Page 56 of Dangerous Games of a Broken Lady
“I am ashamed to admit it, Jasper, but… the money was something of a bribe.”
Jasper frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There is one more task we must complete.”
“No… the job is done. Lord Rowntreemustbe satisfied by now?”
“He is not,” Ephraim replied solemnly. “The trickster desires my daughter for himself. And so, he has set me an impossible task. In order to protect Adelaide, I must seek to fulfil his wishes. If I do not, or I cannot, she shall be ruined… and my wife along with her.”
Jasper gaped at him. “I do not understand, My Lord.”
“Lord Rowntree sent me a letter this morning, detailing my next instructions,” he explained. “There was a credit note attached. He has increased our fee, but at a potentially enormous cost to our reputations. He knows I am not interested in the money he has to offer, which is why he has used alternative means of leverage.”
“Lady Adelaide?”
“Yes.”
“What do you mean, he ‘desires’ her?”
Ephraim sighed and stared into his ale. “He alluded to the possibility of coming to ‘alternative arrangements’ instead of fulfilling this new task. Those arrangements concern my daughter. He wishes to have her for himself. He mentioned that he is in the market for a wife, and I believe he intends to put Adelaide in that role. He has trapped me in a corner, Jasper, and I cannot see another way out.” He clawed in a shaky breath. “Wemustdo as he has asked, and we must do it successfully. If we do not… Adelaide is lost.”
“What is this task?”
“He wishes us to steal a golden scepter from the altar of Westminster Abbey.”
Jasper almost spat out his drink. “This is some jest, surely? He cannot expect you to actually go through with such a thing?”
“No, I do not believe he does. I think he suspects that I will bow out, and allow him to make an offer of marriage to Adelaide.”
“But she is already engaged, is she not? The Duke of Bradford will not permit such a thing.”
Ephraim sighed. “There is enough unscrupulous behavior to warrant a break in the engagement with the Duke. It would not prove too difficult to put an end to it, especially with Lord Rowntree at the helm. He will find every scrap of scandal there is to find, and he will use it against the Duke, to forge his path towards Adelaide.”
“The devil!” Jasper hissed.
“He has planned it to the last detail,” Ephraim admitted. “If we fail, there shall be an outcry and Adelaide shall see her reputation in tatters. The Duke of Bradford will likely break the engagement anyway, if it is discovered that I am a no-good thief, and Lord Rowntree will swoop in. If we refuse, he will seize her by force. He has already threatened as much.”
For a long time, Jasper said nothing. Ephraim could see that the young man was reeling from the revelation. Once again, he found himself wondering why Jasper and Adelaide had never forged an attachment. They might have avoided all of this, if they had done so. In his near-bankruptcy, the Gilletts would have done all they could to set him right again. Indeed, it would have been Jasper’s obligation.
“This is ludicrous,” Jasper whispered, at last.
“I know.”
“Do you really intend to do this—to steal something so valuable from the Abbey?”
“I must.”
Jasper sat back in his seat and ran an anxious hand through his curls. “Do you wish for assistance? Is that why you have called me here? I thought it a somewhat curious place for us to come. I have not frequented a public house in a few years—not in London, anyway.”
“I know that I cannot ask such a thing of you, but I must,” Ephraim replied solemnly. “If you refuse, I will not hold it against you. I will understand completely. You have your own reputation to consider, and I would not jeopardize it.”
“Can you trick Lord Rowntree into believing you have attempted the task?”
Ephraim shook his head. “Do you believe a man such as that would accept failure?”
“No… I suppose not.”
“I am sorry to ask this of you, Jasper. It pains me to do so.”
