Read Online Jack of Clubs by Bárbara Metzger - Free Book Online Page A

in the presence of a lady. His stomach was flat, his thighs were well-muscled like the cavalry officer he had been, and his face was still tanned from being outdoors. He had a lopsided smile to match his crooked nose, and his neckcloth had been awry too, to match his skewed morals. He was in dishabille because he had been in debauchery—in the daylight!
    Allie patted Harriet’s back, knowing the child was tired, overwrought, and halfway smitten with the man who had let her take the dog upstairs into the bedroom. Joker was a large, lazy, smelly dog, Allie could not help noticing, who was eating everything on the tray that Harriet had not.
    â€œDo not let the dog have chicken bones,” she told Harriet now, distracting her. “He might choke, and then the captain will be angry.”
    Harriet jumped down and offered Joker Allie’s last biscuit, instead. At least she was not crying any more.
    Allie wished she did not feel like weeping herself.
    Harriet’s guardian was polite when he remembered to be, and kind. He had accepted his responsibility for Harriet on the instant he recognized her as his friend’s daughter, and was intending, Allie knew in her heart, to do the best for the orphaned child. He was courteous to Allie, a mere school teacher, and he was generous.
    Her first hopes had been correct: Captain Endicott was a fine gentleman. But he was a gambler and a womanizer too. Heaven help her, Allie no more belonged in his house than she belonged on a barge. Why, she should not even know such a person! Mrs. Semple would have cat fits if such a man came within a mile of her school or her senior girls. Then again, if the captain smiled at her, crinkling his eyes the way he did, inviting her to share his jokes, Mrs. Semple would titter and bat her eyelashes at him.
    Allie was not in danger of tittering or batting. She was in danger of destroying her reputation, without one ounce of enjoyment to show for it. Not that she would find pleasure in flirting with a libertine or listening to his silver tongue. Of course not.
    Her good name was about all she had. With no connections, no property, no income and no dowry, Allie had to make her own way in the world. She well knew that a woman with a poor reputation had equally poor prospects. She had found her niche at Mrs. Semple’s School, enjoying using her mind, imparting her knowledge to others, finding friends among the staff, satisfaction in her work. Now she was chancing it all, the independence and the future.
    She should have insisted on leaving. The captain would have found her a hackney, and might have given her the directions of decent lodgings, plus her wages. Allie had been afraid, though, and was angry at herself for her cowardice. London was vast and dirty and dangerous, and Allie had never truly been on her own before. She had gone from Papa’s house to Mrs. Semple’s School. She found terror in being without funds, without a position, without a plan. Her dreads multiplied in the dark, like lice.
    Allie supposed a hero like Captain Endicott would laugh at her lack of backbone and bravery. He had thrown off his family expectations and gone into trade, and not an acceptable business like banking or shipping, either. Allie half admired the captain for that, although she could not respect his choices. He was a self-made man, though, like Papa, who had started his own successful school.
    She missed her father still, and could understand Harriet’s clinging to the first likely replacement for her own. But Harriet was a child. Allie was not.
    She should have gone, before she tasted the luxury here. She might miss her father and the security she had known at the school, but she did not miss the narrow room at Mrs. Semple’s she shared with the next junior instructor, Miss Wolfe, who snored. Now she had well-cooked, ample food, the hearths burning warmly, and someone to serve her. No one had looked after Allie, her clothes or her