“Odd,” the comte said thoughtfully, his eyes still on Rayna. “I did not expect the little slut to have so much spirit. Perhaps you were too gentle with her, mon ami.”
Adam shrugged. “I prefer a woman who has some fight left. Later tonight, I will teach her pleasure, and she will beg me to take her.”
“That bores you, marchese?” Celestino asked, growing more excited.
“She will doubtless please me for as long as I want her. Then she can return to England and wed with some red-nosed squire. I’ve a fancy to have my son step into the fool’s boots someday.”
“How cold-blooded you are, mon ami.” He fanned the cards in front of Adam. “Would you care to cut, marchese?”
“I presume there is honor among thieves.”
Celestino laughed, poking Niccolo in the ribs.
Adam assumed that Gervaise would cheat, but only with the first hand. He would shuffle the deck on the next round.
“Piquet?”
Adam nodded, looking bored. He stretched his long legs diagonally from the table and leaned back in his chair.
Rayna watched the other men cluster around the table. Only Ugo stayed so close to her that she could smell the brandy on his breath. She realized clearly in that moment that if he did win, the marchese would fight him. He would fight all of them, and they would kill him.
The comte took the first rubber easily, gaining over a hundred points, just as Adam expected. Adam had played conservatively, just as he had before with Gervaise. He knew the comte relied on luck and didn’t calculate the odds as he should. He also knew that if the cards ran against him, he would lose, despite his skill. Adam won the next rubber, but gained only a few points. He was careful to cut after the comte’s shuffle.
Gervaise stared down at his cards, then lifted his eyes toward the marchese. He was behaving as he usually did, as if he was slightly bored, as if he didn’t care who won. But his eyes held something different. Gervaise’s gaze passed to Ugo as he held the English girl. She was standing still as a statue, her lovely face as pale as the finest Italian marble. She had pride, he thought, something he admired.
“My quint is good, Gervaise?”
The comte brought his attention back to the game. He started, realizing that despite what he had thought, the marchese was skilled at the game. He said slowly, “Yes, it is good.”
“And my tierce?”
“Yes,” he said, “that too is good.”
When the marchese fanned out a display of high cards before him, all of them good, Gervaise knew that he faced a master.
“I believe that is the rubber, comte,” Adam said easily. “Were we playing for gold, I should have enough to buy a new waistcoat. As it is, all I win from you tonight is that silly girl.”
“I will pay you gold for her.”
Adam arched a brow. “I think not. Before I return her to her father’s house, I want to teach her pleasure. Had I not hurt her so much the first time, you would not have heard her scream.”
The comte’s chair screeched back, and his hands clenched into fists at his sides. For an instant Adam thought he would demand a fight.
“I thank you for your present to me, Gervaise,” he said quietly. “It is now I who owe you something special.”
Gervaise felt his humiliation ease. “You will show the little slut the folly of her rudeness?”
Adam rose slowly, splaying his hands on the table. “I will mark her, my friend. You may all rest assured that she will say nothing of this night.”
“Very well,” Gervaise said. “Take her.”
* * *
Thirty minutes later, Adam dismounted from his house and pulled Rayna into his arms.
“No,” he said, “not quite yet, ma mie, until we are inside. Naples has too many ears for my peace of mind.”
Adam pulled up short at the sight of Daniele in the entrance hall.