Many of them, in fact, were looking at Lord Pettifer with disdain. Regina could read it in their eyes even though their faces were mostly obscured.
They were on her side, she realized. Her father could not have been the only person that Lord Pettifer had ruined. He must have quarreled and treated ill dozens of men by this time to claw his way into the sort of social position that he occupied.
Regina squared her shoulders and drew herself up. She was in the right—and the men knew it. Lord Harrison was at her back and the room was with her rather than against her.
She saw the moment that Lord Pettifer realized that the tide was against him. He shifted, his rat face growing tight and his eyes darting about.
Finally, Regina gave into her anger completely and allowed a sardonic smile to grace her lips. She remembered the darker side to Puck, the side that played with mortals and men and left them gasping and humiliated.
“I will not stand for this,” Lord Pettifer said, but his words sounded weak and desperate.
Regina let her smile grow. “Thou coward, thou art bragging to the stars.”
She flicked her gaze over to Lord Harrison and saw that he, too, was smiling.
Chapter 33
Regina gathered up her winnings with the help of Lord Morrison. It still wouldn’t do for anyone to see Lord Harrison with her. They could still get in trouble if someone realized that he had coached her.
“That was a fine thing you did,” Lord Morrison told her. “I hope that you will give those lands back to the family to which they rightly belong.”
“I shall certainly do so. I have fortune enough,” Regina replied.
Lord Morrison smiled at her, then gave a small bow and walked over to speak with some other men.
Regina had her winnings, and so she left the room. The gossip would take care of itself. She was sure that Lord Morrison, a good friend of her family, would ensure that everyone who had heard of her father’s loss also heard of how the woman who had beat Lord Pettifer had restored the Hartfield lands to their rightful family.
She didn’t know if any of the men would go back to playing cards after such a spectacle, nor did she care. She did not, however, expect Lord Harrison to exit the room shortly after she did.
Regina paused and allowed him to catch up to her.
“I must return, so as to avoid suspicion,” he said. “But I wish for you to know, that was magnificent. You did well, my Puck. That was a game for the ages.”
“I feared I could not bluff well enough,” Regina confessed. “You know that I am horrible at lying.”
“When there is enough at stake, I have found that people are capable of things that they never imagined,” Lord Harrison observed.
He looked at her with such naked affection that it made Regina’s heart feel as though it had taken up residence in her mouth. She swallowed.
“I had not thought him so easy to beat,” she added. She needed something, anything, to break this strange tension she was feeling. “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
Lord Harrison chuckled. “Yes, indeed.”
“You should return,” she added. She felt oddly breathless. Perhaps it was just that this would be the last time they would be alone together. After this he would belong to Bridget, and Bridget to him.
It would never be just the two of them again.
“I should,” Lord Harrison agreed. He looked as though he might say something more for a moment—his lips parted and his eyes warmed.
But then the moment passed. He shook his head, as if to himself, and then made to return.
“Lord Harrison?”
He paused.
“I must thank you, one last time.” Regina passed him her winnings, keeping only the deed that would allow her family home to be restored. “Here. You lent me money so that I might play. You must take it.”
Lord Harrison held up a hand. “No. They are your winnings, fair and square. Pay me back for what I lent you but do not offer me more than that. What you won is ten times, twenty times, what I lent you. Use the extra to pay off your father’s debts and restore his finances.”
“You are too kind.”
Lord Harrison gave an odd laugh. It sounded almost strangled. “No. I am not all that kind at all.”
He then vanished into the card room before she could say anything more.
“And just how ridiculous are the two of you being this time?” Cora asked.
Regina whipped around. Cora was just turning the corner, and so Regina relaxed. She did not think that the other woman had heard the conversation.
“I must find Bridget,” she said. She did not have time for Cora’s teasing. The bargain must be carried out. Bridget had to marry Lord Harrison now.
“Yes, you must tell her the good news.” Cora paused. “Or is it bad news? Why, child. You look like you are about to cry.”
Regina hadn’t realized that was the truth until Cora said it, and only then did she notice the tears stinging her eyes and clouding her vision. “It is nothing.”
“Did you lose?” Cora asked. She looked past Regina, at the closed card room door. “Harrison will fix it. You will see. He will not let you come to ruin.”
“No, I won,” Regina protested. She held up her bag of winnings and opened it up so that Cora might look inside. “I earned back twenty times what Lord Harrison lent me to play with. I got the deed back to my home. Lord Pettifer is utterly ruined.”
“That is marvelous!” Cora burst out. Then she sobered. “But why do you cry? Come now.”
She gently untied Regina’s mask and pulled out a handkerchief, dabbing at Regina’s cheeks to wipe the tears away.
“It is stupid,” Regina said. “Really, it does not even bear speaking about.”
“Nothing involving such tender emotion is stupid,” Cora replied. “I should know. I have often felt to be made ashamed of how I feel. I will not have it for myself and I will not have it for you. Now. Tell me what troubles you.”
“It is nothing.”
“Is it your feelings for Lord Harrison?”
Regina gaped at her, and Cora sighed. “My darling girl. You are intelligent. But when it comes to the matters of your heart, you are almost willfully ignorant. Anyone could see that you were falling in love with him. Why do you think that your Aunt Jane told you that story about her husband earlier?”
“You knew about that?”
“She told me when we were all assembled at the ball that she had told you and she had hoped that her words had rung true for you.”
“I do not understand.”
Cora smiled patiently. “She did not think that her husband loved her, although she loved him desperately. Does that not sound like anyone that you know?”
“But…” Regina was woefully confused. “But Lord Harrison does not love me. He loves Bridget. Her hand in marriage was his price for helping me.”
Cora raised an eyebrow. “I shall be giving him an earful about that later. But sweet. I think that he stopped being in love with Bridget a long time ago. Have you not seen how he looks at you? How protective of you he is? He fairly well bit my head off that one night and he’s hardly let you out of his sight.”