Care and Feeding of Pirates Read Online Free PDF Page B

with a pleasant face and a long,
beaky nose.
    "Not got the taste for it?" the man asked,
voice friendly. "I notice you do not throw down your family fortune
on the turn of a card."
    Christopher's fortune could probably purchase
the estates of a few of the aristocrats present, but he shrugged.
"I'm a careful man, by habit."
    "I am surprised you came to the Nines then."
The man smiled. "Not a place for a careful man."
    "It's a way to spend an evening."
    He chuckled. "A good answer, my friend. I too
sought a way to spend the evening. Although," he lowered his voice
a fraction, "I do not know if I care for the company here. But a
man must come to a gaming hell at least once in his life, mustn't
he? I am sowing my wild oats, you see."
    Christopher looked him up and down. "You've
left it a bit late." Christopher's oats had certainly been wild, so
much so that a few years of his younger life were fuzzy about the
edges.
    The man laughed. "Too true, my friend. But I
am to be married in a few months time, and I decided that 'twas
better late than never."
    Marriage seemed to be catching. "Best of luck
to you."
    "Thank you. I say, would you like to adjourn
to a tavern? I much prefer conversation with a careful man over a
comfortable pint to sowing wild oats."
    Christopher glanced at the hazard table.
Finley was still there watching the dice.
    He opened his mouth to form an excuse, but
the gentleman thrust out his hand. "Ah, but we have not been
introduced. The name's Templeton. Rupert Templeton."
    Christopher froze for half a second before he
forced a cold smile and took the other man's hand in a very firm
clasp. "Raine," he said. "Christopher Raine."
    Templeton winced a bit at his grip but
betrayed no recognition. He'd never heard of Christopher.
    Christopher told Templeton to name the
tavern, and then the two of them departed. Christopher felt
Finley's puzzled gaze on his back, but nothing short of a volcano
erupting in the heart of St. James's would keep Christopher from
walking to a nearby tavern with Honoria Ardmore's intended.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    *****

Chapter Four
     
    The tavern in Pall Mall poured excellent ale
and was full. Christopher and his new friend Rupert Templeton
squeezed onto a corner of a bench. Christopher stood two pints,
which Templeton said was very decent of him.
    They could not have much conversation over
the roar of the tavern's regulars. Near them, a few Scotsmen
debated national issues with their English counterparts, and both
proved that neither nation had yet bested the other in drinking
ability.
    Templeton was proving to be friendly and
open-minded, and had not much wrong with him, to Christopher's
annoyance. The man turned to the subject of his upcoming nuptials
easily enough.
    "Thought I'd be a bachelor into my old age,
Mr. Raine, that's a fact. But when I met Miss Ardmore, I said to
myself, Rupert, old man, why not give it a try? She's an
American, of course, but I never held that against anyone." He
chortled.
    "England is at war with America," Christopher
pointed out.
    "Yes, that nonsense--that will be cleared up
soon. I have many business interests in America, and I'll settle in
Charleston. Miss Ardmore comes from a fine family, but she's felt
at a loose end, poor thing, since her brother married."
    "Her brother," Christopher prompted,
wondering what a respectable Londoner would make of James
Ardmore.
    "I gather her brother is something of a
legend. Captain Ardmore's wife, however, comes from a most
distinguished naval family. I imagine much of Captain Ardmore's
reputation is a mix-up."
    Templeton was thoroughly wrong. Ardmore was a
law unto himself and damned all those who got in his way.
    "I do admit," Templeton went on, "that
perhaps Miss Ardmore's brother's reputation is the reason she
settled for me. Perhaps better gentlemen than I refuse to believe
he is wronged. I am not much of a catch, but I was pleased to be
caught in Miss Ardmore's net." He raised his ale in salute.
    "Miss Ardmore is a