The Memory of Scent by Lisa Burkitt

Author:Lisa Burkitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752480732
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

SMOKY LEATHER

Philippe has promised to take me gambling. I have heard about this game called Roulette and it sounds fantastically reckless. I don’t think it’s legal, but Philippe has assured me that these gambling houses are very discreet. This seems to be the case when we arrive at a large house that is indistinguishable from the others along the street. A servant shows us up several flights of stairs to where a gracious woman in strings of pearls greets us warmly. Philippe shakes several of the gentlemen’s hands and bows before a couple of the ladies, while I take in the scene. I wander over to the long table which is the focus of the room. The table surface is covered in a soft green cloth, and there is a wheel in the middle of it. A circle of red leather chairs have been placed around the table with most of them occupied. Philippe remains standing with a cigarette in his hand by a fireplace with some of the other gentlemen.

‘Are you going to play?’

A young, thin man is at my side.

‘I’m afraid I wouldn’t have a clue.’

‘It’s quite simple. Do you like red or black?’

‘I like the colour red. Black is so ominous.’

‘Then red it is.’ The young man places a coin on the red just before the man at the table’s top shouts, ‘No more bets.’

Everybody watches the wheel spin.

‘Black loses. Red wins.’

‘You see, there you go, nothing to it.’ The young man pushes several francs towards me. ‘Your first game. That’s all yours, you won it.’

‘But I couldn’t.’

‘Red or black? It’s not often in life where you get to make a choice so starkly limited with potentially so handsome a pay-off. The only other choice is when to stop, and that is the one that has caused so many downfalls.’ He nudges my attention towards an intense, haggard-faced man who is nervously twirling his moustache and looks as if he hasn’t slept in days.

‘His wife has taken his children away before he ruined them all, and yet he can’t stop. His furniture is being sold off piece by piece. He is convinced with one lucky spin, his life will turn around.’

‘Isn’t that possible?’

‘It’s all about luck, but there’s good luck and bad luck and they don’t come in equal measures. I am Vincent by the way.’

‘Bab–, Lily. Pleased to meet you.’

‘Well, Lily, do you want to hang on to your money or give it another flutter?’

‘Red is still calling me a little. I’m going to put it all on red, seeing as it hasn’t cost me anything.’

I push my stack of coins onto the red.

‘Place your bets. Your bets, gentlemen, please. That’s it. No more bets. Thank you.’

The wheel seems to spin longer this time until eventually it clatters to a halt.

‘Black loses. Red wins.’

I find myself jumping up and with an unrestrained yelp of delight. I give Vincent a quick hug. ‘I’ve won!’

‘Probably more than you thought, because you let it ride twice and red has just won again.

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