Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale Read Online Free PDF Page B

dance it is.” Why did I feel perpetually off-kilter with this odd man?
    He stopped me before we began the game, and raised his cup high. “To new friends,” he toasted with a warm smile.
    “To new friends,” I parroted and drank, the wine suddenly tasting sour, like vinegar on my tongue.
    “Let’s play a different game now. How about three-card monte?” Not invented yet, genius . I quickly covered my blunder. “Here’s how you play—I’ll push around three cards facedown, and you try to locate the queen. Then vice versa. Whoever has the best results after ten games will be declared the winner,” I improvised. Anything that got us away from the intimacy of the previous game but still held his interest would have seemed like a big improvement. But more importantly, I was a seasoned card mechanic and it would be near impossible for him to win any card game against me.
    To my surprise, as play commenced, I began to enjoy myself. We laughed and teased and shouted as the game wore on. A few times, I got so caught up that I forgot to cheat, and ended up winning the match by the skin of my teeth.
    I jingled my newly acquired bag of coins playfully and did an impromptu I-won-so-suck-it jig. The duke seemed impressed with my moonwalk, and I spent a solid ten minutes trying to teach it to him. “A new dance from the Orient,” I explained.
    As we sat, breathless and chuckling, a young woman called into the tent, “Hello? Will you be finished soon? I’d like my fortune told, if you would.”
    The duke met my eyes and started to stand. “I really should let you take some other patrons instead of hogging all of your time. I will stop back by before I leave. What do I owe you for the reading?”
    “No, please stay. I’m having such fun. One more game,” I begged him, realizing with a sharp blast of fear that I was in danger of blowing it. “I’ll tell her to come back a little later.” I walked over to the flap and did just that.
    I returned to the table and grabbed the cups, focused enough to realize that if he hadn’t yet passed out from the first dose of the drug, he wasn’t going to. I added the second dose of powder to his wine before turning back to him.
    “I have nothing left to wager except a few more coins for a meal,” he said, with a rueful chuckle. “You’ve already won almost everything I brought.”
    Half of my mission was complete, then. I’d robbed him. I tried to brush off the hollow feeling that accompanied that thought, assuring myself that joyful vengeance would follow once I got the TTM back. Now for the important part.
    “Nothing?” I asked, starting to feel a little desperate.
    “Well…” He hesitated. “There is one more thing. But you’ve been so lucky, I’m not sure I want to risk it.”
    Am I finally going to catch a break?
    I tried to keep my voice calm. “And what thing would that be?”
    “Well, it’s almost surely one of a kind, and I’d hate to part with it so soon after acquiring it.”
    Convince him to show it, to risk it. Make him an offer he can’t refuse .
    Hoping against hope that it wasn’t too good to be true, I took a deep breath for courage, then sauntered forward and put my hands on the duke’s broad shoulders, pressing him back into his makeshift seat. I bent low, my face level with his. “This is all going the same way, win or lose. I want you as my lover tonight. But I’m having too much fun to quit. Won’t you play one more game with me? This time, I wager all my clothing, along with the dance and the kiss,” I said with my very best siren’s smile. As I waited, I said a silent prayer that my “siren” was more convincing than my “coquette.”
    It seemed not, as he peered at me through narrowed eyes. His voice was curiously cold, completely at odds with the heat of his gaze as he nodded. “Intriguing,” he said grimly. “But I’d like a taste first. Just to see if it will be worth it, you understand.” He reached up and wrapped his hand