Page 67 of Indecent Desires of a Proper Lady
“Thank you,” Sarah stuttered out, her eyes on the letter. Margaret nearly burst out of her seat, desperate to see what the letter contained.
“It is from the men,” she said, and with fluttering fingers, she opened it, her words scanning the page. Both Juliet and Margaret looked as if they would die from impatience.
“Well?” Juliet asked.
“Oh, no,” Sarah said, “very strange indeed. But I think you will agree that it is time, we get involved.
Margaret and Juliet exchanged wide-eyed glances.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Tell us everything,” Philip said, an angry tone to his voice as he leaned over the young clerk in the gaming hell office. The young man nodded and trembling, opened the pages to a notebook.
“My boss will not be very happy about this, you understand. He needs his client matters to remain private.”
Philip yanked the notebook from him. “Even if the said clients are in danger of losing their lives?”
Leonard and Felix crowded around him looking at the number that Charles owed. Felix let out a low whistle. “Good God. How is he ever expected to pay any of that back?”
The three men looked at the man behind the desk who had seemed to gain a little more strength. He snatched the notebook back. “Your Earl of Durby has much to learn. Gentlemen think they know what they’re getting into when they call uponthem, but they always find themselves floundering in the end.” He sat back down with a smug expression on his face as if expecting that to be the end of it.
This time, it was Leonard who loomed over the man. “You will tell us whothemis, or by God, my friend, Lord Havordshire, will shoot you with his pistol, and then you will be of no use to anyone, you sniveling mess!”
Felix shrugged and grinned, and in a normal situation, Philip would have laughed. It was the band of brothers, together again, hoping to save the wayward one. “We will sit, if that makes it easier,” Philip said, and the three of them pulled out the chairs from the other side of the desk and made themselves comfortable.
The man pinched his nose and drew his lips into a thin line. “Fine. But do not come crawling back for assistance when it is you these men are after.”
Philip threw his hands up in the air. “They are after us!”
The young man glared at him. “Listen. I do not know their names. I only know that they are used through this gaming hell to solve problems.”
“What kind of problems?” Philip asked, his eyes narrowed.
Sighing, the man said, “Whatever it is they wish to be rid of. It could be a person or a situation that they need to solve.”
“Fine then,” Leonard said with impatience. “Do not give us the hypothetical situations. What did Charles Durby use them for?”
His face was strained, but he eventually shrugged his shoulders. “Your man, this friend of yours, was calling upon these men for some dubious purposes. I believe it was arson, and in the most recent case, he is using them for murder. And he has neglected to pay what is owed to them.”
Philip looked at his friends. Both of them were wide-eyed with worry and surprise. “Murder?” Philip’s throat went dry.
The man looked at each of their expressions, and then stood up abruptly, his tiny frame looking rather pathetic behind the large oaken desk. “And so now, gentlemen, I think it would be best if you left. I have nothing more to share with you.”
Philip couldn’t believe his ears. Arson? Murder? Was this the Charles that he knew? Without saying anything, the three of them left and huddled together outside the gaming hell. Philip shivered. Even though it was the afternoon, the aura of ill omen was hanging in the air. That part of town was right on the edge of society, and the other half he shuddered to think about.
Leonard was pale, and Felix’s mouth was a thin line. Leonard said, “So this is what Charles has been doing all this time? Running around with these types of men, doing God knows what? Why on earth would a well-respected Earl do something so reckless and dangerous?
Felix nodded, his fists clenched. “Come. I think we must go and see him, tell him we know everything after all and see if we can disentangle him from this mess.”
Philip nodded. “The house is not far. Come, we may not have too much time. Those men could be watching us already.”
The men were silent on the carriage ride over, each of them attempting to sort out the information they had just received. Philip had a bad feeling. What use could Charles have for arson and for murder? Surely those things happened every day in London, but which crimes was he directly responsible for? In a short while, they were at the front of Charles’ house, knocking feverishly on the door.
No one answered for a few moments, and Leonard threw his arms up, huffing with frustration as he stepped away from the door. Philip glanced around. “Leonard, our urgency cannot be too conspicuous. We are still in town.”
“Where the bloody Hell is he?” Leonard said, his jaw clenching. “I do not even want to let myself think what he has done. And then to Margaret. What is his aim?”
Philip was silent, and he turned his head to see an old butler slowly opening the door. Painfully slowly. It seemed that fate was against them doing anything hurriedly. “Yes, gentlemen?” His voice was crackly with age.
