Page 14 of One Dangerous Desire
The laughter stopped, cut off with a squeak, and the plump housekeeper bustled out of his office door into the main hallway.
“What can I do for you, sir?”
He lifted the ends of his mangled tie.
“Ah, I see. Mr. Brooks not up to snuff, eh?”
Rex raised one eyebrow and stepped in front of her. He wasn’t going to fuel the row between the older woman and Brooks by defending the young man. The boy would have to prove himself. That was the way of the world.
She worked quickly and efficiently, stepping back a moment later to inspect her handiwork. “There you go, sir.”
“What was that noise I heard when I came down just now?”
“Noise?” Her right eye twitched as her cheeks bloomed with color.
“I’m at fault, sir.” Sullivan emerged from Rex’s office. “Blame me if we were making too much commotion.”
Rex looked from his housekeeper to his inquiry agent, both of whom seemed ready to burst into nervous laughter again. “Very well. Mrs. Hark, thank you for your assistance. Let the coachman know I’ll require my carriage at the top of the hour. Sullivan, do you have information for me? ”
“Yes, sir.”
Rex noted his housekeeper’s wink in Sullivan’s direction before she opened the door leading downstairs.
“What do you have for me, Jack?” He poured himself a dash of whiskey as Sullivan took a seat and slid his trusty notebook from his coat pocket.
“You asked me to look into Devenham, and it’s much as you expected. The man needs funds. His family’s estate in Derbyshire requires repairs, and the family’s coffers were severely depleted by the previous earl’s proclivity for women, drink, and elaborate parties. The new earl can’t be classed a miser, but he seems determined to restore the family’s wealth. Miss Sedgwick and another American heiress are reputedly at the top of his list of prospective brides.”
Knowing that May was the objective for men like Devenham was one thing. Hearing Sullivan report it in his practical, even tone made Rex’s stomach roil. Especially when he could still see those blue eyes and wind-chafed lips wherever he looked. For four days he’d convinced himself he could smell her rose scent perfuming the air. All that while he’d tortured himself by replaying the history between them, from the days of their short-lived romance back in New York to the moment he saw her again in Ashworth’s drawing room.
A relationship between them had been improbable from their first encounter six years ago in the glassware shop where he’d worked as a clerk. He should have treated her as he did every other fine young lady who entered the store. Civil, but detached, fully aware that they weren’t part of his world. Except that May had looked at him as none of them ever had. She gazedathim, rather than past him. She’d stared brazenly, and he’d never been the same since.
A series ofwhat ifshaunted him. If he’d had the courage to stand up to her father, how might his life have been different? Would she have married him as he’d planned to ask her to do? What if he’d faced her in Central Park that night and urged her to elope with him?
The ridges of his crystal snifter began to dig into his palm. He gripped the damn thing hard enough to shatter it.
“Mr. Leighton?”
Sullivan had been speaking and he’d missed it. “Go on.”
“I said that Miss Sedgwick may soon fall off the earl’s list.”
A flicker of pleasure bloomed in Rex’s chest, and he loosened his hold on the crystal. “Tell me why.”
Sullivan flipped his notebook closed and folded his hands in his lap. His mouth stretched into a grim line, and his brow drew down in an ominous scowl.
“Good grief, man. What?”
“For some time I have been reporting to you on Mr. Sedgwick’s activities here in London. The women, the gambling dens. But I’ve been wired news from New York about his finances. He may be forced to sell his retail shops in New York and Chicago.”
A few sips of whiskey had warmed his blood, but now Rex’s mind turned sluggish. Seymour Sedgwick without Sedgwick’s? It was an impossible equation.
“Is this rumor or confirmed fact?”
“Fact, sir. My sources indicate Sedgwick’s is in dire financial straits.”
Rex slumped onto the edge of his desk. The information should thrill him. Sedgwick had threatened his destruction and driven him out of May’s life. He’d daydreamed for years about seeing the man get his comeuppance. Yet he couldn’t take any pleasure in Sedgwick’s failures. He thought only of May and how her father’s financial ruin would affect her.
“If Miss Sedgwick plans to snag a nobleman, she’ll have to be quick about it,” Sullivan continued.
