The first round went well enough, and Gideon smiled quietly to himself at his success. There was much still to go, however, and he forced himself to concentrate rather than looking around the table and wondering what sort of questions he might ask. If he was easily distracted, then he might well be noticed.
“So whereabouts are you from, then?”
The man next to him cleared his throat roughly, throwing one lifted eyebrow towards Gideon.
“Are you asking me?”
The man nodded.
“Haven’t seen you around these parts before. You must not be from here around here.”
A light sweat broke out across Gideon’s forehead
“No, I am not, but my friend told me about this place and suggested I would find myself in good company.”
“Is that right?”
Gideon nodded.
“What’s the name of your friend?”
A sudden prickling climbed up Gideon’s spine. He had thought that he had been able to blend in with the rest, but now it seemed that he had not been as easily hidden as he had believed. They all still knew that he was not someone who came here regularly.
“Why does my name matter? Or my friend’s name for that matter?” Gideon shrugged as the man looked at him, his eyes narrowing. “I am here to play – and I think you are holding up the game.”
He looked towards the table and back towards the fellow, one eyebrow lifting.
The man grunted.
“Seems like we’ve got a whole lot of new folk coming to this place these last few weeks,” he muttered before playing his hand. “Don’t think I much like it.”
Gideon’s ears pricked up.
“Is that so?”
The man nodded, giving him a sidelong glance.
“Someone’s been going around telling them about this place. This is our place, see. We don’t want the dandies here. They’ve got their own places, don’t they? Why do they need to come here?”
Gideon looked back at the man for a long moment.
“You mean to say that there are men coming from the other side of London to this place?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying.” Clearly irritated, the man sat back, folded his arms across his chest with his cards face down on the table. “Men a bit like you.”
Maybe my disguise is not as good as I thought.
“Leave the fellow alone,” Another one of the players piped up. “He’s just here to play a game, same as me.”
Gideon smiled.
“I won’t be telling any of my friends about this place if you don’t want me to. I can keep quiet.”
“I don’t mind if you tell them.”
Another voice came from across the table and Gideon turned his gaze towards a younger fellow who was sitting opposite. His face was streaked with dirt, but his white grin flashed across the room.
“And why is that?”
