The Bet

Chapter 8: Somewhere on the road to Nottingham

Aunt Mary, Uncle Smith and Amelia departed to Nottingham first. Frances and the rest of the family planned to depart two days later.

Four carriages with fourteen members started from Chestnut house. Frances, Anne and their hand maid were sharing a carriage.

Frances grew irritable as they rolled out of London, she ended up having more verbal spat with Anne than usual .

'Stop leaning towards me, you can look out from your window,' spat Frances.

'I want to look at both sides,' replied Anne.

'It's the same,' said Frances.

'You need to look to be sure, ' replied Anne.

Frances scowled at Anne repeating 'it's the same' and returned to her book. It was important to have the last word in an argument.

Three hours passed, Frances and Anne got into three more verbal spats. They were well past London and riding through the countryside. The carriage suddenly gave a wild lurch and came to a halt.

Frances poked her head out to see what the problem was. Anne mimicked her.

'Don't push me,' said Frances angrily.

'I want to look out too,'

'You always keep pushing me' Frances spat back.

'I am not,'

'You are,'

When Mrs. Sophia Hill came to investigate the problem, the sisters were still at 'I am not' and 'You are.'

Ignoring them she went to the footman to enquire. The rim of a wheel was bent badly and two of the spokes that held the rim had broken. She instructed the footman to take a horse to a nearby village and find someone to fix the wheel.

Mrs.Sophia didn't know what to do next. If they all stayed, they could not make it to Nottingham before nightfall. They were going to have to accommodate both sisters in the remaining carriage, it was going to be cramped. Seeing Frances and Anne still arguing, Mrs. Hill sighed heavily. It was going to be torture.

As Mrs.Hill made arrangements, Anne howled 'I'm not going to sit on her lap for the entire journey.'

'You could sit on the floor,' Frances said vehemently.

'Frances! That's enough, I think you should both take turns sitting on the floor.'

Both Frances and Anne looked outrageous. 'It's all your fault,' accused Anne.

'You should have agreed to sit on my lap,' spat Frances.

That is when a sleek and obviously well-made carriage came to a halt near them. And to Frances' surprise, Marcus and Antony climbed down.

Three hour earlier:

Antony climbed in Marcus' carriage saying 'Don't tell me you are making me attend a house party like the last time I was forced to endure,' with a scowl. Some Duke spawn, held a week long bachelor party which involved whiskey and women.

'However, you still came,' on seeing the look on Antony's face Marcus added, 'No! It is not. It's a week-long wedding party,' said Marcus.

At this Antony looked amused, 'A wedding? And who, pray tell, is getting married?'

'It's Hugo Allen. You don't know him,' said Marcus.

'And you do?' asked Antony mockingly.

'Don't think you fool me for a moment, which lady will be added to the famous Vandam mistress list when we get back,' added Antony.

Marcus gave a fake outrageous look and didn't answer.

'Which part of England are we traveling to?' asked Antony.

'Nottingham,' replied Marcus.

Antony mumbled 'I should have known' as he got down and saw Frances standing with her family.

'Lord Vandam' murmured Mrs. Hill as all three ladies curtsied. Frances gave a warm smile.

'Is there anything I could do to help?,' enquired Marcus looking at the bent wheel.

Mrs.Hill quickly explained the shortage of space for Frances and Anne.

'It is easily solved, I will be happy to escort both ladies to Nottingham' said Marcus.

'You are travelling to Nottingham' asked Mrs.Hill in surprise.

'Yes, I have been invited to Mr. Hugo Allen's wedding,' he replied.

'Mr. Allen is marrying my cousin,' said Frances with delight.

Mrs. Hill was not happy with this development. She knew if Lord Vandam was invited, she would have been informed. She suspected the last minute guest addition had nothing to do with the wedding, but with Frances. Mrs. Hill saw Marcus taking Frances' hand and helping her up the carriage with an unhappy expression. Antony spotted a similar expression.

Frances couldn't hide her delight, all her irritation with Anne vanished. She was going to spend a whole week with Marcus under one roof. She was thrilled.

Marcus sat near Frances, while Antony and Anne settled in the opposite.

'Why didn't you tell me you will be attending the wedding?' whispered Frances.

'I wanted to surprise you, and I think I did,' whispered Marcus back.

They continued to whisper to each other with Frances giggling frequently. Antony watched apprehensively at this exchange. Helpfully Anne moaned 'I'm bored!' after some time.

To Marcus' amazement Frances produced a deck of cards from her basket.

'How do you intend to play without a desk?' asked Marcus.

As an answer, Frances took a blanket handling a corner to each of them. Frances and Anne promptly pulled the blanket tight and tucked it under their legs.

'You should do the same,' she instructed Antony and Marcus. This effectively formed a makeshift table. She shuffled the cards and evenly dispersed them.

'What are we playing?' asked Antony.

'Cheat,' replied Frances. Marcus eye's glinted with mirth.

She proceeded to explain the rules, 'We will each take turns as lead, lead will declare a card, each of you should place the same card face down or you can pass or lie if you don't have that card. You can place any number of cards. The first one to dispense all cards is the winner and one with more cards is the Cheat Master.'

This game was introduced to Frances by Sanah, but Sanah was bad at this game; she was a horrible liar as she blushed whenever she lied.

'Anyone can challenge if they think a player is lying and if it's a lie the player should take all the cards; if it is not a lie then the challenger should,' said Frances,

'If no one challenges in a round, the card will be moved to a side and the next player will take the lead' added Anne.

They had so much fun, Marcus and Antony were exceptionally good liars. Not a single round went unchallenged, so the cards rotated between their hands. Best friends though they were, Marcus and Antony challenged each other wrongly half the time.

To Frances' amazement, she knew when Marcus was lying and when he was not. So whenever she challenged him he ended up taking all the cards.

'You should go easy on me, Miss. Hill,' whispered Marcus.

'You should lie better, Lord,' said Frances cheekily.

He looked at her, his eyes moved to her nose, 'You got something on your nose,' he said.

She brought her hand towards her nose and stopped.

'You are terrible,' she said and swatted at him playfully. He laughed and said, 'You got me once again.'

They broke for lunch at a wayside inn, The Hungry Hound.

Antony cornered Marcus as soon as they were alone. 'What the hell are you doing?' snapped Antony.

'What else, going to lunch!' said Marcus offhandedly.

'I mean with Miss. Hill, this is going too far even for you,' growled Antony.

Marcus didn't say anything.

'Miss. Hill is not like other women you dally with, she-' Antony was cut short as Marcus asked

'What makes you think I am dallying with her?'

'Don't think I will believe you for a moment, that you intend to marry her,' said Antony.

'Antony, this is interesting, do you have feelings for Miss. Hill?' asked Marcus.

'I don't and you know that I don't. For the love of god, don't make this about me. Miss. Hill is innocent and she believes everyone to be so, don't do this to her and show this is a cruel world,' growled Antony.

'And that's what makes this all harder,' said Marcus and walked away.

Antony stood confused. What did Marcus mean? Does he like her? Why is this hard?

*** Who is your ideal type of man - Antony? or Marcus? 

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