Virtue (v-1) by Jane Feather

Author:Jane Feather [Feather, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: love_history

16

"I don't know what to do now." Charlie looked up from the cards in his hand, his expression baffled.

Sebastian, standing behind Charlie at the table, glanced down at the young man's hand of cards and grinned as he felt his sister's surging impatience. Judith was a good teacher, but she was short on forbearance. She looked up and caught Sebastian's eye. Taking a deep breath, she struggled for patience. "Do you think you want another card, Charlie?"

"I don't know exactly." He frowned. Judith was trying to explain how one could reduce the element of chance at macao. "I have eighteen points."

"Then you don't want anything higher than a three," she explained carefully. "That means there are twelve possible cards."

"Ten," Charlie said. "I already hold an ace and a two."

"You're getting there," Sebastian approved. He thrust his hands into the pockets of his buckskin britches, watching the lesson with amusement.

"All right," Judith said, gesturing to the dummy hands on the table. "We've had five rounds, two hands have folded, three are still left. What does that tell you about the three left?"

Charlie frowned. "That they have mostly low cards?"

"Exactly," she said. "Therefore, your chances of drawing one of the ten low cards that you don't have are…?"

"Slim," he said with a grin of comprehension. "So I stay as I am."

"It's simple, isn't it?"

"I suppose so. What card would have been dealt me if I'd asked for one?"

Judith drew the top card from the depleted pack in front of her and slid it across to him. Charlie turned it over. It was a three.

"I never said it was an exact science." Judith smiled at his disconsolate expression.

"I always thought the fun with gaming was the risk."

"So it is, but doesn't it give you any satisfaction to overcome pure chance?"

Charlie looked puzzled. "Yes, it does, but it's not as thrilling as when luck smiles and I get a winning streak."

Sebastian gave a shout of laughter as his sister threw up her hands in frustration.

"Well, at least Marcus hasn't packed you off to Berkshire," she said, gathering up the cards.

"No," he agreed. "In fact, he's being deuced decent about things at the moment. I wanted to go to Repton with Giles Fotheringham for the hunting, and it was Marcus who said I needed a second hunter. He accompanied me to Tattersalls and helped me pick out a magnificent animal." He grinned slightly. "Of course, he said if he hadn't advised me, I'd have been seduced by a showy hack with no bottom, but that's just Marcus."

Judith laughed at Charlie's accurate imitation of his cousin's invariable bluntness and began to deal the cards again.

"I must love you and leave you," Sebastian said, bending to kiss his sister. "Are you going to the rout at Hartley House this evening?"

"Yes, the rest of the gaming school are going to try their wings for the first time. Cornelia and Isobel are going to play macao, at separate tables of course, and Sally's all set to try her hand at quinze.

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