Mississippi River Gamblers
by Sandra Jones
Personally, I’m a pitiful card player—usually the last person anyone wants as a partner at
the table. But I think that’s why I admire the psychological skill and
brilliance of players like George Devol and Canada Bill Jones.
George De Vol
While researching for my new historical romance, Her Wicked Captain, I read an
autobiography written by Devol, entitled Forty
Years A Gambler on the Mississippi. In this 1887 memoir, the card sharp
paints vivid pictures of his escapades (whether imagined or real) including
high-stakes games, lost loves, and fights with dangerous opponents.
According to Devol, he was a runaway living on a riverboat
by age ten. By fourteen, he knew how to stack a deck of cards, and he eventually
bilked players out of thousands of dollars without remorse. Yes, he was a
cheat.
Canada Bill Jones
A contemporary and partner of Devol’s, Jones was born in
Yorkshire and migrated to Canada and later Mississippi looking for bigger
games. He’s been said to be the greatest
of all riverboat gamblers at the three-card-monte. His cunning, charm, and
sense of charity were all attributes I included when I created the riverboat
gambling hero of Her Wicked Captain.
In fact, it was probably Jones’s sense of selflessness that made him the target
of George Devol when his longtime friend attempted to cheat him, thus causing
the end of their business dealings together. Afterward, Jones worked his way
from boats to railways, moving west and attempting to open gaming
establishments. He died of consumption by age 40.
Excerpt
If he hadn’t introduced himself, Dell wouldn’t have
recognized him. Her childhood memories came in spurts and flickers like sparks
drifting up from a burning log, to vanish into the void of a black sky. She
recalled how big everything had seemed—her mama’s dressing room, the nice bed
where she slept the day away, and the giant paddle wheels as the steamboats
came into port. How the kids would come running from the city streets to gather
around each arriving ship like a swarm of giddy flies, and the older girls
would wave at her friend—her playmate, Rory.
“Gory Rory. You ate a pollywog catfish? Ew!” She’d once
teased. Gory Rory? Had she really called him that?
Presently, the captain’s strong arms went around her as he
lifted her over the rail. His hands lingered on her sides a moment past
propriety.
Flushing, she stepped aside. “Thank you.”
He winked at her and helped hoist the rest of the party up
from the keelboat onto the packet’s leaning deck. Standing behind her cousins,
Dell could still feel the branding on her ribs where his hands had touched her.
She willed herself not to panic, but her pulse fluttered wildly at the base of
her throat. She couldn’t hide, nor could she return to the riverbank, though
every second she stood under his nose was another second he might recognize
her.
She couldn’t allow that to happen.
The steamboat’s whistle rattled to life, and she jerked as
if she’d been shot, grabbing the rail. The deafening roars and metallic tones
sounded overhead as she gritted her teeth. She vaguely recalled standing too
near as a babe, and now fought the instinct to cover her ears like the wailing
brat she’d been back then.
For whatever reason, her mama had moved her hundreds of
miles away, leaving their home and her husband, Quintus Moreaux. Now here was
his former ward, Rory Campbell, standing more than six foot tall with wide
shoulders and a rogue’s grin, less than eight feet away.
He and the freedman gave the final visitor, Mr. Gaskin, a
boost onto the boat. The lumber mill owner joked that he’d gladly salvage the
boards of the vessel, to which Rory declined with rich laughter and clapped a
hand on his back.
The shy Rory that Dell remembered had soft, boyish round
cheeks, and wasn’t able to put together more than two words around her pretty
mother. The confident man standing before them now wore a shadow of golden
whiskers on a rigid jaw, but he had the same eyes, the color of green bottle
glass lit by sunlight. While the others headed for the bow, her former friend
singled her out, sharing his infectious smile.
He bowed
slightly, gesturing with his hat. “Ladies first.”
Dell ran
unsteady hands down the pleats of her dusty clothes to chase away the twinges
of her stomach. She mustn’t call attention to herself. If she lost her
composure, he would surely figure out she was Eleanor’s bastard daughter,
fathered by one of Moreaux’s black workers. One word from him about her mixed
blood, and the town would turn on her.
“Thank you,”
she murmured again and glided past, keeping her head down. She felt his
measuring gaze, and her chest heated in response.
Sarah and
Nathaniel were just steps ahead with the preacher, weaving from the rail,
straining to see as much of the vessel as possible. Dell hurried to catch up.
Rory’s tread creaked ominously on the deck behind her.
Book Blurb
She played right
into his hands. Possessing uncanny people-reading skills like her mama,
Philadelphia “Dell” Samuels has spent thirteen years in her aunt’s rustic
Ozarks home, telling fortunes over playing cards and trying to pass as white.
But the treacherous Mississippi River childhood her mama dragged her away from
finally catches up to her on a steamboat captained by her old friend Rory
Campbell.
Known to his crew as the Devil’s Henchman, Rory is a
gambler in need of a miracle. Following the cold trail of his boss’s wife and
bastard daughter, Dell, Rory has only one goal in mind: saving his crew from
the boss’s cruelty by ruining him. The only one who can defeat the Monster of
the Mississippi is the man trained to take his place. Rory’s convinced he can
lure his boss into a high-stakes game against a rival, and with Dell’s
people-reading skills, the monster will lose everything.
Under Rory’s tutelage and protection, Dell agrees to the
tortured captain’s plan. Passion and peril quickly bring them together as
lovers. But when Rory’s plan goes awry, the lives of the innocent depend on
Dell’s ability to read the situation correctly—and hopefully save them all.
Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22922437-her-wicked-captain
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Author Info
Historical romance author Sandra Jones was born and raised
in Arkansas. She loves living in a cabin overlooking White River where she
enjoys watching eagles and dreaming about the adventurous frontiersmen who once
traveled past in steamboats. When she’s not reading, writing or researching,
she’s the cook for her cranky old tom cat, her husband of more than 25 years,
and her two grown sons. She also loves to chat with her fans.
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