Page 41 of The Lady Confesses
Chapter Thirty-Four
They hadn’t stayedat the house very long. Taking just enough time to inform Hettie and Honoria of what they’d found, he’d headed out once more with Vincent at his side. Now, he was inordinately grateful for having the foresight to request his presence.
The room, upon their entrance, was unnaturally quiet and still. Rather like a predator lying in wait, Joss thought. It was an apt comparison. Beside him, Vincent was deceptively relaxed, but beneath their coats, both of them were armed to the hilt. It was a necessary precaution when walking into a den of thieves and cutthroats. If they were lucky, they’d get out without having to use any of those precautions, but that wasn’t really up to them. They were behind enemy lines.When needs must.
“You’re invading my territory, Hound,” Ardmore observed from behind his massive desk. The marble top was so heavy it was a wonder the floor could withstand its weight. Not even the laws of science and nature defied his will, it seemed.
“I’m not here for trouble,” Vincent said. “Oddly enough, I’m here to solve one of your problems. In return, I hope you will help solve one of mine.”
Ardmore shoved back the stack of papers he’d been perusing and then eyed them both speculatively. Finally, after a long moment, he waved a hand toward an empty chair. Only one.Joss knew he didn’t qualify as a guest, so he’d be standing.Relegated to the position of lackey.
“I don’t have any problems,” Ardmore said softly. “Anyone who told you otherwise is mistaken.”
“Simon Dagliesh will never be able to pay you what he owes. Contrary to what he might have led you to believe, there is no money. He gets the title, he gets the house—which is entailed—but the money isn’t his. It isn’t even really in possession of Ernsdale’s late wife. It’s in trust for her and overseen by the bank with an eye toward caution and moderation.”
Ardmore remained silent, likely expecting Vincent to fill the silence with more information. But it was an old trick, and no one played it better than the Hound himself. So the stony silence stretched on interminably.
Then, without preamble, Ardmore uttered a single curse. It reverberated in the silence of the room like a shot. “Lying shite,” he finished.
“One of his many sins,” Vincent concurred. “I’m prepared to pay his markers.”
“You don’t know how much they’re for!” Ardmore protested. “And why the hell would you do that?”
“Because I need your men to help find him. Mine can search Mayfair and other areas, but we can’t very well look in your territory without starting a war. I’m not here to challenge you or to squabble over what bits of the city we get to lord over.”
“Thought you was retiring anyway.”
“Delegating. Not retiring,” Vincent corrected him.
Joss watched the exchange and not merely with idle curiosity. There was the very real possibility that they might have to fight their way out. Ardmore was unpredictable at best. At worst, he was a madman.
“Delegating, hmm? Is that what this giant looming over your shoulder is here for? Because you’ve delegated to him?”
“He’s here because he has a vested interest in the fate of Lady Ernsdale... a fate that is threatened by the continued existence of Simon Dagliesh.”
Ardmore stroked the mostly silver beard that covered the lower half of his curiously unlined face. “So that’s the way of it... she’s sister to your wife, isn’t she, Carrow?”
Vincent’s only answer was a nod, but Joss tensed, waiting for the other man to say something so heinous that it would be impossible to ignore.
“They seem to have a preference for gutter-born bastards… but then, given what I know of Ernsdale—and I can only assume your wife’s late husband was of similar ilk—they are entitled to that preference.”
Joss bit back a sigh of relief. It wasn’t as if the comment had been entirely inoffensive, it was simply that the offensiveness of it was directed more at Vincent and himself than either Honoria or Hettie. It was that fact which allowed it to go unanswered.
“Find Simon Dagliesh, find out what he has done with the maid he has abducted in effort to force Lady Ernsdale’s hand—and you shall be paid in full. It will likely be the only way that you will be paid in full, or at all, for that matter,” Vincent countered coolly.
Ardmore, with a simple jerk of his head toward the door, set in motion a manhunt. The bevy of guards shrank down to only two, but those two were roughly the size of mountains. “We work together this once,” Ardmore said. “Then it goes back to how it always was. Me on one side of the Thames and you on the other. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Vincent said.
“I’ll send word to your club when we find him.”
“When . . . not if?” Joss asked.
Ardmore smiled, the expression utterly terrifying. “Oh, yes, Mr. Ettinger. It was always a question of when. Good evening, gentlemen.”
*
Hettie was waitingin the morning room with Honoria. Neither of them knew precisely what it was they were waiting for, but there was a sense of dread hanging over them both. The anticipation of something awful lurking—lying in wait—building with every tick of the clock was a feeling they were both far too familiar with.
