All Bets Are Off

by Marguerite Labbe

  “Don’t be ridiculous, nobody dies from a broken heart,” Bron cut in. “What else did he write? What were the letters they used as evidence? I bet the stuff Elsa is looking for is in them.”

  “Well, the defense brought out this letter first, before the prosecutors could, so it couldn’t be used against Wilde.” Ash pulled out another piece of paper, his lips curving in a small smile as he stole another look at Eli. “Wilde testified that this was just an example of the way poets talked to one another, and at first the jury bought his excuse.”

  My Own Boy,

  Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red-roseleaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry. I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days. Why are you alone in London, and when do you go to Salisbury? Do go there to cool your hands in the grey twilight of Gothic things, and come here whenever you like. It is a lovely place and lacks only you; but go to Salisbury first.

  Always, with undying love,

  Yours, Oscar

  Bron was snickering and shaking his head before Ash even finished reading the letter. “Shut up, they really bought it? Come on.”

  “They did, at least for the first trial.” Ash met Eli’s gaze. “Though maybe the talk of kissing and meeting up someplace out of town should have clued them in.”

  An idea took hold of Eli, and he wondered if that had been Ash’s intent. It would be nice to get away for a few days, just the two of them. Who the hell would ever know? Especially with the way Ash left town once a month for his weekend drills and Eli often left on weekend trips to go to his camp. No one would comment if they were gone the same weekend.

  Or he was just overthinking it and nobody gave a damn what they did with themselves off campus. Britton had been too mired down in his own affairs to bother Eli much lately. And he could be reading too much into Ash’s presentation and he wasn’t really thinking about a weekend away. It was enough to make him crazy.

  “Your minds could just be in the gutter, you know,” Hannah said. “It could be just as he was saying. It’s pretty fancy talk. I can picture poets talking like that. And he was married, wasn’t he? With kids? Are you sure he was gay? Maybe he just pissed off the wrong noble or something.”

  “Gay men get married nowadays too, because they want to feel normal or it’s expected of them by family or their careers,” Eli cut in quietly.

  “You’re not going to do that are you, Dr. Hollister?” Kerry asked. “Get a beard, I mean?” The other students all looked at her, their mouths falling open in the sudden, awkward silence. Isaac snickered behind his hand, and Nori turned a painful red. “What? It was a just a question.”

  The rest of the class immediately erupted into a heated argument, and Ash mouthed, “Sorry” at him. Eli shrugged with a small smile. He’d never made a big deal about his orientation on campus; on occasion people picked it up and he never denied it. He held up his hands, whistled to get their attention, and smiled as they all looked at him again. “Let’s get back to Ash’s presentation, but to ease your mind, Kerry, I promise I won’t ever marry just to hide who I am.”

  Eli turned his attention back to Ash, who looked bemused as he pulled out another piece of paper. “You’re right, Hannah, he was married and he did piss off a noble—Douglas’s dad, in his case. In the next letter I have, he mentions renters. That was slang for prostitutes back then. The prosecution brought a whole bunch of the renter guys to his trial to testify about what he’d paid them to do, and that pretty much clinched it for a conviction.”

  Dearest of All Boys,

  Your letter was delightful, red and yellow wine to me; but I am sad and out of sorts. Bosie, you must not make scenes with me. They kill me, they wreck the loveliness of life. I cannot see you, so Greek and gracious, distorted with passion. I cannot listen to your curved lips saying hideous things to me. I would sooner be blackmailed by every renter in London than to have you bitter, unjust, hating. You are the divine thing I want, the thing of grace and beauty; but I don’t know how to do it. Shall I come to Salisbury? My bill here is 49 pounds for a week. I have also got a new sitting-room over the Thames. Why are you not here, my dear, my wonderful boy? I fear I must leave; no money, no credit, and a heart of lead.

  Your own, Oscar

  The whole story was rather tragic, now that he thought about it. Over one hundred years had passed since Oscar Wilde’s death, and attitudes were just really beginning to change. He listened to Ash and the class discuss the letters he’d chosen, making notes as he went.

  For someone who claimed to hate English classes, Ash certainly put forth all his effort. And given what he’d learned of Ash, Eli wasn’t surprised at all. Even with this project, yes, he had no doubt that Ash picked the topic to flirt with him in class, but the presentation hadn’t been quickly thrown together.

  Eli shifted as thoughts of getting away with Ash for a long weekend made his blood heat. His camp was only a couple hours away, though he’d have to make sure none of his cousins were using it to hunt over the weekend.

  “Good job, Ash,” Eli said when he’d finished, and then the sound of high heels came from the direction of the bridge.

  Bron groaned as Isaac perked up, looking over his shoulder. “The princess is arriving. Why’d she even bother? She’s already missed half of class, and I bet you that she dressed stupidly even though she knew we’d be out here. I don’t want to hear her bitching for the rest of the time.”

  “What’s wrong with you? You don’t like girls? Whitney is one hot piece,” Isaac said, still staring in the direction of the bridge.

  “I don’t like prissy prima donnas who act like they’re entitled to everything. I like real girls,” Bron retorted, casting a quick glance at Nori, who was clutching her presentation papers with a pale face.

  “Enough, you two. We don’t talk about people behind their backs. Understand me?” Eli said.

  The boys nodded as Whitney came into view. Eli sighed as he saw that once again she’d chosen to wear a skirt that was really too short for sitting on the ground, and it didn’t look as if she’d bothered to bring a blanket. He’d just have to stop having classes outside on good days. Maybe that was why she missed so much.

  Whitney stepped off the path and immediately her heels sank into the grass. She lurched with a startled squawk and almost fell over. With a sigh, Eli sprinted over and offered her his arm.

  “Thank you, Dr. Hollister.” Whitney clutched at his arm as he led her toward the class. “I’m sorry I’m late. I’d forgotten we were supposed to meet out here.”

  “You were with us when we discussed it last class.” Eli wasn’t about to let her continued absences and lateness slide this time. “You won’t have that excuse next time, since we’ll no longer be having class outside.”

  There. That should settle it. As they neared the others, Isaac moved over on his blanket, making room for her. “You can sit here with me,” he offered.

  Eli steered her over there before she could argue and returned to his seat, trying not to show his aggravation. Whitney stared after him for a moment before folding her legs under her gingerly and kneeling, exposing far too much of her thighs.

  Ash frowned and came over to hand Eli his report. He looked as if he wanted to say something. There was a tiny line between his brows and his lips were slightly pursed. Eli’s eyes were drawn to that one little freckle near his lip. “I don’t know whether to be amused, happy, or concerned that you just don’t see it.” With that cryptic little remark, he brushed his fingers over Eli’s and went back to his seat without another word. Eli slipped his glasses on and glanced down, scanning the note on the top.

  This quote was one of my favorites.

  My own dear boy: It’s really absurd—I can’t live without you. You are so dear, so wonderful—I think of you all day long, and miss your grace, your boyish beauty, the sword play of your
wit, the delicate fancy of your genius, so surprising….

  Dinger’s tonight at 7?

  “Okay, Nori,” Eli said in a gentle voice as she gulped and turned pale, “it’s your turn.” He pondered Ash’s note, sticking it in his pocket as Nori began her presentation.

  Eli’s brows drew together in a frown as he neared his office door and saw that it was ajar. He was sure he’d locked it before he left. Security was one of the things that Britton kept harping on, and for once Eli agreed with him. He pushed open the door and felt like he’d been punched right in the gut as he stared in shock at the chaos within.

  His bookshelves had been ransacked, some of the contents knocked onto the floor, the shelves pulled away from the wall. And the violation didn’t stop there. Admittedly his office wasn’t the neatest, and he did have a tendency to let books and papers pile up, but even at its worst the place had never looked like this.

  All thoughts about whether or not he’d take Ash up on his dinner invitation disappeared. “What the fuck?” Eli growled, righting his chair and dropping his bag onto the seat. Who the hell would do something like this? Torn between disbelief and outrage, and feeling distinctly ill, Eli ventured the rest of the way into his office and slammed the door behind him.

  His desk drawers were unlocked, the contents spilling out, and the broken lock on his file cabinets hung from the hasp. When Eli checked, folders were out of place there as well, as if someone had systemically gone through every one and just stuffed them back in whichever way they wanted. It would take hours to reorganize everything and check to see if any records or papers were missing.

  Eli grabbed the phone off the floor and dialed campus security. His fingers drummed agitated patterns onto the desk throughout the short conversation. Afterward, he paced the floor as he waited, his fingers itching to start straightening up. Then his gaze fell to the floor and his resolve broke at the sight of his vintage Thoreau open and half buried under papers.

  Eli crouched down and gently lifted it free, his teeth clenching as he found several of the pages split from the pressure on the aged paper. The corner of the hardback had been bent as well, but at least the spine was intact.

  As he carefully placed the book in the center of his desk the sound of the door opening had his head jerking up. Britton glowered at him, his brows drawn together in one fierce line. “You’ve really done it this time, boy.”

  It was the “boy,” so reminiscent of his father when he’d been in trouble as a kid, and the derisive note in Britton’s tone that broke the leash on Eli’s temper.

  “You,” Eli snarled, stabbing a finger in Britton’s direction and unleashing years of frustration. “What the hell did you think you were doing by all of this?” Eli swept an arm out to encompass his destroyed office. He stalked toward Britton, whose eyes had widened as he stepped back. Eli’s hands balled into fists, and he had to force himself to unclench them.

  “What? What are you talking about? I didn’t do this!”

  “Only the departmental secretary, me, and the cleaning crew have keys to this office, Britton. Only you’d be able to get those keys from her. It was unlocked when I got back, not broken into, unlike my file cabinets, which you don’t have keys for!”

  Eli’s hands shook with the strength of his fury. He was never going to be able to find another Thoreau like that one. Screwing with his files he could forgive, breaking into his space the same, but harming one of his rare books… that went over the line. Not to mention fucking with his career.

  Britton charged past him, and Eli resisted the urge to grab the back of his suit jacket and drag the man back out of his office. He needed to get a grip on himself before they ended up brawling like teenagers. They’d both be in big trouble then. “How could you be so careless?” Britton’s eyes bulged and his face turned red as he saw the ransacked files.

  “I knew it. It’s a damn setup that you thought up,” Eli accused. “I cannot believe you’ve stooped so low. Were you getting tired of waiting for me to fuck up on my own? Is that it? What the hell would going through my files prove?”

  Britton’s mouth dropped open, and then his face reddened even more as the vein at his temple began to throb. “Who do you think you’re speaking to like that?” he snapped. “I am the head of this department, and you are an insignificant worm trying to undermine the integrity of this college. I won’t have it. This is confidential student information you’ve let leak. I’ll be speaking with the dean about this, Hollister, you can count on it.”

  “Very poetic. But I’d pick a different metaphor. Worms are good for the soil. If you want a burrowing, destructive animal, compare me to a mole next time,” Eli called to Britton as he stormed out. “Go ahead and talk to him. I have a few things to say to him myself.”

  He growled, kicking the leg of his desk and dragging a hand through his hair. “Fuck me.” As satisfying as it would have been to plant a punch on Britton’s jaw, that definitely would’ve ended his career at Amwich, friends with the dean or not. Dean Newton wasn’t going to be happy that he went off on Britton. He didn’t know if he was more irked with Britton or himself.

  Eli shouldn’t have let his temper get away from him. Britton didn’t have the acting skills to pull off a scene like that. There had been genuine horror in his face when he’d seen the files. And he probably wouldn’t have been able to bring himself to destroy them, or a rare book, no matter how much he hated Eli. And now he’d just given Britton another reason to hate his guts and deny him tenure.

  Chapter Eight

  Ash’s eyes widened in surprise as Eli pushed his way through the crowd at Dingers. In all the times he’d seen Eli, he’d never been in a mood like this. Eli didn’t pause to talk to those who greeted him; instead he nodded curtly, his mouth set in a grim line and his brow furrowed as he passed them by without even a hello. He was nothing at all like the smiling man Ash had left that afternoon, and the abrupt change worried him. He hoped that he hadn’t given Eli that new tension with his teasing during class. Maybe he’d carried it too far.

  Eli reached the table and yanked out a chair, his blue-gray eyes hot with suppressed anger. “What happened?” Ash demanded.

  “My office was broken into sometime this afternoon, and whoever did it left it in a goddamned mess.” Eli’s mouth was set in a hard line and his lean body was tense as he sat down. “Then I got into it with Britton over the break-in and had to go explain myself to Dean Newton afterward.”

  Questions leapt to Ash’s tongue, but then Lu came up and slipped her arm around Eli’s shoulders before he could ask them. “I heard the news. How are you doing, hon?”

  Eli cast Lu a surly glance and then squeezed her hand on his shoulder with an attempt at a smile. “Right now, I’m moody and reckless, a dangerous combination. But I’ll be fine. I just need to work the mad out of my system.”

  “Was anything taken?” Ash asked as he took a sip of his beer. He found the steely glint in Eli’s eyes to be a little arousing, despite the circumstances. Eli was so laid-back Ash had never thought he’d see him fired up like this. And oh, all the ways that fire could be used in bed. He wanted Eli to be under him the next time he saw him like this, those long-fingered hands hard on his body as Eli whispered hot words in Ash’s ear. The thoughts made his heart pick up.

  Get a grip, Ash. The last thing Eli needed right now was Ash making fuck me eyes at him.

  “No, not that I could tell. And I also got reamed out by Sheriff Cooper for moving things about before he got there.” A mutinous look crossed Eli’s expressive face. “But I just couldn’t leave some of those books on the floor. He didn’t understand.”

  Neither did Ash, for that matter, but he kept his mouth shut. He was pretty sure that the sheriff had already told Eli plenty about the information that could be gathered from an untouched crime scene. No sense in rubbing Eli’s nose in it and having that fierce gaze snap glares at him.

  “You and those books.” Lu shook her head and patted Eli’s shoulder.
“Just sit here and I’ll fix you right up.”

  “Lu seems to think that a good meal and a shot of something strong cures everything,” Eli said as she walked away.

  “It doesn’t?” Ash teased, trying to make Eli smile. “I thought the way into your heart was your stomach. At least that’s what I’ve heard from certain people.”

  Eli leaned closer to him across the small table, his eyes intent on Ash in a way that brought a flutter of excitement. “Personally, I prefer a hard, dirty fuck when I’m in this mood.”

  Ash’s mouth went dry and heat poured through him as Eli’s words struck him. All thoughts of good intentions and waiting until the end of the semester immediately fled. “You’ve got my interest, Eli, though I should be the voice of reason and suggest we stay and behave.”