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sank deeper into the chair. She sensed that Carlotta was as hungry for the game as she was, and had decided to let the old woman pursue her this time.
     
    Carlotta gave no indication that she had registered the slight, but Nerissa knew social politics too well to be fooled. The old woman sat down with a grunt, her hands gripping her cane. Nerissa finally raised her eyes from the cards and smiled a tight, artificial smile at her.
     
    "Wine?"
     
    Carlotta smiled back, her teeth barely showing. "Thank you. No."
     
    The women stared at each other, and Nerissa assessed Carlotta, no longer the rosy-cheeked dowager she had first met in the carriage. The cheeks were sunken, the lips cracked, the teeth... sharper somehow. A light of desperate, ravenous hunger gleamed from her eyes, and it occurred to Nerissa that the past nights might have been hard on the ancient creature. She had exerted herself to bring grave and horrible suffering into Nerissa's house and had taken nothing in return. Nerissa took another sip of wine, allowing the silence to hang in the air. Her mother had taught her it was a dreadful mistake to ever let your adversary know how much you wanted something—a necessity was a weakness, she had told her. Yet Nerissa knew just from the way that Carlotta's shriveled hands wrapped and twined restlessly about the head of her cane that this creature felt keenly the necessity of tonight's game. Very well, then. That would be the lever by which she moved her.
     
    Nerissa picked up the velvet-covered jewelry box and opened it, holding it for Carlotta to peruse the contents. "We've wagered words and promises, but these heirlooms are diamonds and gold. Are you sure you wouldn't rather play for more... substantial stakes?"
     
    Something like panic flickered in Carlotta's eyes, and her jaw tightened for a moment before she smiled obsequiously. "No, my dear. That would never do. If I am to grant you your dearest wish, you must offer me your most valuable possession." Her tongue flicked over her lips with reptilian dexterity, and Nerissa imagined it forked and hissing. She nodded her assent.
     
    At that, Carlotta broke into a genuine yet deeply malicious grin. "And what shall I wager tonight? What, tonight, is the thing you wish for most?"
     
    Nerissa smiled easily, but her heart beat forcefully within her chest. She had no doubt that this woman would somehow claim it if she lost. She framed her words carefully but cloaked them in nonchalance. "I would only have Elizabeth happy and beautiful again."
     
    Carlotta drew breath to answer, but Nerissa cut her off with a raised finger.
     
    "But, I will play tonight under the condition that Elizabeth also have her happiness and beauty for the duration of our game, until I turn my last card."
     
    Carlotta glared at her, nonplussed. "You would have your stakes before you win them? Nonsense."
     
    "If they are yours to grant, they are yours to take away if I lose." Nerissa smiled sweetly. "All I ask is that Elizabeth have some brief time of happiness and beauty. Unless, of course, you'd rather play for lesser stakes?" She vaguely waved a hand toward the open jewelry box, and Carlotta shook her head, her face torn between anger and anxiety.
     
    "No. Of course not. But you ask too much. You cannot have your stakes before you win them."
     
    Nerissa felt herself balanced on a tightrope of decorum, weighing Carlotta's determination to have her own way against the foul creature's obvious hunger. She smiled with practiced ease and gauged the uncertainty in Carlotta's eyes, the nervous twitching of the fingers, the eager pitch of her shoulders. She was the very picture of necessity, mask it though she tried.
     
    Nerissa stared hard at Carlotta for a long moment, then shrugged her shoulders as if in defeat and indicated the jewelry box again. She cocked her head insolently to one side, daring Carlotta to accept the jewels and baubles.
     
    Carlotta seethed, her teeth bared.
     
    "So be