The Lady of Larkspur Vale by Stockton Kasey

Author:Stockton, Kasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Golden Owl Press
Published: 2020-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Mac would have given nearly anything to have skipped the portion of the evening sipping port with the likes of Wright and gone straight to the drawing room with the women instead. The man fawned and flattered Captain Sheffield grossly. Mac ought to fetch a mirror so Wright might realize what a cake he was making of himself. But he had a feeling the man wouldn’t catch on to his own ridiculous nature. Perhaps if they were to play spillikins, however, the evening would not be a waste. Not if it meant spending more time with Mabel.

Miss Sophy clasped her hands together. “Oh yes, let’s play!”

“Capital idea, Mac.” Charles turned toward the door. “Carson, send for the spillikins.”

A table was brought forward and chairs set up around it. Mac watched Miss Sophy lead her brother to Mabel’s side and direct him into the chair beside her, shooting him a telling expression with widened eyes. What was the minx playing at? As if Mabel didn’t have enough to contend with, with Wright’s watchful eye. Did Miss Sophy think to make Desmond a possible suitor for Mabel as well?

Charles opened the wooden box containing ivory spillikins sticks and tossed them onto the table in a heap.

“Oh, it is too bad of you,” Miss Pemberton said, leaning closer to Charles as he settled back in his chair. “You’ve made it a difficult round, I do expect.”

“So we might spend more time playing,” he said, sending her a faint wink. She blushed rosily and it took all of Mac’s self-control not to scoff audibly.

“Who shall begin?” Miss Sophy asked.

Mabel sent a glance past Charles’s shoulder. “It should be Miss Pemberton, I believe, since Charles threw the sticks.”

“Is that how you play here?” Miss Sophy asked, her dark eyebrows lifting. “I suppose I have no qualms with it, but in our house, it is always the youngest who begins.”

“Would that make it you, Miss Sophy, to start us off today?” Mac asked, unable to curb his tongue. “If we were to play by the Pemberton rules, I mean.”

“Well, I am not sure it matters since we are in the Sheffields’ home. But yes, now that you say that, I suppose it would be me who chose first, if we were playing by my family’s rules.”

Mabel shifted in her chair, her gaze flicking to Desmond beside her. Clearly her strong sense of proper hosting required that she allowed the game to follow Miss Sophy’s rules, so her guest would be most comfortable. Mac could almost see the dilemma dancing on her eyebrows. “Perhaps we ought to—”

Mac would not allow Miss Sophy to have her way now. It was so paltry a disagreement, but it still mattered to him. “I think we should obey the Sheffield rules.” He sat back in his thin, ladder-back chair and eyed Miss Sophy. “As you said, we are in the Sheffield home, after all.”

She dipped her head in acquiescence. “I wouldn’t dream of anything else.”

Miss Pepper coughed lightly beside Mac

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