Page 27 of The Confessions of a Lady
Leaning into his bluff, Liam tucked the letters back into his pocket. ‘There you go thinking again. Dangerous pastime for someone with such limited skills, Charles.’
Fear leaked into Charles’ voice, lifting the pitch to a plaintive whine. ‘You can’t give those to my father. He won’t just banish me. He’ll kill me. Reynard told me about your father. You must under?—’
‘If your father’s cruelty is even an echo of mine’s, I imagine you will be very motivated to meet my demands.’ Liam kept his voice quiet, calm, and deadly cold though his blood boiled. Knowing his brother shared such embarrassing details about their childhood, that Charles knew the kind of cruelty Liam and Reynard endured, created a vulnerability in Liam he could not tolerate. Pushing the weakness into his depths, he leaned forward. ‘I’m hosting a masque. The Snake will meet me there to hear my business proposal. One which will be incredibly beneficial to the Devil’s Sons. And you will ensure this happens, or your father will find out just how worthless a second son is to his legacy.’
Charles’ already pale face whitened further. ‘I want to help you. Trust me, I do. But that’s not enough to take to the Snake.’
Liam pushed back his chair, readying to stand. ‘Then I suppose our meeting is at an end. I wonder if your father will be at White’s later. I’m sure I can find an excuse to bump into him.’
Charles almost knocked his mug of steaming coffee onto his lap as he reached out and grabbed Liam’s wrist. Liam froze, staring at Charles’ hand as if it were diseased.
It likely is diseased. Cupid’s disease, most certainly.
Charles removed his shaking fingers and flattened his hands on the scarred table. ‘I’m not saying I can’t do it. I just need more information. What kind of business proposal are you intending?’
Liam straightened his jacket before reclaiming his seat. ‘I’m hardly prepared to share the details with you. But it’s public knowledge I recently acquired Clark and Simpson Shipping.’
‘Rather gauche of you to lower yourself to the level of trade, don’t you think, Renquist?’
The idea that Charles found anything Liam did vulgar was laughable.
‘Hardly. Times are changing, Charles. Members of the peerage won’t long be able to depend on the rent of tenant farmers when so many are moving into the cities and finding jobs in industry. But I digress. I now have in my possession a number of ships. Use your limited brain capacity to imagine how that might benefit your brotherhood.’
Charles leaned back in his seat, frowning until comprehension dawned. He nodded his head, slowly at first, then with more enthusiasm, and smiled wide until the sore broke open and began to bleed. ‘Shit,’ he muttered, pressing the palm of his hand against his mouth.
Liam raised a brow at him, not trying to hide his disgust. ‘You should take care of that.’
‘Yes.’ Charles got to his feet and swayed a moment before regaining his balance. ‘I’ll extend your invitation to the brotherhood. I’m sure the Snake will want to discuss your proposal.’ He pulled his hand away and frowned at the blood before quickly reapplying the pressure to his mouth. ‘Those letters…’ He looked beseechingly at Liam’s pocket.
‘Ah yes. I’ll keep these safe until my meeting with the Snake.’
The spark of light in Charles’ eyes dimmed. ‘Yes, well. Just be sure to keep your promise, Renquist. You aren’t the only one with evidence that could cause embarrassment. Even if your brother is dead, his reputation can still be tarnished.’
Liam stood. He towered over Charles. ‘Threaten me again and you’ll quickly learn you need not live in fear of your father’s retribution. Not when you have instigated mine. I am quite adept at eliminating obstacles, Charles. I’m sure I have a captain or two happy enough to offload cargo in the middle of the soak. Food for the sharks. No one will ever find your body. You’ll just be one more feckless young man who disappears.’
Charles took an unsteady step backward into the large back of a man built for brawling. The man turned slowly, his light hair shorn close to his head and glinting nearly silver in the light. A ghastly scar cut down his face from his left temple to his right jaw. Glacial eyes pinned Charles before looking beyond the quaking fool to Liam. Recognition sparked.
‘Liam. I did not expect to see you here, especially not in such low company.’ His icy stare returned to Charles.
Another man stepped from the shadow cast by the blond giant. His black hair and green gaze were as familiar to Liam as his own reflection in the mirror.
Liam groaned. He had purposefully avoided reaching out to his oldest friends, Major General Beaufort Drake and Lieutenant General Robert Killian, because of their close ties to the prime minister. Once joined in every venture, he now found himselfat odds with Killian and Drake. They stood on opposite sides of a clear line drawn by their monarch and the head of England’s government. But the fates had chosen this moment to intervene.
I fucking hate the fates.
Penny received one day off a month. It was a precious time where she alone controlled her activities. Today, she was determined to see her mother. She had been saving her wages to afford the sixpence passage on an omnibus from the corner of Hyde’s Park and Piccadilly East to the Fleet Street line before shifting north to the Islington line and getting off at Cold Bath Springs. With all the traffic and stops, it took close to an hour, but then she only had a five-minute walk from there to get to Coldbath Fields Prison.
After paying off the gaoler, a guard escorted her through the narrow, damp passageways reeking of human excrement, mould, and stagnant water to her mother’s cell.
‘You’ve an hour before I come back to get ye. Mind yerself, lassie.’ He spat, then scratched at a sore on his arm before lumbering away.
Penny did her best not to react to the drastic changes in her mother. Harriet’s hair was all grey now, her frame thin, and her skin pallid. When she reached out to clasp Penny in a ragged hug, Penny feared she might break her poor mother. The woman’s hands were chapped and cracking, her face lined like a roadmap of sorrow, but her eyes still sparkled with mischief, her once full lips turning up in a smile.
‘My girl! You shouldn’t have come. Waste of your wages travelling such a way to see me. Nothing changes here, love.’
‘Of course I came. And don’t worry about the cost. Things are looking up for me. I have a good job with a kind lord.’ Not exactly true, but there was no harm in spinning a pretty tale to ease her mother’s worries. ‘Look, I brought you a new coat.’ New to her mother, at least. When Penny’s roommate determined she needed a ready-made coat of soft grey felt, Penny took the girl’s cast-off cloak and patched it. The wool was a bit threadbare in places, but it would keep her mother warm in the impenetrable cold, dark cell.
Harriet had developed a worrisome, hacking cough. When Penny asked after her health, Harriet waved a frail hand. ‘I’m right as rain, m’dear. We Smith women are made of sturdy stuff. One of the guards sneaks me this and that when he can, so I makes my potions. Don’t you worry about your dear old mother. I can keep myself strong and ready for the day I get out of this hole. No reason to waste our time talking about me. How are you, my beautiful girl?’
