it.

  “Great gods, she is turning purple. Do something!”

  “Why? She will faint before she dies. You will have to get used to such manipulations. Tears will
be next, I believe.”

  Jack already had a mistress to enact him scenes. He did not need an eight-year-old with a flair for the dramatic. “I am begging you, Miss Silver, please do not leave. Give me one night. That’s all I ask, one night. Tomorrow we will come up with a plan, I know we will. Something respectable, above board, that even the highest sticklers cannot find fault with. There is always that inn where they stashed Nell’s brother. No, he is insane, you cannot stay there.” Jack realized he was babbling. Harriet had his quizzing glass from his coat pocket and was—“Not the French playing cards!” He snatched the cards and the magnifying glass away from Harriet and looked at Miss Silver beseechingly. “Please.”

  Allie looked out the window. All daylight was gone and the street lamps had not been lit. Outside was dark and empty and cold and lonely. She’d be lost in a minute if she could not find a hackney to take her—where? Inside, she could hear the man Calloway clumping down the hall, the smell of hot chocolate preceding him.

  Then she sneezed.

  Chapter Five

  “Aha!” the captain shouted. “You are not well. That does it. You cannot go out in the rainy night, heaven knows where, with no escort. I cannot take you myself, not with the club about to open for the evening, and I cannot spare Calloway or Downs. I swear you will be safe here. No gentlemen but I are permitted in the private rooms upstairs. The girls—the ladies—will be below, serving, so the place will be quiet and restful, and they sleep on the attic floor above anyway.”

  He tried to adjust his neckcloth, to give weight to the propriety of his offer. A disheveled gentleman did not bode well for discretion, he realized. “In fact, I can have Calloway bring your dinner tray there, yours and Miss Harriet’s, right now, before anyone is about. That way no one will see you at all. The guests never need to know of your existence, and the girls—the ladies—will not, either. There will be no talk, and no encounters that might embarrass you, I swear. You can have the best bedroom and…and a bath.” He knew he was grasping at straws and did not care. “I’ll carry the hot water myself. No, I won’t come anywhere near your rooms. I’ll send a maid, one of my soldier’s widows who is close-mouthed and sensible. Please stay?”

  A sweet little voice chimed in his ear: “Offer her double her wages.”

  Jack smiled at Harriet. Perhaps the urchin was not so bad, after all. “I will double what Miss Semple paid you for accompanying Harriet, if you stay the night.”

  Allie was torn. The extra money would be a blessing, but this was a gambling parlor, and worse. “What of Miss Poitier?”

  “What, I should pay her double—No, of course not. She will not be back, I promise. I’ll give her her congé tonight. She will never cross your path again.”

  “What’s a con jay?” Harriet asked. “Is it anything like a woodland jay, and is that where she got the green feather?”

  Allie ignored her, but the captain said, “I’ll triple your fee.”

  “One night, other accommodations in the morning?”

  He nodded.

  “Very well.” Allie turned to Harriet, pretending not to hear Captain Endicott’s sigh of relief. “We are staying after all, both of us. So I win the bet. You owe me twenty thousand pounds.”

  The gentleman was about to raise his glass in a toast to their agreement, and his salvation. At her words, though, he said, “Aha!” again. “So you are a gambling woman after all, Miss Silver, despite your righteous indignation.”

  “No, it’s just a game.”

  “For twenty thousand pounds? That’s one hell of a game for someone who disapproves of wagering so much she’d rather sleep with the fleas at an inn than on clean sheets here.”

  “You should not say ‘hell’ in front of a child.”

  “Or in front of a lady. My apologies. You see how much I have to learn about being a proper guardian? I need you, Miss Silver.” The smile he flashed her would have melted an iceberg, much less one old maid’s resolve.

  “It is pretend money anyway, silly,” Harriet interrupted, lifting the captain’s fob watch out of his coat by its chain.

  He took back his prized timepiece, a present from his father. “Oh, then you are not an heiress? Too bad, I was counting on your fortune to pay my tailor’s bills,” he teased. “Perhaps I should send you to an inn after all, if you are going to be such an expensive proposition. Overpaid governesses, extra meals, more coal for your fireplaces. I suppose you are going to want new shoes eventually too.”

  Harriet looked at her scuffed and thin-soled slippers. “If you send us away will you give us a con jay too? I’d rather have your dog.”

  “The dog stays. So do you.” He opened the door for Calloway, but told the older man, “Take the tray upstairs to the guest suite. The ladies are staying.”

  “Here?” The dishes rattled.

  “No, at Kensington Palace. Miss Harriet Hildebrand appears to be my ward, at least until I speak with some solicitor on Monday morning. And Miss Silver is my own silver lining. Unless you would like to help Miss Harriet brush her hair and her teeth and say her prayers and who knows what else?”

  Harriet knew. “Read a story. Or you could tell me one. I like pirates and highwaymen and Red Indians.”

  Calloway was bowing to Allie as best he could with a tray in his hands. “This way, ma’am.”

  As Captain Endicott had predicted, they saw no one on the trek up the stairs and down the carpeted halls. Calloway opened the door to a sitting room and adjoining bedchamber that were freshly painted and tastefully decorated, with no red satin sheets or mirrors above the bed, thank goodness. The bed was large enough for half the girls at Miss Semple’s School, so Allie would not be kept awake by Harriet’s tossing and turning again. The sitting room would get the morning sun, but the bedroom faced the rear of the house, so she would not even be bothered by carriages arriving and leaving. She could even pretend she was in a gentleman’s residence, instead of a gambling den, if she tried hard enough.

  The food was excellent, and far more elaborate than Allie expected for a hastily gathered snack. Of course the chef had thought he was feeding the owner of the establishment too, obviously a hearty eater. There was enough for three or four or ten, with enough variety that Harriet found something she favored, once she had scraped the sauce off the veal and the breading off the chicken. The tea was hot and heavenly to Allie’s sore throat and aching head, and Harriet declared her chocolate sweetened perfectly. She ate two servings of pudding, prattling on about her new guardian, his house, his dog, his library that was far more interesting and informative than the one at Mrs. Semple’s School.

  “What do you think I should call him?” she asked Allie between bites. “He’s not really my papa, and not even an uncle.”

  Allie put down her fork. “I think Captain Endicott is fine for now, since everyone still seems to be calling him by his army rank. And say ‘sir.’ Do not forget to show him respect, for he is being very kind.”

  “Cap’n Jack sounds better.”

  “It sounds overly familiar. As you say, you are not related. I do not want you to be disappointed, Harriet, but you must remember that we might not be staying. I am not, and I doubt if the captain will keep you here on his own.” When the child’s lower lip started quivering, Allie went on: “He is not really fixed to be a father, you know. And his way of life is truly not suitable for a child. Why, he stays up all night and likely sleeps during the day, not wanting any noise or playing in the house. He knows nothing of raising a little girl, and his, ah, associates are not proper company for Viscount Hildebrand’s granddaughter. We were a shock to him, you saw that, so do not get your hopes pinned on the captain. But I am certain he will find you a loving family and a real house, perhaps in the country where you can play outdoors and learn to ride.”

  A tear fell down Harriet’s sticky cheek.

  “And a dog of your own,” Allie promised, perjuring those poor people who would have Harriet left on their doorstep within the week, if Allie guessed th
e captain’s intentions correctly.

  “But I like it here!”

  “You will like it there, too, wherever there is.”

  Harriet wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve. If Allie’s appetite had not left before, it did now. She handed over her last clean handkerchief. “He would not send you somewhere hateful.”

  “But I like Cap’n Jack!” Harriet wailed, throwing herself into Allie’s arms, not playacting for effect, but truly upset.

  “Yes, I like him too.”

  That was the trouble. The man was wondrously handsome in a rugged way, broad shouldered and fit. Allie could not help noticing all that while he was in his shirt sleeves, which he should not have been, of course, in the presence of a lady. His stomach was flat, his thighs were well-muscled like the cavalry officer he had been, and his face was still tanned from being outdoors. He had a lopsided smile to match his crooked nose, and his neckcloth had been awry too, to match his skewed morals. He was in dishabille because he had been in debauchery—in the daylight!

  Allie patted Harriet’s back, knowing the child was tired, overwrought, and halfway smitten with the man who had let her take the dog upstairs into the bedroom. Joker was a large, lazy, smelly dog, Allie could not help noticing, who was eating everything on the tray that Harriet had not.

  “Do not let the dog have chicken bones,” she told Harriet now, distracting her. “He might choke, and then the captain will be angry.”

  Harriet jumped down and offered Joker Allie’s last biscuit, instead. At least she was not crying any more.

  Allie wished she did not feel like weeping herself.

  Harriet’s guardian was polite when he remembered to be, and kind. He had accepted his responsibility for Harriet on the instant he recognized her as his friend’s daughter, and was intending, Allie knew in her heart, to do the best for the orphaned child. He was courteous to Allie, a mere school teacher, and he was generous.

  Her first hopes had been correct: Captain Endicott was a fine gentleman. But he was a gambler and a womanizer too. Heaven help her, Allie no more belonged in his house than she belonged on a barge. Why, she should not even know such a person! Mrs. Semple would have cat fits if such a man came within a mile of her school or her senior girls. Then again, if the captain smiled at her, crinkling his eyes the way he did, inviting her to share his jokes, Mrs. Semple would titter and bat her eyelashes at him.