The Honour-Bound Gambler

Her smile touched him, suddenly mysterious. “Well, you’d better find some optimism, then. Because I can only do this if my father agrees. That means you’ll have to impress him at dinner tonight and obtain his blessing. Will I see you at six?”

Sunnily and capably, Violet gave him the particulars.

Dumbstruck at the realization that he’d have to impress a straitlaced minister to put his good-luck-charm plan in motion, Cade hesitated. Then he nodded. The minute he did so, Violet Benson jumped up from her bench, briskly said goodbye, then left him alone while she returned to her charitable good works.

That was twice she’d left him stranded, Cade realized as he watched her leave. The first time, on the Grand Fair dance floor, he’d purposely allowed her to do so. The second time…

Well, the second time, just now, he hadn’t. Damnation. Was it possible that an innocent small-town girl had outmaneuvered him?

Worse, was it possible that a reformer had outfoxed him?

No. He was worldly, intelligent and determined. No one could outwit him. Except maybe Percy Whittier. And even then only a few times.

But the man wasn’t a god, and he wasn’t infallible. He was only irredeemable. With a little more effort, Cade knew he would find him. Then he would get the answers he needed.

The answers he’d promised Judah.

In the meantime, Cade had a few more hours to spend before dinnertime at the Benson household. That was just enough time, he reckoned, to write to his brother, beat Blackhouse at cards a few more times…and strategize how best to turn Violet Benson into an irresistible temptress, all before Cade left town in the next week or two.

Chapter Four

When Violet heard a decisive knock at the door at precisely fifteen minutes before six o’clock that evening, she felt her heartbeat perk up a notch. Jittery and breathless, she untied her ruffled apron. She hung it on its hook in the kitchen. She smoothed down her skirts, then hastened to the front door.

There, she stopped. Staring at that ordinary white-painted, wooden-framed door, so familiar and yet so unremarkable, Violet couldn’t resist feeling that something momentous was about to occur. For the first time ever, she’d invited a man to dinner. He’d accepted. And now…who knew what might happen.

Fastening a smile on her face, Violet tugged open the door.

The gambler Cade Foster stood on her front porch, with the setting sun and all of Morrow Creek behind him, attired in yet another of his well-designed suits. His dark hair, brushed from his face in waves, framed his features superbly. His white shirt looked crisp. His necktie looked silky. His coat set off his broad-shouldered physique to perfection. He looked…wonderful.

The only thing missing in his appearance was—

A smile. Just as she thought it, Cade gifted her with one. At the sight of it, Violet’s poor heart pitter-pattered twice as energetically. He really was so handsome. And so charming!

Unfortunately, while Violet was savoring the sight of him, Cade was enjoying an equal opportunity to scrutinize her. He sent his gaze roving over her flowing calico skirts, her dress’s high-buttoned bodice, her lace-trimmed shawl…and nodded.

“You look lovely.” He took her hand in greeting. His fingers felt warm over hers—warm and deft and masculine. “That dress brings out the green in your eyes. They’re sparkling.”

“That’s because I’m happy to see you. Please, come in!”

Violet stepped back with a flourish, feeling uncommonly pleased that he’d approved of her ensemble. The oak plank floorboards creaked under her feet; the scent of roast chicken and root vegetables wafted from the kitchen’s cast-iron stove. Expectantly, she clasped her hands, waiting for him to enter.

Cade didn’t move. Instead he gave her a doubtful frown. “I hope it’s all right if there’s one more for dinner.”

From behind him, Cade reached for something. He dragged it forward. At first it looked like a bundle of cast-off clothing. Then it resolved itself into a scrawny child—a boy with wary eyes, sharp features and an overall air of shameful neglect.

“Tobe Larkin, I’d like you to meet Miss Violet Benson,” Cade said. To Violet he added, “Tobe is one of the first people I met in Morrow Creek. I…ran into him on my way here and decided to bring him along.”

“Why, that’s fine,” Violet began. “One more is always—”

“He shanghaied me!” The boy, Tobe, jerked his arm out of Cade’s grasp. He glowered at Violet. “I tole him, that lady done dropped her reticule! I was only gonna return it to her, is all. Nothin’ more’n that. Until this here knuck picked me up clean off’n the depot platform and said it was the sheriff or you—”

Cade kicked his foot. As though recognizing that signal, Tobe quit talking. Instead he raised his chin. Then he sniffed.

“Is that chicken I smell?” Enthusiastically, the boy strode inside the house. “Chicken and biscuits, maybe? Mmm, mmm, mmm.”

With a confidence that belied his few years, Tobe stepped farther into the entryway. He propped both hands on his hips. “This might be all right, I reckon. Only don’t you get no ideas about sellin’ me into white slavery or nothin’, Miss Benson,” he warned. “I done heard’a you plenty. I aim to be on my guard the whole time I’m here, and that’s for certain. I ain’t no fool.”

“Well, I—” Mystified by his wrongheaded notions about her, Violet hesitated. “We’ve only just met. I wouldn’t think to—”

She glanced to Cade for guidance. He was watching Tobe with a strange, mingled sense of stoniness and nostalgia on his face.

“—sell anyone,” she continued, wondering all the while at Cade’s unusual expression. “I’m certainly not a white slaver!”

Where in the world had the boy gotten such a nonsensical idea? Violet could scarcely fathom it. Indeed, she helped many different people in town, including children, but the people whom she helped were generally grateful for her assistance.

“He’s afraid you’ll send him to a foundling home,” Cade explained, doubtless recognizing her confusion. “He told me so on the way here. Screamed it, more precisely. Not that I can blame him. Those orphanages are nasty places sometimes.”

As he made that curious statement, Cade stepped inside, too. He shut the door behind him. His presence filled the entryway. Instantly her household felt twice as exciting with him in it.

“Tobe insists he’s happier on the streets,” Cade went on, giving the child another odd look, “among his felonious little friends. He says he has everything he could ever need.”

“Oh. I see.” That couldn’t possibly be true. Could it? Where were the boy’s parents? Violet might yet suggest that Tobe go to a temporary home of some kind, she knew. Everyone deserved a home and a family who loved them. Violet was fortunate enough to have both and deeply cherished them. “Well, then there’s no need to rush to an orphanage, is there?” At Tobe’s still-wary expression, Violet tried another tack. “I mean, I’m very pleased to meet you, Tobe! Why don’t you tell me about yourself.”

Tobe regarded her with evident suspicion. His little face was filthy. His hair might once have been blond; now it was tangled and too dirty to discern its true color. A knit cap, doubtless pilfered, partly shaded his eyes. His britches sported holes in the knees. His shirt needed mending, too. Only his woolen overcoat, which was so large it hid his hands and dragged on the floor behind him, appeared to be in reputable shape.

Concerned, Violet gave him a smile. “Are you new to town?”

“I come in off’n the train. With my mam. Only she’s—” Tobe broke off. “Gone,” the boy finished flatly. As Violet and Cade exchanged a troubled glance over Tobe’s head, he looked with interest at the Benson household. “So…how ’bout that chicken?”

Deciding that further questions could wait, Violet nodded. “It will be ready very soon. I made oyster stew to start, a lovely braise of kale and turnips, and chicken with dumplings.”

Tobe shot a triumphant look at Cade. “Tole you so!” He held out his small grubby hand, fingers waggling. “Pay up, chump.”

With a resigned grin, Cade plunked a nickel into the boy’s palm. To Violet, he explained, “We had a small wager going.”

“On the constituents of my dinner?” Violet shook her head in disbelief. “I wonder what you’ll make of my dessert then?”

On her cue, both males—one tall and one small—raised their heads to sniff the air like the most persistent of bloodhounds.

“Something with cinnamon.” Tobe perked up. “Pumpkin pie?”

“No.” With a mien of concentration, Cade inhaled once more. “It’s apples. Apple pie…No. Apple pandowdy. With cream.”

Slack-jawed, Violet stared. “It is apple pandowdy!”

With a genial chortle, the males traded that very same nickel once again. Glimpsing the surprising camaraderie between them, Violet felt unexpectedly moved. Cade Foster seemed like a hard man. He seemed tough and unwavering and more than a little bullheaded. But when it came to a child in need, apparently, he was entirely mush-hearted.

“You two are almost as incorrigible as Papa,” she confided with a shake of her head. “He’s at a congregant’s, offering them counsel, by the way. That means he’ll likely be late to dinner.”

Cade gave her a piercing look. “Does that happen a lot?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes. Papa’s flock needs him.”

“So do you.” As though guessing at the loneliness that Violet sometimes felt, alone inside the quiet, tidy and modest house she’d grown up in, Cade squeezed her hand. “I aim to give you everything you might need and want, Violet. Everything.”

For a long moment, his gaze met hers, private and enthralling. His promise of giving her everything swam in Violet’s head, making her feel downright giddy. When Cade had first made his unusual proposition to her this afternoon, she’d been taken aback, it was true. But now that she’d had time to consider matters, Violet was entirely in favor of helping to bring Cade good luck. His proposition provided a handy cover for her own plans to become more adventuresome, without forcing her to risk rejection. It would probably be fun, as well.

Provided Papa approved the idea, of course.

“Don’t worry, Cade. You needn’t keep wooing me. I’ve already made up my mind. Besides, there’ll be plenty of time to clarify those particulars between us later on. In private.” She shifted her attention to Tobe, who’d wandered into the adjacent parlor. Surrounded by its humble but comfortable furnishings, the boy appeared even more down on his luck than he had before. “After I ask little Tobe to unhand the statuette he’s about to pinch and unburden his pockets of my prize collection of sterling-silver spoons.”

Cade only gawked at her. “He’s been stealing? Here?”

“Well, either that,” Violet clarified with a nod, “or his pants are growing elephantine pockets all on their own.”

Cade scowled. “I’m sorry. I’ll handle this.”

With a laugh, Violet put her hand on his shirtfront. Beneath her fingers, Cade’s chest felt warm and solid and—No. She had to concentrate. “You’ve done enough by bringing him here,” she assured Cade. “It was the right thing to do. But if you confront Tobe now, you’ll likely scare him away for good.”

“Stealing is not polite.” Cade clenched his jaw. “I’ve been spending most of my time at gambling tables, that’s true, but I still possess sufficient manners to recognize that much.”

“I have no doubt you’re wonderfully well mannered.” In fact, she was counting on that. His inherent gentlemanliness would allow Violet to behave more daringly without risk of getting in over her head. Comfortingly, she patted his chest. It still felt superb. “But you relax now. I’ll take care of this.”

Cade gave a reluctant grunt. She accepted that as consent.

“In the meantime,” she volunteered sunnily, “you can consider when you would like your next dose of good luck!”

Then she left with a smile to deal with Tobe.

Even after he’d savored a delectable meal of home-cooked dishes, prepared with a love and care he’d swear he could detect outright, Cade could not stop thinking about what Violet had said before she’d gone to cope with Tobe’s thieving tendencies.

You can consider when you would like your next dose of good luck!

Gazing at Violet now from across the gingham tablecloth–covered table, set with its simple pottery and hand-me-down cutlery, Cade wanted his next dose of good luck soon. Very soon.

He didn’t know how Violet had done it, but somehow she’d captivated him. Her cooking was magnificent, her caretaking was even better and her skills at affable conversation left him as full of contentment as her meal had left him full of chicken and dumplings. He’d come here expecting to employ his usual methods of strategy and artifice and charm. It had turned out, to his surprise, that he’d needed none of those things to earn Violet Benson’s goodwill—especially since her father had yet to appear for dinner—or to discern the most important fact about her.

She was wonderful. To be precise, Cade decided as he watched her while spooning up the last sugary, cinnamony bites of his portion of apple pandowdy, she was soft and sweet and quick with a joke. She was capable and smart and loyal. She was not beautiful; that was still true. She was not flirtatious or trivial or full of flattering niceties, the way some women were.

Violet spoke her mind, sometimes even to her own detriment. She blushed at the drop of a hat—a hat not unlike the expensive, flat-brimmed model Cade had respectfully removed while entering her household—and she lacked all sophistication. She would not have fared well in San Francisco or New York or any of the myriad big cities Cade frequented and sometimes called home temporarily.

Simon Blackhouse, he knew, would have found Violet both gauche and probably unlovely, with her easy laughter and broad gestures. But Cade, to his incredulity and satisfaction, found Violet to be…endearing. Being around her was stimulating in a way that keeping company with other people never had been.

Violet never failed to surprise him, the way she’d done with Tobe tonight. She hadn’t shirked from welcoming the boy or from reprimanding him when necessary. Even though Violet was admittedly ordinary in looks, her high-spiritedness and wit more than made up for her lack of rosebud lips or alabaster skin or any of the other features that prettier women were lauded for.

The plain fact was, Cade realized, Violet’s face drew him to truly look at her…and to keep right on looking, helplessly entertained and absorbed by wondering what she’d say or do next.

With genuine warmth, Violet leaned closer to Tobe, urging him to take another spoonful of apple pandowdy. Doubtless she hadn’t noticed him stuffing his wee pockets full of the yeasted rolls and nuts she’d served earlier, but Cade had. The boy had fast hands and sprightly thieving fingers—fingers that currently clutched Violet’s flatware and likely intended to steal it, too.

At Violet’s offer, Tobe gave an eager nod. His cheeks bulged like a chipmunk’s. Even as Violet served him his extra dessert, Tobe went on spooning up his pandowdy. He ate as though someone might steal it before he was through. In his rough-and-tumble world, Cade knew, someone might. He didn’t know why he’d brought Tobe with him tonight; he only knew it had felt right.

It wasn’t like him to interfere in someone else’s affairs—even the affairs of one small, larcenous boy. Cade reckoned he’d already started going soft, owing to Violet’s pure-hearted ways.

He should have known, by now, to steer clear of a reformer.

“Apple pandowdy is not the loveliest of desserts, I’ll grant you that,” Violet said, “but it’s quick and delicious.”

Tobe grunted his assent, still eagerly fisting his spoon.

“It’s beyond delicious,” Cade assured her. His own flatware clinked into his serving dish as he set it aside. “And there are many things more valuable than merely being lovely.”

“Like…being lucky?” Her smile looked mischievous.

“And being here, right now, to enjoy all this.”

“Ah. I see.” Violet’s eyes sparkled at him. She set aside her own plate. “You’re a man who lives for the moment, then.”

“I’m a man who lives for enjoyment. I just said so.”

“But what about planning for tomorrow?”

Cade glanced at Tobe. “Plans go awry. Only a fool counts on tomorrow. All you really have is the hand you’re dealt today.”

“Or the dice,” Tobe put in matter-of-factly. “You might have dice to use.” He finally set aside his spoon, then gave an exaggerated groan of contentment. “Thanks for them new cheaters, by the way,” he told Cade. “I seen right away that you swapped ’em out for my old rough pair the other night. Soon’s I’ve practiced enough, I oughtta clean up plenty.”

“I’ll give you a few tips after dinner,” Cade volunteered.

Openmouthed, Violet stared at them both. “Are you offering to help Tobe learn to cheat more effectively?”

The boy nodded guilelessly. Cade did, too, unable to see what the problem was. “It will keep him safer in the long run.”

“What would keep him safer is a secure home to live in,” Violet disagreed, rallying handily. “And his mother to care for him!” Concerned, she turned to Tobe. “Where’s your father?”

The child shrugged. “Dunno. He run off a while back.”

“Before you got on the train to come here?” Violet pressed. “Or after you and your mother arrived in Morrow Creek?”

Tobe squirmed, plainly uncomfortable at being questioned.

“You can tell me, Tobe,” Violet urged. “It’s important that you do, so I know how best to help you. Unless I know where your mother and father are, I won’t know how to proceed. Please, isn’t there anything you can tell me about their whereabouts?”

With panicky eyes and a quarrelsome expression, the boy glanced at Cade. His whole demeanor seemed a plea for help—a plea for rescue from Violet’s questioning. Tobe seemed either unwilling or unable to answer her…at least right now.

“Can’t we leave now? I done ate everythin’ I got given.”

“And then some.” Mustering a courteous smile, Cade pushed back his chair. It was just as well Tobe had spoken up. Cade suddenly felt less than cozy here himself…especially with Tobe’s entreating gaze—so much like Judah’s—fastened on him that way.

His brother wasn’t as tough as Cade was. He never had been. Their orphan life had been harder for Judah than it had been for Cade. That’s why Cade, as the eldest brother, had taken it upon himself to settle the discontent he knew Judah must feel.

He’d taken it upon himself to help Judah feel whole again.

For himself, Cade figured, it was already too late.

“I guess we’d better get going.” Signaling as much, Cade rose. “Thank you for dinner, Violet. Everything was delicious.”

“You’re welcome.” Violet gawked at him, seeming entirely taken aback. “But you’re not really leaving already, are you?”

“It’s time.” Cade summoned Tobe with a nod, rescuing them both from further questions. “I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to see Reverend Benson again. I would have liked to say hello—and to get this deal squared between us, of course.”

“‘Again’?” Violet repeated, seeming stuck on the word. “But when did you and my father ever—” She broke off, her gaze sharpening. “Did you help Papa cheat, too, like you did Tobe? Is that how you knew Papa won at cards the other night?”

Beside her, Tobe rose from his seat. Taking advantage of Violet’s distractedness, he swiped a butter knife. He slid the utensil’s long silver handle up his shirtsleeve for safekeeping.

Cade raised an eyebrow. The little troublemaker was on his way to becoming a full-bore criminal, the way he was behaving.

“I may have slipped your father an improving card or two,” Cade acknowledged. Reverend Benson had been on the verge of losing his clerical collar and his shirt in the game they’d played together. “But whether he used it or not, I can’t say.”

“Oh, I can say.” Violet folded her arms. “You’ll be happy to know that those winnings of his went to the church collection basket, though. My father is completely incorruptible.”

Cade frowned. “I’m not trying to corrupt anyone.”

Her raised eyebrows suggested otherwise. “Even me?”

That was easy. “Especially you.”

“Oh.” Paradoxically, she seemed almost disappointed.

That made no sense. At a loss to understand her—and wondering why he wanted to—Cade deepened his frown. Who cared what pious Violet Benson thought or felt? By the time the first snowfall blanketed Morrow Creek, he would be gone from here.

He would be gone from her life, likely for the better.

Tobe wriggled impatiently. “Are we pullin’ foot or not?”

“Yes.” Cade headed for the entryway. “It’s time to go.”

Tobe and Violet trailed after him. So did an odd sense of disappointment. He’d been having a nice time…until Violet had kicked off her damn reformer routine and ruined everything.

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