The Wards' Mystery

Chapter 8

Our trip to the town had to wait till Sunday. Madam Brown would spend her morning at the church making it a perfect opportunity for us to sneak out. Till then I have to keep an eye on Lady Jannet. To my surprise she proved to be quite a competent maid. Maybe a bit slow and careless, but never has she made any drastic mistakes. Partly due to her quick wit, but mostly thanks to her natural ability to leave the most difficult work to others without their realisation.

The trouble came on Saturday. The Wards left for a two day trip to the waterfalls, which meant a free evening for the servants. A joy for everyone except Lady Jannet who was now suffering the most tiresome boredom in her room.

"Dull! Next one!" says Lady Jannet and to my horror tosses another book away into the pile on her bedside table. It took me quite some time to find those books in the servant quarters, and a lot of effort to persuade their owners to lend them to me for one evening. It took Lady Jannet a moment or two to reject them all. I step closer to the bed and say with the most regretful voice I could master, "I'm afraid that was the last one, m'lady."

"All? Fifteen servants and only five books! One of which is the Bible," Lady Jannet cried out.

"Few of us can read, m'lady."

"What about you, Daina? Can you read?"

"I can write my name and numbers. I count well too."

"Incredible!" Lady Jay turned away with a deep sigh and picked a random book from the pile.

"The Lost and Miserable. A perfect example of how to make your reader bored with name only." she stared at the book for a while then turned back to me and asked, "How do you have fun here?"

"Most servants are now in the kitchen. They talk and eat. Some knit..." I say.

"I can not tolerate their company anymore. If I have to hear Mary talk about her bad knees again, I would do something unthinkable," she said.

"Should I leave you then, m'lady?"

"No! No, you are fine." She jumps from the bed and starts pacing around the room. "We just need to think of how to occupy my time. Do you have any interesting stories to share?"

"I am afraid I don't know any, m'lady."

"I am doomed." Lady Jannet throws herself back on the bed and closes her eyes. I contemplate the thought of slowly backing out of the room when an idea crosses my mind.

"I know where Milly hides her cards," I say. Lady Jannet springs up again.

"What are you waiting for? Bring them!" she shouts.

That is how we end up sitting on the bed opposite each other with me shuffling the deck. What an absurd picture: a little servant plays cards with a lady in the servants' quarters. But somehow it works. Somehow she fits here. How does she do it? How does she make any place her own?

"What should we play, m'lady? Put? All Fours? Cribbage?" I ask.

"Poker," says Lady Jannet and empties her purse. A servant's yearly pay scatters all over the bed. "Do not make such a face. We will play for fun, not money." Lady Jannet splits the coins into two small piles and pushes one towards me.

"I'm not good at poker, m'lady," I say.

"I did not expect you to be. Deal the cards."

The ante was decided to be two pence. I get an ace and a king. Lady Jannet keeps her eyes on the cards, smiling as if she has already won. She might be surprised.

I take two pennies out of my pile and place them in the center. Lady Jannet calls and the game starts. I open the first three cards. Two aces and a four. Lady Jannet promptly throws a shilling in. I call.

"Do not be shy, Daina! Playing safe is such a bore," she teases. I reveal the next card. Two. Lady Jannet claps her hands and bets three shillings. I raise it to four.

"Now things are getting interesting!" Lady Jannet cries out and calls.

I turn over the fifth card. The king! Lady Jannet looks me in the eye and checks. I push a shilling forward. She raises to ten.

"What now, little rampallion?" Lady Jannet tilts her head and leans forward. I keep silent for a while, avoiding her eyes. Only when she leans back, I glance up and say, "Twenty."

She laughs and calls. It's time to reveal the cards. Lady Jannet goes first.

"A Straight," she says triumphantly.

I take my time. Lady Jannet reaches for the coins and I place my cards before her.

"Full...House."

"Incredible! Luck or skills I wonder?" Lady Jannet gives me a knowing smile.

"Luck, of course." I collect the cards and shuffle them.

"Was it Milly who taught you to play?" Jay asks, as I pass the deck to her.

"Yes, she spent most of her life in the gambling halls. Some things she learned from her father, who was as big of a gambler as he was a drunkard, some observed from strangers. She called poker a game of failed expectations. If you want to win, she said, you have to build an image of yourself in your opponent's head and then shatter it at the most unexpected moment."

"She is quite right. I would love to play with Milly some time." Lady Jannet deals the cards.

"Yes, I think she'd love it." I say and put four pence in the center of the bed.

"I learned to play at ten. My cousin guested at our house with his friends. You can not imagine what an insufferable lot these friends were — all dull, but so full of themselves. And that was not even their greatest sin. The greatest one was that they did not pay any attention to me. So once they decided to play poker, I asked to join them. They agreed to play, but only if I would bet my grandfather's spectacles. As a matter of fact, those were made from the purest gold. A more sensible child would have walked away then and there. I, on the contrary, agreed without hesitation," says Lady Jannet and folds. I take the pot.

"Of course, I lost. I still remember how I had my whole life run before my eyes. My grandfather was a man of a very short temper. I would have been disinherited the second he learned about his loss. My cousin saved the day. He picked the spectacles from his friend's nose and persuaded him to take his pocket watch instead. Even then he was great with people. Naive fool, I miss him." There is a touch of sadness in Lady Jannet's voice, but her smile doesn't waver. Should I try to reassure her? Does she even need reassuring?

"Maybe he will visit you soon, m'lady," I finally say.

"For someone serving a prison sentence, visits are a very complicated matter."

I should have kept my mouth shut.

"I'm sorry, m'lady. I didn't know." I fold and try to change the subject, but Lady Jannet continues: "Lord William Noel, a Chartist leader, was arrested for inciting riots, risings, strikes and other forms of disorder. Ministers were afraid of him, I am sure. As I mentioned, he got along with people well. Maybe even too well. My father could have helped him, but he did not. No one from the family did. The royals decided to make an example of him. To show that even the ones of the highest standing should not entertain the ideas of revolutions."

"I have never heard about Chartists," I say.

"They want people like you to have more power. The thing that none of the aristocracy will ever share willingly." Lady Jannet puts it all in. I do the same.

"You know what my cousin told me when I asked him why he let me play a game that I would surely lose? His answer was that he wanted to teach me a lesson. 'Choose your games carefully', he said, 'play only those you are sure to win.' Ironic that he ended up choosing the losing one."

"Three of a kind," I cry out happily and reveal my cards.

"Royal flush, dear. I may have underestimated you before. But keep in mind I never make the same mistake twice."

***