“Such as?”
“Someone with an accomplice who looks at their opponent’s cards over their shoulder and sends a signal to give an advantage. Last month a chap tried to use the reflection in a silver snuff box to sneak a look at the cards as they were dealt. There are numerous other ways: weighted dice, marked cards.”
“How do they mark cards?”
“You make a tiny scratch with your fingernail so you know which one is a queen, for example. Or you give it a ‘wire edge’ by scraping the side to make it rough. You can get cards that have been cut so there’s a slight difference in size or dimensions so one is singled out—that’s calledbiseauté. Some are convex or concave in the middle, but only by the smallest amount.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Some cheats rub certain cards with soap to make them slick, or with resin to make them sticky, so they’re identifiable when being dealt or handled. I’ve seen cards pricked with a pin so they have a tiny hole. The raised bump is indistinct to the naked eye, but you can feel it with your fingertips.”
Anya shook her head in wonder. “Goodness! And do clubs ever cheat their guests?”
“Sometimes. You can tip the odds in the house’s favor by having roulette wheels with black segments slightly wider than the whites, to increase the chances of the ball falling into them. Or you can slip some coins beneath one leg of the table to tilt it and make it favor certain numbers. But we never resort to underhand tactics like that here. Anyone with a basic understanding of mathematics would realize we don’tneedto cheat. The bank holds the advantage in any game of chance, thanks to the laws of averages. We get a steady return on investment.”
Anya glanced around at the opulent décor. “So I gather.”
Wolff leaned closer. “I’ve become quite adept at spotting liars and cheats, Miss Brown. It’s a necessary part of this business.” The subtle warning in his voice made her shiver. “People often give just as much away with their bodies as they do with their mouths.”
She exhaled nervously. “What do you mean?”
He tilted his head to indicate a young man at the nearest table. A woman stood at his side, leaning over to see the outcome of the dice throw. Like Anya, she was masked.
“Let’s take Lord Naseby and his companion over there as the perfect example.” A slight, cynical smile flickered over his mobile mouth. “He wants everyone to think he’s brought along a courtesan, but I rather suspect that’s his sister, Lady Penelope.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Look at the way he’s touching her. His arm’s around her waist, but there’s nothing lover-like about it. He’s shielding her, protecting her, but not in a jealous way. It’s more solicitous than sensual.” His warm breath tickled the bare skin of her shoulder as he bent closer, and her body tingled in awareness. “There’s a big difference between the way a man touches his sister and how he touches his lover, Miss Brown. Surely you know that. A lover would be proud to have such a woman on his arm, favoring him with her company. He’d use small, proprietary touches to signal to every other man in the room that she’s with him.”
His voice dropped even lower, and Anya felt her breath quicken.
“A lover would want to touch her skin. He’d put his hand at the small of her back. He’d lean in and kiss the exposed nape of her neck.”
His own breath ruffled her hair by her ear and his lips ghosted across her skin. Goose bumps broke out all over her body.
“You’re very observant, my lord,” she managed.
“Indeed, I am. And I’m sorry to say that I don’t believe you’re being completely honest with me, Miss Brown.”
Anya gulped, but was saved from having to answer when he spoke again.
“You want me to teach you a real life skill? I’ll teach you how to lie convincingly.”
She lifted her brows. “How?”
“When you think about it, we lie to people all the time, especially in theton. Little white lies. We say, ‘Delighted to meet you,’ and ‘You’re looking well,’ when we really mean just the opposite. But those are easy. We do them without thinking, with the intent to make the recipientfeel better or to spare their feelings. It’s the big lies, the serious lies, that I’m talking about.”
“Go on.”
He leaned closer. “The trick is to always put a little truth in with the lie.”
“How do you do that?”
“Well, let’s say I ask you, ‘Are you a courtesan?’ You can easily answer ‘yes,’ if you silently add some extra bit of truth in your own mind to clarify; you can thinkbut only for tonight, in this room.That will make the lie far more believable.”
“I see.”
“Let’s try another example, and I’ll show you what I mean. Ask me something to which you know the truthful answer.”
