A Sister's Secret Read Online Free Page B

any position to remit payment of heavy gambling losses. Cumberland is an avid, addicted gambler. No sooner will he hear that you are renowned at cards yourself than he will want to set to with you at once. You will ensure he loses very heavily.’
    Captain Burnside mused on what was coolly expected of him. ‘I shall need money, marm, and luck.’
    ‘I will provide you with funds, sir. But luck, do you say? What need do you have of luck when you own so many accomplishments?’ Caroline’s softly drawn vowels were laden with irony. ‘You are a consummate cheat, are you not? That is to say, you can palm a card or cause a dice to fall as you wish without arousing the smallest suspicion?’
    ‘Well, it’s true I’ve had moments when all has been won by dexterous sleight of hand,’ said the captain, regarding her with much thought. To Caroline, he seemed to be musing on the feminine appeal of her fashionably low décolleté, which did not please her at all. ‘Cumberland,’ he murmured, ‘ain’t known to be a dunderhead, however, and his one sound eye is wickedly keen.’
    ‘Is one sound eye keener than the sharp talents of a virtuoso? Or have you merely been offering me the conceits of a braggart?’
    ‘Substantial IOUs,’ said the captain thoughtfully. ‘Very well, marm, consider it done.’
    ‘I hope, sir,’ said Caroline with asperity, ‘that you don’t think me simple enough to accept that particular conceit. The matter will be accomplished when it has been. It will not be accomplished merely by your saying so.’
    ‘We shall see, marm, we shall see.’
    ‘So we shall,’ she said, ‘and I declare myself hopeful. But I should not be true to my honour if I did not warn you that Cumberland is an adversary as dangerous as Satan. One mistake, one wrong move, and I vow you are like to be discovered in the Thames, drowned and very dead.’
    ‘As a professional hireling, marm, I accept the risks.’
    ‘I commend you for that,’ she said. ‘Now, sir, what are your present circumstances?’
    ‘In faith, I’m deucedly short of the ready,’ admitted the captain, ‘if that’s what you mean.’
    ‘Most men who live by their wits own thin purses,’ said Caroline. ‘Have you never considered honest work?’
    Captain Burnside appeared pained. ‘God forbid, marm, I should ever become a porter or a shipping clerk.’
    ‘Either might keep you from ending up in prison,’ she declared. ‘I find it difficult to believe your father was a bishop.’
    ‘Well, so he was, marm, and died in a state of peace and beatitude. I had not then disturbed his soul by becoming the family black sheep.’
    ‘I do declare, you are singularly deplorable, sir,’ she said. ‘Are you not ashamed that, as the son of a gentle mother and a man of God, you are a self-confessed rake and even a thief?’
    ‘I assure you, marm, I could own finer principles if I weren’t so poor.’
    ‘Hard, honest work would lift you out of poverty, Captain Burnside. Now, I shall advance you fifty guineas. It will cover such expenses as you entail. You are to come to this house on Friday, bringing a suitable wardrobe with you. You will profess to be an old friend of mine, lately returned to England from service abroad, and my guest for a period. Do you still own a uniform?’
    ‘I do,’ said the captain. ‘I find on occasions it can induce a young lady to regard me as becoming, valiant and deserving …’
    ‘Spare me these ridiculous irrelevancies, sir,’ said Caroline. ‘Bring your uniform. Is the rest of your wardrobe as acceptable as that which you are wearing now?’
    ‘I confess, marm, that part of your advance will sweeten my tailor and persuade him to release to me two new coats, some silk cravats and—’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ she said in some impatience. ‘Meet the costs out of the advance.’
    ‘I’m obliged, marm, very,’ he said.
    ‘So you should be, for in giving you any monies at all I am placing almost foolish trust in you.’