“Ms. Hampton,” David said, finally looking at her eyes. He took her hand and bowed his head to kiss it, and she curtsied as well as she could between the first row of benches and the fence.
“I was hoping I may see you here,” the woman said.
“And why were you hoping that?” David asked.
“Well, it seems as though after finally taking me to your bed, once I allowed it, you have little interest in speaking with me again,” the woman said quite plainly, and David had to hide a wince.
David Weatherby had a reputation around the city, and it was twofold. One: he gambled often and won and lost huge sums of money. As of late, there had been few wins and many losses. Two: he charmed most women he met, and they lowered their defences eventually to his charms. He used them in a way a man can and then moved on to his next conquest. So far, there had only been one woman who proved immune to his ways, the one who was betrothed to him, and had been since they were both teenagers.
Now, at just twenty, David’s list of conquests was lengthy, enough so that uncomfortable meetings like the one he was having at the race track were growing rather common.
“My lady,” David said softly as he grinned. “Surely you think nothing unkind of me, it’s simply my business endeavors that have kept me away. I wish it wasn’t so.”
“Is this a business endeavor?” the young woman asked, motioning to the horses.
“Of course it is. How’s this? Tonight, I will pick you up at your home at seven thirty, if you’ll agree to accompany me to dinner. We can spend some of the considerable sum I am about to win.”
“How do you know you will win? Isn’t a horse race a game of chance?” the young woman asked.
David laughed and shook his head. “Some may accept that it is a game of chance, but I do not. See my horse there?” David asked, pointing to a tall horse the color of deep chestnut, with a rider upon him and a purple sash about his neck. “I know that he will win, though he is what is called a long shot.”
“How do you know he will win?” Caroline asked.
“His trainer has found a new supper for him,” David said quietly. “I will say no more.”
“A new supper?”
David nodded and leaned toward the woman. “It is of utmost importance what these great beasts eat. It can give them quite an edge if their diet is looked after. This horse’s trainer has found a new mix of oats and grain, which is said to provide an energy to the horse that few can match. He will be faster than the others.”
“We shall see,” Caroline said. But she didn’t sound convinced, and David turned away from her to watch the race, more than a little offended and annoyed.
“Here they are now,” he said needlessly, and the crowd behind them grew quiet for a moment, and there was a firearm shot into the air, and the horses were off.
David often forgot himself while at the horse track, and he was slamming his hand down upon the top of the metal railing as he watched his purple sashed horse surge out of the gate and take an early lead.
“I told you!” David couldn’t help but gloat over his shoulder.
And then, disaster. Halfway around the track, David’s horse tripped up and fell. His rider went flying, and there was a massive gasp from the crowd. The other horses surged around the fallen one, and the rider who had fallen scrambled to the safety of the fence, throwing himself up and over it. David’s face was a shade paler than normal as he turned to the young woman who was still standing beside him.
“I shouldn’t expect you for dinner, then?” she asked.
David glared at her and then made his way towards the exit, even as the race ended behind him and the crowd gave up a great cheer.
“You’ll never be anything!” a hurt Caroline yelled after him, and though she had hoped her brash words would be drowned out by the crowd, David Weatherby heard them all too well.
*****
David had some time before his card game, so he took a carriage to his father’s house, hoping for a meal, and perhaps even a quick nap. His father was a large round man with a booming voice and hard eyes. He sat in the library, reading as he so often did, a large leather bound book open in his lap. He was contemplating something when David found him, the book face down, open to hold his place, and his eyes set on something outside of the window besides which he sat.
“Father,” David said as he came up on the older man. He took a seat across from him.
“Son, what have you been doing today?”
“I was at the races,” David said.
“I wanted you to go into the bank today, if you remember,” David’s father said.
David nodded. “I know, I was hoping it could wait until tomorrow.”
“It will wait, as I wait for you to come to your senses, take over the bank, marry that wonderful girl, and build a life for yourself and a family,” David’s father said. His name was Curtis Weatherby, and he owned and operated one of the most well-known banks in London. He was ready to retire and enjoy the wealth he had built, without the stress of running the business, but his only son was dragging his feet on growing up.
“I’m sorry father, I simply…” David said, but he didn’t know how to end the sentence, and so it trailed off into the air, like a line of smoke from a candle, twisting up higher until it vanished completely.
“How much money did you lose today?”
“I’m going to win it back tonight,” David said quickly.
“I doubt that very much, son,” Curtis said. “You have not been winning as of late.”
“You never seem to complain about my gambling habits until I’m losing, father,” David said.
“You like to gamble? Here’s a gamble for you then,” Curtis said, setting the book on his lap on a table beside him. “If you go to that card game tonight, and you don’t bring home the money you lost at the horse race today, I will cut you off. You will not spend my money anymore, you will not sleep in my home, nor eat my food.”
David couldn’t keep his mouth from hanging open. “But father!” he complained. “Surely you jest.”
“I do not,” Curtis said. “Of course, you can choose not to go to the game, and tomorrow you will accompany me to the bank and begin the transition so you may take over within a year.”
David stood up, shaking his head. “I don’t not want to run the bank,” he said shortly.
“Then I hope your card game goes well,” Curtis said, and he watched his son go from the library with his hard eyes.
David went into the kitchen in hopes of finding food, but the staff wasn’t there, being between meals, and he had to satisfy himself with some bread and butter he found on the counter. He ate two pieces and then went up into his room. He undressed and lay upon the bed.
When he woke, the sky outside of his windows was dark, with hundreds of shining stars blinking down tired light. David washed up at the water basin, splashing his face and drying off, before dressing in one of his finest suits, and hurrying out to find a cab. He did not come across his father, nor his mother or sisters, and for that he was thankful. It was a short ride through the city to Brook’s, a popular gentleman’s club which always had a number of card games going on.
David had been invited to play by a man everyone called Red because of his bright red head of hair. He was Irish, fair skinned and quick with a joke. He drank a lot, gambled a lot, and whored a lot, and there weren’t many in London who didn’t enjoy his company, one way or the other, depending on their sex.
David had befriended Red at a horse race the year previous, and they had gambled together often. Where David went in ups and downs, it seemed as though Red was always down. He lost often, and lost a lot, but there always seemed to be more money in his purse, and so he kept losing.
David arrived at the club and paid the driver before stepping inside and han
ding his coat and hat over to a young man who stood waiting to take it. He then made his way towards the back of the establishment, into a small room where Red usually played. There were three men in total around a small circular table, each of them preparing to play. Red saw David and stood and clapped his hands together.
“Finally we may start!” he said as David made his way to the empty chair beside his friend and they shook hands. David knew the other two men by name, and he bowed his head to them slightly as Red introduced each. Then he sat down, and they began to play.
The game of the night was Whist, and David played with a man named Samuel Carlyle as his partner. He was thankful it had worked out this way, he knew playing with the unlucky Red would be his downfall.
And indeed in the beginning, it looked as though he was well on his way towards winning back the money he had lost at the horse race, along with much more. And then his luck changed, and he and Samuel couldn’t win a hand in ten straight. His purse felt lighter and lighter, until finally, it was empty.
Despair and panic set in.
“I need a loan,” David said, turning to Red.
The Irish man laughed and shook his head, taking a moment to sip from a glass of brandy that had been brought to him by a pretty young woman earlier in the night.
“I think not,” Red said as he put the glass down. “You are my friend, and I do not want to mix business and friendship.”
“Please,” David said, leaning to the side, closer to Red. “My father…”
He trailed off, and Red shook his head slowly. “Is no concern of mine,” he said. “If you have no more money for me to win, perhaps you should leave.”
Red looked at David with narrowed eyes, and then they flicked to the doorway that led back towards the main hall of the gentlemen’s establishment. David was being dismissed, and he knew it. He stood, mustering up courage to keep some dignity intact, and he bowed his head after gathering his hat from a nearby rack.
“Gentlemen,” he said, and then he left.
Outside of the club he pulled on his overcoat, and went to stop one of the passing cabs. Though it was late, the sky fully dark with an inky black and tiny pinpricks of light, the cabs were heavy in this area, as popular as it was. One pulled to a stop in front of David and the driver looked to him.
“Where to, sir?” he asked, and David was about to tell him as he stepped forward and placed his hand on the frame of the cab to steady himself as he climbed in. He stopped though, and stepped back, looking up to the driver as he realized he had no money now, and couldn’t pay for a ride home.
“Never mind,” David said, shaking his head. “It’s a nice night for a walk, I think.”
The driver shivered in the cool air as the wind picked up, and he smirked. “Sure,” he said, and with a crack of the reins the carriage rumbled off down the street, and David began to walk. He was worried what his father would say.
*****
Elizabeth Crawford was nineteen, three years younger than the man who loved her. He was named Rupert Eastman, and sat in the Crawford garden with Elizabeth as they drank tea, and he tried to steal glances of her long slender neck. Her neck was the most attractive part of an attractive package, at least in Rupert’s eyes. She was fair skinned and fair of head, with long blonde hair which often sat flowing down her shoulders and to the small of her back. He body was shaped like an hourglass, with a thin waist and robust hips, and a large bosom. Most men looked there, Rupert new, at the top of her pale breasts as they sat in the low necklines of her gowns and dresses. But her neck was what he enjoyed most.
There was a small freckle there, on the right side of her neck, a lone dark spot in a sea of milky white. He imagined kissing it, imagined nibbling it. But Elizabeth he knew, was promised to another man. A scoundrel, a rake named Weatherby. He was a compulsive gambler younger than Rupert was, and though he had nary a quality which Rupert appreciated, for some reason Elizabeth was taken with the man.
The Crawford’s and Weatherby’s were longtime friends, both in the banking business, but never letting their competing banks get in the way of friendship. Often they would find ways to work together.
Elizabeth sipped from her tea cup and then set it on the small saucer. A table sat between her and her friend Rupert. She looked him over as he appeared lost in thought, though he was looking right at her. They had known each other for a decade, ever since Rupert’s father had come to manage her daddy’s bank. She liked the man, and he was handsome, but she had been promised to David by the time she began to take notice in men, so she never entertained the idea of Rupert. He had a strong jaw, and broad shoulders, and she knew there wasn’t a man stronger than him in the city. She also knew there wasn’t a man who cared for her more.
“What are you looking at?” she inquired, smiling a bit as Rupert jerked back slightly in sudden surprise as she spoke.
“Nothing,” Rupert said, reaching for his cup of tea and lifting it to his lips.
“Well, you were looking pretty intently at nothing,” the young girl teased. Rupert set his cup down and smiled.
“Very well, can I show you what I was looking at?”
He stood and stepped forward. Elizabeth looked up to him. “You may,” she said. He held out his hand and she took it, and after standing he led her into the beautiful garden. She wore a beautiful dress, which was the color of eggshells, with pink lining. She had a shawl draped over her shoulders, as the weather was growing colder, and that morning was chill. There wouldn’t be many opportunities for tea in the morning outside for a few months.
Rupert led her past a large thicket of rose bushes, to a small bench. He sat down and she sat next to him.
“Lizzie,” he said, using a pet name he had used for years. “I was looking at you. Or rather, a part of you.”
Elizabeth laughed, turning towards the man. “I am used to men looking at that part of me, but that isn’t where I saw your eyes.”
Rupert grinned and reached over and took her hand. “I am not talking about… that part… I’m talking about the small freckle you have on your neck.”
Elizabeth turned her head so he may see it easier, looking straight ahead instead of at him.
“My freckle? Why would you look at that?”
“I adore it. And you. Your neck, your hands, your eyes, every part of you. But that freckle, it made me want to kiss it, to nibble it.”
Elizabeth felt something grow inside her, a yearning, a want. She closed her eyes, and he next words were almost so low he couldn’t hear them. “You may.”
Rupert leaned forward. “I may?”
“You may kiss me there. Nibble me.”
Rupert didn’t need to be told again. He shifted his upper body to face her, and then leaned forward. His lips found the side of her neck and Elizabeth tilted her head back and closed her eyes. His lips upon her were like fireworks in her loins. She felt a desire there, one she didn’t feel often. HIs hand left hers and rested on her leg, though it was hard to feel him there through the layers of skirt. His other hand went around her back, resting on her side.
“Rupert,” she whispered, but he didn’t say anything. He kept kissing and sucking on her neck, and Elizabeth felt as though she was moments away from turning her head and kissing him on the lips.
“Miss Elizabeth,” a voice called, and Rupert quit kissing her quickly, standing and spinning around to face who had spoken. It was Ms. Hedson, an old woman who had been a servant for Elizabeth’s family for quite some time.
“What is it, Beverly?” Elizabeth asked, standing as well and using the woman’s first name.
“Mr. David Weatherby is here to see you,” she said, and then she turned to leave. Elizabeth glanced at Rupert, but a dark shadow had crossed over his face seemingly within seconds.
“I must be going,” he said, and he strode away without w
aiting for a goodbye. Elizabeth sighed and then went to meet with David.
He stood in the parlor, looking at a large globe there, wooden and heave in a stand which allowed you to rotate it. She took a moment in the doorway to look him over. He was handsome, that was to be sure, even more so than Rupert. David’s frame was smaller, thinner, but he was a bit taller. His hair was as dark as the sea at night, and his eyes just as dark, though they somehow still managed to shine.
“Mr. Weatherby,” Elizabeth said as way to get his attention, and he turned.
“Hello, my dear,” he said, striding to her and taking her hand so he may kiss it.
“If you are here to attempt to bed me,” Elizabeth said with narrowed eyes, “then you may as well leave. Until we are married, the answer is the same.”
David laughed aloud and then slapped a hand over his chest, where his heart beat. “You offend me!” he said loudly. “You think such thoughts about me.”
“You have only seemed interested in me for one thing,” Elizabeth said. She wanted to go on, but she couldn’t. While she had resisted David’s charm for quite some time, she hadn’t resisted falling in love with the man. For all his faults he was kind and caring when he wanted to be, and he loved his family and friends fiercely. He was a kind warm man, and Elizabeth craved to be the one to bring it out of him.
“I came to speak to you about marriage,” the man said, and Elizabeth was surprised.
“What about it?”
“I think the time has come for us to be joined,” he said, taking her hand once more.
Elizabeth was startled, and she said a joke to give herself time to register what he was saying. “You must have lost all of your money, and now you’re coming for my father’s.”
It had been meant as a joke, but the flash of surprise that ran across the man’s face told her instantly that she had stumbled across the truth in the form of a jest.
She pulled his hand away from his. “You really seek to marry me for money?”
Romance: Detective Romance: A Vicious Affair (Victorian Regency Intrigue 19th England Romance) (Historical Mystery Detective Romance) Page 53