Page 120 of The Bastard's Iberian Bride
Chapter 24
Bink’s headthundered so badly he strained to hear. He’d killed Paulette’s father, unjustly, unwisely, on the word of a villain.
No.No.The man had still breathed when Beauverde pulled Bink off him. The woman had still breathed also, though neither of them could talk.
He blinked at the pain and the images and forced his attention to the key facts of Kincaid’s story, the ones Paulette’s survival depended upon.
Agruen had been working with France and the Spanish traitors, theAfrancesados. That was no surprise. Paulette’s father, and the woman, had been working with Agruen and against him at the same time. There had been money, a great deal of it, and a ransom that had gone missing.
“But Agruen has no money,” Paulette said.
“Yes.” Kincaid looked far too much at his ease on the edge of the desk. Bink longed to knock the man down. He’d told Paulette a story that would destroy what they had, this tender green love.
And who’s fault is that, Bink, you miserable brute.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Pity, he couldn’t shut out his memories, or silence the voice in his head.
“Either the money was lost or was stolen from him, or we’ve considered that he might be paying blackmail.” Kincaid was all business again.
She glared down at the rich carpet. Her panic had passed, just as the intimacy between them would. She would leave him. Kincaid, so all attentive, was perhaps grooming her to be one of their operatives. He would use her, just as he’d used her father.
The pain in his head dulled and spread, threatening to consume him.
He tried to focus. He would hire a good steward for Little Norwick. He would make sail for India by Christmas.
“I have nothing. And you know I have not been blackmailing him. I want my ring back.”
“You told him that at Greencastle,” Kincaid said.
“Yes.”
“He wanted to see what you’d receive upon Shaldon’s death,” Kincaid mused.
Bink eyed the crafty Scotsman. “And how did he know to find Paulette at Greencastle?”
Kincaid almost smiled. “We’d got word to him, round about.”
Hackwell. Hackwell had been in on this game far longer than Bink had known.What the devil.
“When he discovered you were marrying Gibson, he knew Gibson would receive whatever was held for you, and being an honorable man, turn it over to you. And we knew you’d protect Paulette and whatever was hers.”
And you knew I’d fall in love with her, like the sick, sentimental fool that I am.
Paulette shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, since there is nothing. How could he think a keepsake, or whatever this is supposed to be would be locked up?” She looked at him, the trust still shining in her eyes.
That look was like a sharp kick to his gut. The trust would be gone soon.
He’d talk to her later, privately. He’d tell her everything, and if she wanted him gone, he’d leave.
“Bink. I want to go back where we stayed last night. Can we do that without endangering…them?”
He thought of Betty, and Trish, and Rowland. Agruen’s hired men would cut them to pieces.
She shook her head. “No, I suppose not.”
“We’ll go to Hackwell House. Kincaid.” He fixed the man with a glare. “You’ll employ us extra help.”
“Shaldon House will be better, Bink,” Bakeley said. “You know how Father is about security.”
