Before The Scandal (25 page)

“He did tell you something, then.”

“Richard, I—”

“Yes, yes, come into the library.”

“I’d like to change my clothes, first.” And to gather her thoughts for more than the time Phin had given on the ride back to Donnelly House.

“Later. We don’t have all day to wait for you.”

We.
“Who else is here?”

As she topped the stairs, her cousin took her arm and half dragged her toward the library door. Oh, how she detested this man. She couldn’t allow him to know that, however. Not yet.

Lord Charles and Lord Anthony were seated in the library, both smoking cheroots and looking terribly pleased with themselves. Alyse squared her shoulders. She could do this. Phin had faith in her, and he needed her to succeed.

“Gentlemen,” she said, tugging her arm free of Richard’s grip as he closed the door, leaving the four of them in private. As he did so, Anthony’s threats about ways she could be useful trickled into her mind, sending a surge of uneasiness through her.

“What did he say?” Richard repeated, emphasizing each word and making it clear that he wasn’t going to ask again.

“He didn’t confess to being The Frenchman.”

“Damnation,” Lord Charles muttered. “What the devil good is she?”

“He did, however,” she continued, “several times mention the ball at Roesglen evening after next. Then he rubbed his left shoulder and said he hoped you, Lord Charles, would be coming by coach.” She took a step forward. “I think you did shoot him, after all.”

“I knew I had.”

“Anything else?” her cousin asked.

“One thing.”

“Out with it, then.”

Alyse took a breath. Phin hadn’t mentioned this part, but as far as she was concerned, she needed some incentive for turning on an old friend. “First I would like five thousand pounds.”

Anthony stood up. “What?” he scoffed. “Are you joking?”

“No, I’m not. I…I would like some assurance that you won’t simply take my information and forget that we had an agreement.”

Richard narrowed his eyes. “Clever little bit, aren’t you?”

“I won’t end up begging in the street.”

Shoving a cigar between his teeth, Richard pulled open the door and left the room. While the other two men gazed at her, making her feel completely naked and dirty as they took in the low-cut riding habit, Alyse kept her gaze, if not her attention, on the fireplace.

“How much more would we have to pay, do you think,” Anthony drawled, “to put you on your back?”

“You don’t have enough to tempt me,” she retorted.

“Everyone’s got their price, Alyse,” Charles took up. “You just told Richard what yours is.”

“I’ve been promised a great deal more,” she stated, as Richard entered the room again. “This is just proof of your honorable intentions.”

Her cousin dumped a bag into her hand. “Twenty-five hundred pounds,” he muttered, leaning against the back of one of the chairs. “All I had to hand. Out with it, Alyse, or I’ll let my friends here persuade you.”

She closed her fist around the heavy bag. Goodness, it was a fortune compared to what she’d been able to hide away. “Phin returned my mother’s pearls to me. The Frenchman took them, the night he stopped us.”

Anthony clapped his hands together. “That settles it well enough for me,” he said. “By God. We’ve got him.”

Richard shook his head. “No. We’ll have him after the Roesglen ball.” He turned his head to look at Alyse. “Go count your money, Judas. We have things to discuss.”

“When you’ve stopped him, I want the rest of what you promised me,” she said, walking with as much dignity as she could to the door, considering that she wanted to run, to flee the room and the house and not stop running until she’d reached Phin.

“You’ll have it. And just remember, Alyse. If you say anything to him, I’ll make certain he knows all about our agreement.”

Straightening her shoulders, she left the room and closed the door firmly behind her. Only when she’d made it safely to her new bedchamber did she let out her breath and sag onto the bed. Phin already knew all about her agreement with Richard. She only hoped that knowledge would be enough to keep him alive.

“Nothing else is going to be damaged at Quence while I’m here. Gordon’s going to take the north and east of the property, and I’ll take the south and west. I won’t be alone; I hired some men to keep an eye out for any mischief.”

“Just stay inside the house, Phin. Please.”

“For how long?” He took the seat at his brother’s elbow. “Smythe surprised me the other night because I was overeager. Now I know what they’re willing to do, and I’ll be ready.” He flashed a smile. “I am a trained officer, after all.”

“I would rather sell Quence to Richard today than have you risk your life,” William said quietly.

“You are not doing any such thing. You may not trust me, but trust that I won’t allow this to continue.”

“And how do you intend to stop it, short of killing people?”

Killing people was beginning to seem a reasonable response. “I’ll find proof. If I can’t, then threats will have to do.” He shrugged. “If they aren’t sufficient, then—”

“For God’s sake. Don’t even say it.” William shook his head. “How am I going to tell Beth to stay away from Donnelly?”

“I don’t think that will be a problem.”

“Why not? She’s half in love with him already. Or she thinks she is. And I’ve encouraged it, damn it all.”

“Help is on the way,” Phineas finally said, though he’d been reluctant to do so until it actually arrived. It was already late.

“Help is here,” a low drawl came from the doorway.

Phineas shot to his feet, his hand going to the pistol in his pocket before he recognized the speaker. With a grin he strode forward. “Bram.”

Lord Bramwell Lowry Johns, black-haired, black-eyed, and black-clothed, ignored his outstretched hand and gripped him hard around the shoulders, one of the few times since Phin had met him that he seemed to show genuine emotion. “Welcome home, Phin.”

“Thank you. Is Sul—”

“Right behind me,” Bram interrupted, setting him loose and going around to the head of the table to shake William’s hand.

With the timing of a clock, Sullivan Waring walked through the doorway, a tall, tawny-haired angel to Bram’s devil. Grinning, he swept his arms around Phineas and lifted him into the air. “You shouldn’t have waited so long to send for us,” he said, setting Phin down again.

“You’re just married,” Phineas returned, more relieved than he could describe. Notorious gentlemen, fellow officers, friends, brothers. Help had indeed arrived. “I didn’t want to take you away from your wife if I could avoid it.”

“He’s insufferably happy,” Bram put in, avoiding the sideboard and instead calling for a bottle of whiskey. “Very annoying to witness, really.”

“God, Bram, it’s seven o’clock in the morning,” Sullivan said, taking a seat at the table. “What do you need, Phin?”

“The sun hasn’t risen,” Bram returned. “It is therefore still last night. And I’ve been riding for the past six hours.” He took a glass and the bottle from Digby and opened it.

“I’m in a bit of a spot.” Phineas sat back in his chair again. “And so, my friends, I need you to be highwaymen.”

Sullivan looked at him. “Beg pardon?”

Bram sank into a chair, toasting the room in general before he took a long swallow of whiskey. “Excellent. When do we begin?”

Sullivan made his way over to Elizabeth. “I’m here to visit you,” he said with a smile, taking her fingers. “Didn’t even know Phin was home.”

Bram, on the other hand, looked as though he wanted to sink beneath the table. Phineas stifled a grin. The only thing in the world that Bram feared, it seemed, was the seventeen-year-old sister of a friend. In particular one who’d been mooning over him since his return from the Peninsula.

“The thing is, Beth,” Phineas said, thumping Bram in the calf with his boot before he stood, “Bram’s in hiding from his father.”

“I won’t tell a soul that you’re here,” she agreed. “But you must let me take you on a tour of the gardens.”

Slowly Bram pushed to his feet. “I would be delighted,” he muttered, not looking the least bit delighted.

“Take Jenny with you,” William stated.

“William, why do—”

“Take Jenny.”

Beth stomped one foot. “Oh, very well. I’ll go fetch her.” With a last glare at her oldest brother, she left the room to go find her maid.

“I came here to erase a few of the marks the devil has against me,” Bram said darkly. “Not to help him begin a new chapter.”

“I don’t want her to know yet that we suspect Richard in all of this,” Phineas said. “She’s not very proficient at concealing her feelings.”

“So I’ve noticed. Let Sullivan go touring with her. He’s married. Practically gelded.”

“Allow me to disagree,” Sullivan commented with an amused scowl. “And I need to talk to Phin.”

“Damnation.”

William cleared his throat. “If you’ll push, I’ll join you in the garden.”

“God, yes.”

Phineas watched the two of them out the door. Bram might have thought William was being generous, but it likely had more to do with Bram’s reputation and a very impressionable young lady. At least with Bram about, Richard’s ultimate fate would trouble Elizabeth less.

“So you’re keeping Beth out of this.”

“As far as possible.”

“But you’ve got Miss Donnelly in it up to her neck.”

Phineas scowled. “I didn’t have any choice.”

Sullivan grinned. “Don’t bite my head off. Bram said she got into some scandal or other a few years ago.”

“And when did you two have this conversation?”

“Your note mentioned Donnelly House, and we spent most of the night on horseback getting here.” Sulivan blew out his breath. “And you know Bram. If there’s gossip, he’s heard it.”

“Apologies, then. It’s just…she’s been put in an untenable position here, and it’s my fault.”

He wanted to say more, to somehow explain how much Alyse had always meant to him even when he hadn’t realized it. And how important she’d become to everything. Considering that he’d turned her into a spy against her own family and that he’d put her present well-being and her future at risk, calling himself in love didn’t quite have the…depth to it that he felt.

Sully cleared his throat. “At least you’ve found a use for Ajax.”

Phineas snorted. “Yes. He helped me launch my criminal career. I couldn’t have done it without him.”

“Having some…familiarity with legality’s backside, Phin, all I can say is for God’s sake be careful. You have a family, and they’ll pay the price if you get caught.”

“I know that. Why do you think I sent for the two of you?”

“About that. You know we’d both do anything for you, b—”

“As I would for you,” Phineas interrupted, beginning to fear a retreat. Sullivan was newly married, though, and if he wanted to stay clear of this mess, no one would blame him.

“I know,” Sullivan said, lowering his voice further. “Just keep an eye on Bram. He plays at wearing darkness, but lately those clothes seem to be fitting him rather comfortably.”

He nodded. “Then I’ll be thankful that he’s terrified of Beth.”

The breakfast room door burst open. “Captain Waring!” Gordon burst out, striding into the room. “By all th’ holy saints!”

Sullivan grinned. “Sergeant Gordon. Still trying to keep Phin out of trouble, I see.”

“Aye, and quite a task it’s been.”

“Gordon, I believe I’ve mentioned something about knocking. And decorum.”

“Aye, aye, but it’s Captain Waring! The most gifted soul on a horse since Hector himself.”

“Yes, he has a stable in Sussex, breeding them. You know this.”

“I was hopin’ when we arrived here that we’d come to visit ye, but with all the trouble and the colonel moonin’ after the Donnelly girl, there’s—”

“Sergeant!” Phineas snapped.

The Scotsman reddened. “Aye. No gossip, either. I just come to tell ye that Saffron is saddled and ready for ye.” Turning crisply on his heel, he marched out of the room.

“‘Mooning’?” Sullivan said distinctly.

“I’ve known Alyse her entire life. We’re friends.”

“Mm-hm. Are you certain there isn’t something more you’d care to tell me?”

Phin looked at him for a moment. “Not before I tell her.” Hell, he hadn’t even figured it out himself.

“Fair enough. Why don’t you show me those maps, and then we’ll need to go over the local terrain to pick our point of attack.”

Relieved at the change of subject, Phineas gestured for Sullivan to precede him out the door. They had a great deal to accomplish, and not much time to do it.