It might not be enough to throw off the less experienced players. But then, she would throw those players off herself. It was the better players who would notice and throw themselves on the pyre by ministerpreting her.
The other men began dropping out. It was Loo, but with an unlimited pot. Regina could hardly believe the amount of money exchanging hands. It was flowing back and forth like a river that kept changing course. Regina had cash, given to her by Lord Harrison, that she used to play with. It would all be returned to him at the end of the night of course—provided that she was able to win it all back.
She could practically hear his voice in her head, telling her what to do. Her back was to him but she could feel his eyes upon her as surely as if his gaze were the touch of his hand. It made her feel safe, to know that he was there and silently encouraging her.
As the pot grew, some men became reckless. They bet when they should have folded. They continued on when they should have walked away. For the first time Regina could see firsthand the fever of gambling upon them.
It was terrifying in a way. It was almost as if these men were seized by some spirit that took a hold of them and made them play. They were men possessed.
Regina just tried to focus on her own cards and on her end goal. Some men, she noticed, were just doing this for the thrill of the gamble. They didn’t care about the cards, not really, and they didn’t care about playing well. But others were good. They wanted to win and they enjoyed the skill of the game, such as it was, although there was always a fair bit of luck involved in a game such as Loo.
Was this what her father had been like when he had played? She could see the tightness in the lines of the men’s faces—what of their faces she could see, anyway. There was a wild look in their eyes.
It made her want to get out of the way, like she was standing in the path of a runaway horse. Instead, she kept playing.
If she could just keep her head while everyone else was losing theirs, she’d be fine. But it was harder than she had anticipated not to get caught up in the fervor of it.
Everyone was so intense in a way that Lord Harrison and Cora simply could not replicate. Regina could all but taste the desperation in the air. It was a struggle to stay calm when everyone around her seemed to be the opposite.
The men standing around and watching didn’t help. They were constantly muttering to one another and making whispered observations. Their enthusiasm in watching and their predictions only added to the intensity and risk of the game.
Focus, Regina reminded herself. None of them matter. Only Lord Pettifer.
She squared her shoulders and imagined there was a book balanced on her head, the way that Cora had made her practice nearly all of one afternoon. She was confident. She knew what she was doing. If she said it, if she believed it, these men around her would as well.
Time seemed to both drag on and to have no meaning at all. There didn’t appear to be any clocks in the room and if there were she couldn’t see them from where she was sitting. She didn’t even really bother to look up. All of her attention was on the men around her and the cards in front of her.
Mostly it was on Lord Pettifer.
It was clear that he thought her an amusement at best. He didn’t consider her a very serious competitor. At least, not at first.
Then she started winning.
There were three men left besides herself and Lord Pettifer when she looked down at her cards—and then had to keep herself from alarmingly looking over at Lord Harrison out of habit.
She had a good hand. In fact, going by everyone’s tells, she had the best hand.
When she played her cards and raked in her part of the pot for that round, she had to keep herself from screaming. Whether it was in fear or delight, she couldn’t tell. She had the most out of all of them, she was—she was winning.
Regina had to hold in her gasp as she realized that she was actually doing better than all of the other men. She wasn’t just doing better than some of them. She was the current best player, at least going by the pot.
She felt torn between yelling with triumph and running out the door to hide for a few hours. Days. Weeks. But she certainly couldn’t do anything like that.
Now that she was winning, she had to use it to bait Lord Pettifer. She had to finish eliminating the other men and then get Lord Pettifer to overextend himself.
To her surprise, it actually took a while for the men to notice that she was winning. They hadn’t thought for even a moment that she could be a serious threat to them. When she started to take their money they actually didn’t seem to even really see it. It just… went over their heads, almost.
But they couldn’t avoid the truth forever, no matter how uncomfortable of a truth it was for them. Eventually, they saw. They saw that they were getting thoroughly beaten by a young and mysterious woman whose name they didn’t even know.
And then they went after her.
Regina could sense the tide turning against her and knew that the men by unspoken agreement were trying to oust her from the table. She could not let that happen.
She fought, tooth and nail. She could read them better than they could read her. She just had to keep herself blank. She thought of Natalie and how Natalie behaved around men, and that was how she acted. She wasn’t Regina, she thought, she was Natalie. That was all.
Soon the tension in the room was palpable. Regina felt as though if she took out a knife she could cut herself a slice of it. Everyone was watching her. No, more than watching her. Waiting. Waiting for her to fail.
She would not fail.
You have to lie, she thought. You have to lie as you have never lied before. You can do this. You are more than you think you are.
She had to give Lord Harrison and Cora a reason not to doubt her. She had to win back her family’s fortune and honor.
The men eventually seemed to see that it was a lost cause—or at least most of them did. One by one they left the table. One by one, they vanished, leaving their lost money in the middle.
Until it was only her and Lord Pettifer.
Regina and Lord Harrison had been right. His pride was pricked and he was eager to taste her defeat. He wanted to take all that she had and he wanted to prove that he was still the man to beat. He would not be bested by a mere slip of a girl, oh no.
With just the two of them at the table, Regina knew that time was up. There was no further she could go. She would win this hand, or she would lose, and lose all.
One more deep breath.
Lie, she thought. Lie as you have never before lied in your life. Lie with your heart and every fiber of your being. Lie with your soul. Lie until even you believe that lie. Believe that you are a stupid girl with no chance who has gotten this far on luck. Believe it and he will believe it.
“It appears that I have no more cash upon me,” Lord Pettifer said. He smirked at her. “And what of you, dear lady?”
Lie. Lie with everything you have.