Jack of Clubs by Bárbara Metzger

out into the rear garden. After all you have fed him, he needs the exercise.” He turned toward Allie. “It is not much, but it is walled in. And wipe your chin.”
    Allie lifted her napkin to her chin before she realized he meant Harriet, not her. Harriet scrubbed her face with the cloth without needing a second reminder, made a decent curtsey without needing the first reminder, and left.
    â€œHow did you do that? Make her listen to you?”
    â€œI promised to show her my pistols if she behaved. She is a bloodthirsty little savage, isn’t she?” he asked, but Allie detected a note of fondness beneath the gruff words. She must have missed a great deal while she slept.
    â€œWhy?” she asked again, encompassing a hundred questions.
    He picked the ones he wished to answer. “Why bargain with the brat? The same reason you did, because life is easier that way. Or why do I need you along? The last should be obvious, if I have to bribe my ward to obey.”
    He did not need Allie at all, and they both knew it. Harriet already listened to him better than she had ever heeded anyone at Mrs. Semple’s. And anyone could teach the child her letters; perhaps Mrs. Crandall could do it. She seemed a quiet, competent woman. The dealers could teach Harriet to add, even if no higher than
vingt et un
. But Allie’s staying was not the immediate question. Harriet’s was.
    â€œNo, why did you tell her she could remain with you?” Allie asked, taking a last sip of her tea. “She will have her heart broken when you send her away. She will not understand, and will not easily trust you again.”
    Jack was not going to admit that he had been blackmailed by an infant. “She does not like school. The other children are unkind to her.”
    â€œOf course they are. Who would be kind to a fellow student who put spiders in one’s bed?” Allie set her napkin on the table, finished with her meal. The captain refilled his plate, to her amazement. “Did you like school?” she asked him.
    â€œWhen I was there and not sent down for some offense or other. But I had my older brother watching out for me. He was born a viscount, then succeeded to the earldom at the age of fourteen, so no one offended him, or me by association. He had the power of authority even as a lad, and became a deadly shot later. He’s still handy with his fives, except when he has to remove his spectacles.”
    â€œDo you not think Harriet should attend school, meet girls her own age and station? Not that your employees are not decent women.” She hoped they were, anyway. And hoped she did not sound too much of a snob. “But are they proper companions for Lord Hildebrand’s granddaughter? Do you truly think Harriet belongs here?”
    â€œI think she has lost her entire family, and she is lonely and afraid. Lud, when our stepmother passed away, and then our father soon after, I could not bear to let Ace out of my sight. My brother, Alexander, that is, who was nothing more than a boy himself, poor blighter, with a runny-nosed rapscallion stuck to him like glue. Harriet has no big brother to make her feel safe, no parents to adore her, no grandparents to spoil her. The poor mite needs a home more than she needs schooling or social graces or more snubs from wealthier, better born brats.”
    Allie felt sympathy for the little boy left with no one but his big brother, although she knew there would be trustees and old family retainers to look after the wealthy aristocratic orphans, but the captain was wrong. “But this is not a home! That is my point. It is a habitat for wastrels, pleasure seekers, here-and thereians.”
    â€œIt is a polite gaming parlor,” he corrected her. “But you are right, it is not a suitable dwelling for a child. In another month or so my brother’s town house should be ready. By then we should be firmly in the black, besides. I could purchase a