Page 91 of The Pleasures of Passion
But he didn’t understand that love wasn’t always enough. It hadn’t been enough to keep him at her side. It hadn’t been enough to keepanyoneat her side. And then she was inevitably left bleeding where no one could see.
She choked down her pain. Niall didn’t understand that trusting your heart, opening it to love, could destroy you. And right now, that terrified her more than even the thought of being without him.
Nineteen
Niall went straight to his study, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Frustration gripped him, not only with Bree but with the whole damned situation. He loved the woman to distraction, and if she didn’t accept his proposal tomorrow, he didn’t know what he’d do.
For one thing, to finish his agreement with Fulkham he’d have to continue their fake engagement, and the idea of being with her as some polite pretend suitor . . . He couldn’t do it. Not anymore.
Meanwhile, this counterfeiting scheme made less and less sense. Sir Oswald wasn’t the master criminal type; the man could barely win a game of whist, for God’s sake!
Raines wasn’t a viable suspect anymore, unless the tale about his interest in Mrs. Vyse was just to throw people off, and somehow Niall doubted that.
Niall wanted the culprit to be Sir Kenneth, but that was merely because of the man’s association with Joseph Whiting.
Gritting his teeth, he sat down at his desk and took out the banknote he’d snagged earlier in the evening to examine it under a magnifying glass. It was definitely a counterfeit. But if Fulkham hadn’t told him how to recognize the fakes, Niall would never have caught it. The art was quite well-done. Which, according to Bree, ruled out Sir Oswald as the person who created the forgeries.
Niall sat back. He’d send this off to Fulkham with a note arranging to meet tomorrow at the club. That would give the man time to consider their next step. In the meantime, Niall would talk to Sir Oswald. Not to confront him, but just to see what information the fellow might let slip.
And perhaps in the process, he would read Sir Oswald the riot act over what the man had done to Bree. It was something Niall could do for her that she seemed unable to do for herself. So at the very least, it would make him feel better.
With that plan in mind, he was finally able to sleep for a few hours. But as soon as he’d awakened and sent off the note to Fulkham, he dressed and headed for the Payne town house on foot. He needed to clear his head, and a brisk walk was good for that.
He was half a block from the place when he spotted a coach pulling away from the door. Blast, was Sir Oswald leaving already? It was awfully early for the man to be out and about.
Then the coach rumbled past, and Niall realized it was a hackney carrying Toby Payne somewhere. Good. That would give him more privacy to speak frankly with Sir Oswald.
As Niall neared the entrance, he heard a loud commotion emanating from the open windows on an upper floor.
Sir Oswald was apparently on the warpath. “Who isheto tell me how to live?” the man raged. “All he gives me is grief every bloody day. I didn’taskhim to come here and make my life a misery!”
The sound of someone murmuring soothing, indistinct words drifted out to Niall.
“What amIsupposed to do about it?” Sir Oswald said. “Bloody arse. Be damned glad you don’t have a brother, Jenkins. They’re nothing but trouble!”
Niall approached the door, but before he could knock, it opened to reveal a harried footman. “Thank God you’ve come, my lord! Perhaps you can settle the master down.”
“Bring me up to him. I’ll see what I can do.”
The footman hurried up the stairs ahead of him to announce him.
They ended up in Sir Oswald’s study, where poor Jenkins was being forced to play the role of reassuring friend, probably because Sir Oswald’s so-called friends were mostly bounders who only cared about him as a potential source of revenue.
The minute Niall entered, Sir Oswald turned all his anger on him. “This isyourfault, Margrave, for not playing better last night. My brother is furious at me, and why? Because we lost. Because the money he loaned me is gone.”
The money Payne had loanedhim? That gave Niall pause. “Leave us,” he told Jenkins and the footman, who beat a hasty retreat. Then he approached Sir Oswald. “What are you talking about? I ran into your brother last night on my way into the inn, and he told me he had come to get money fromyou. That you had paid him back for some past loans.”
Sir Oswald’s mouth fell open. “Don’t be absurd, man. I have no blunt at present. Everything I get goes right to paying my creditors. I sure as hell don’t give it to my brother.”
What had Bree said the first day they’d come here?If my father is part of this conspiracy, I warrant it’s only because he owes money everywhere.
“I don’t understand,” Niall said. Why would Payne have lied about that?
“Toby came to the inn to bringmefunds,” Sir Oswald went on. “Then he apparently regretted it today, for he was just here demanding the money back from me. I told him you and I lost it all, and he was none too happy.”
One of the two men had to be lying. And if Payne had given Sir Oswald money last night instead of the other way around, then the counterfeit note might have come fromhim.
But how could that be? Fulkham had said Payne hadn’t been in England long enough to be responsible for the counterfeiting.
