Page 47 of The Scoundrel of Drury Lane
“Shall we discuss our plans while we eat?” Kit offered. The others agreed.
Kit joined his friends at the sideboard, where a dozen chafing dishes lay ready for them. It was so strange to be among his old friends like this, eating fine food in a fine dining room.Hisdining room. There was still a part of him that wondered if he was dreaming and would soon wake up on the dirty floor of the stables. It was going to take a while to get accustomed to his old life again.
Felix nudged him in the ribs. At first, he thought it was just to get him to move so he could reach the cold meats. “You all right, Kit?”
“Yes,” he lied.
“Kit has some good news to share,” Darius added with a cheeky smile as he sat down with a plate of food. The others joined him at the table and stared at Kit expectantly.
“I am to be married.”
Lionel gaped, open-mouthed, unable to speak. Felix laughed, and Warren blinked in astonishment. Only Vincent seemed unsurprised.
“You’re marrying the Townsend chit, I take it?” Vincent guessed aloud.
“You are?” Lionel echoed.
Kit nodded.
“When did all of this happen?” Lionel asked. “I’ve missed more than I thought. Bloody dances and dinners...”
“I know it’s rather sudden, but I think she and I shall do well together,” Kit said. He tried to eat, but he felt oddly nervous. Part of him needed his friends’ approval of the match.
“Well, now you’ve sunk us,” Warren said. “Damnation. Once our mothers hear of you tying the knot, the rest of us are doomed.‘Oh, Warren, even Kit, who was banished to the penal colonies, has come back and found a wife. What’syourexcuse?’” He mimicked his mother’s tone, and the others laughed. Just like that, the tension Kit felt evaporated like morning mist.
“Wedding talk aside,” Darius cut in, “we need to catch up on what Felix has uncovered about Balfour.”
Felix swallowed a bit of poached egg and cleared his throat. “I’ve spoken to nearly twenty families of victims transported for crimes where Balfour presided over their cases. None have heard from the sentenced people since they were transported. No letters or anything.”
“That’s not uncommon. We could barely afford to eat beyond what we were provided by those we worked for. It was nearly impossible to buy paper and ink for letters,” Kit added softly. “The men we worked for had only the duty to feed us and provide a place to sleep and a few bits of clothing. They had no other requirements to treat us well.”
“I assumed that might be the case. As to the men and women Balfour sentenced, more than half are reported to have died on the crossing over,” Felix continued. “That’s also no particular surprise, except for the fact that in each of these cases Balfour had some type of benefit that was later revealed. Sometimes a business transaction or shares in a company he acquired. Sometimes there was more of a personal connection, like a maid who accused an acquaintance of Balfour’s of assault would suddenly be convicted of a theft at another house.”
Kit sighed heavily. It was as he’d suspected. “He’s using the law as a battering ram to get what he wants.”
“Yes. His cases, when taken one at a time, don’t look particularly suspicious. One could easily make excuses for him,” Felix said. “But when pooled together, it becomes an obvious abuse of power.” Felix shot a glance at Warren. “Tell them what you learned last night at the docks.”
Warren leaned forward in his chair as all eyes turned to him. “Does the name James Murray mean anything to you?”
Kit’s throat ran dry as old, terrible memories of the crossing to Australia returned to him. “Yes, he was the captain of my transport ship. He was a hard man.”
“Well, I happened to come across him in a tavern. Apparently, he’s recently retired from transporting prisoners. He remembered you clearly when I spoke of you. He said he’s willing to testify that he was paid to kill you. He admitted to taking the money but said he had no intention of fulfilling his end of the bargain.”
“And he didn’t,” Kit confessed. “The crossing was a terrible journey. Many men and women died, but he didn’t cause their deaths. At least, not directly. Illnesses borne of close confinement did that for him.” He’d seen more than twenty prisoners die of consumption in less than a month. He’d been one of the men required to help sew the bodies up in canvas bags and toss them overboard, and it was a lucky thing he hadn’t caught it himself.
“How are Walsh’s debts coming along?” Kit asked.
“We have purchased every business and personal debt we could,” Lionel said. “All we need to do is tell our intermediaries to begin calling them in. Once that’s done, Lennox can come and make the offer to buy the shipping company.”
“Start calling in the debts today,” Kit said.
Lionel answered with a nod.
“Once Walsh realizes we are crushing him, he will run to Balfour for help,” Vincent said. “What if Balfour attempts to help him?”
“That’s exactly what we want.” Kit smiled grimly. “We’ll take every penny from them both, and when they have nothing left, we’ll bring the law down upon them.” Revenge was so close now he could taste it.
* * *
