Page 66 of The Duke and Lady Scandal
“Forgive me, Chief Constable, but I don’t understand. Miss Haverstock is a fine young woman—”
“The finest you’ll ever have the opportunity to court.”
Ben willed himself not to lash out. Haverstock liked getting his own way, and for some reason he was set on this match with his daughter. Which begged the very pertinent bloody question.
“Why do you wish me to court her, Sir Felix? You imply that I barely deserve such an honor. And perhaps you’re right. You know the murky nature of my parentage.”
Haverstock scoffed. “Ah, Drake. You have moments of brilliance, boy, and then those when you fall far short of your abilities.”
Ben rocked on his heels and considered walking out of the man’s office. He’d had quite enough of the chief for one morning. The man had never baited him so openly. Never insulted him so plainly.
“Do you think I’d consider you a suitable match for my daughter if I didn’t know your history as thoroughly as I know my own?”
“How could you know my history when I don’tknow it myself?” Ben’s patience with the man and his maneuverings was at an end.
“I know your father, of course.”
For a moment, everything in his periphery went black, then blurred. Sounds became muffled. When it all rushed back, he was bent over Haverstock’s desk, his fists planted on the man’s blotter.
“Explain yourself, Haverstock.”
“He will never acknowledge you publicly, but he’s a man of noble blood and...” Haverstock stroked his beard thoughtfully. “He checks in on you now and then.”
“And you never told me.” Ben was shocked he’d gotten the words out with his teeth clenched so tight.
Haverstock stood, stretching to his full height, which was still a few inches less than Ben’s, and puffed out his chest.
“He asked me not to. He approached me at a gentleman’s club, told me he’d been watching your progress.”
As a boy, he’d believed having a caring father might have changed all their lives, but now it seemed the man was a coward, one who could beget illegitimate children but did not wish to endure the consequences.
He didn’t need some watcher now. He’d needed a father a decade ago.
Ben’s breath tangled in his chest. The fear and uncertainty of childhood swept in, but he forced the feelings away and focused on the man he wasnow. What he’d accomplished. What he’d yet to achieve. Then he thought of Alexandra and wanted nothing as much as to wrap his arms around her.
All that he’d accomplished paled in comparison to how she made him feel.
“I have no interest in courting your daughter, Sir Felix. She is an intelligent young woman and can surely choose her suitors for herself.”
“How dare you—”
“And I’d ask you not to share any more details of myprogresswith Lord Whoever, but I doubt you’d heed my wishes.”
“You forget yourself, Detective Inspector,” Haverstock barked. The man rarely raised his voice and seemed flustered by his own loss of control. “I will allow it because the matter of your parentage is tender. But I mean what I said, man. Leave off trifling with this Prince chit and find these brazen thieves.”
Haverstock pointed to the folio Ben had picked up. “You’ll see that if you do, you may kill two birds.”
Ben frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There was a scrap of paper found. A cutting from a newspaper. A single letter.” Haverstock raised both white brows. “Any guess, Drake, what that letter might be?”
Ben flipped through the folio and found a photograph of the piece of evidence. The letterMstood in two sharp black peaks, its serifs ornate, as if it had come from the masthead of a newspaper.
Allie hadn’t been able to sleep a wink.
After leaving Ben’s as the first light of morning dawned, she’d taken a cab home and tried for rest. Not ten minutes later, Lottie had come in to lay a fire, and Allie had given up.
Oddly, she wasn’t tired at all. Her mind flowed with energy and ideas, and for the first time they weren’t ideas intended to win Dom’s approval or impress Eve. They didn’t even involve a research expedition or traveling with her siblings on a dig. They were ideas for Princes, to revive interest in the shop, perhaps entice new customers, and the notion that she would go on her trip to Ireland with or without Dom’s blessing.
