Page 130 of The Bastard's Iberian Bride
Bink got up from his seat. The minion, drawn to the drama at the table, didn’t notice. “It says nothing, I’ll warrant. Nothing more than ‘Dear wife, how fares you, and how is my Paulette’. No secret location of Fouché’s letter to you that Filomena here lifted. Nor the name on the bank account where your French gold is hidden.”
A bloody corner of Filomena’s mouth quirked. Was Bink bluffing, and did Fil know it? Or did she really have a letter from a Frenchman?
Paulette’s grip tightened around the knife. “It’s true then. You worked for the French. It’s why you tried to kill my cousin. It’s why you had my father killed. He found out the truth.”
His pencil moved busily, but she could see the white of his knuckles. He paused to frown over the inner markings of the rings.
He looked puzzled and displeased.
But of course. There would be another ring. Bink had said there sometimes was a heart. The heart was missing, and so the code would not work.
Bink sent her another tiny shake of the head and took up her thread. “But your blood money went missing.”
Paulette nodded to him and Fil. “And you inherited an estate that was broke or… You killed your uncle and your cousin. And that wasn’t enough, so you married that pitiful rich widow, and that wasn’t enough, either. Did you kill her also?”
The blackguard smiled. “What if I did?”
Monster. Taking this man’s life would serve mankind.
“How? How did you do it?” Bink asked.
“It’s easily done,” Fil said. “A cut in the team’s rigging, a poor load on the hunting gun. A bit each day of poison in her ladyship’s tea.”
Agruen laughed.
“Did you?” Bink asked. “If we are all to die anyway, there’s no harm in telling us. And your boy here is a criminal just like you.” The look he sent the man said he was expendable also, but Agruen was too focused on the cipher to notice.
“A criminal?” Agruen laughed. “I’m a peer of the realm.”
“Traitor, rapist, murderer.” Bink spit the words out, and this time Agruen looked. “Soldiers died because of you. Farm men, flash house boys, East Enders like him.” He nodded toward the minion. “Wellington’s valiant scum. Men who for once in their lives had a right to a fair fight.”
“What if they did? What if I am? What did King George do for any of you, you fool. When I find that blackmailer, and that money, I’ll go on about my business, sitting in Parliament with the rest of my brethren. And pah, I intend to enjoy a dalliance with the fair Paulette. Though I would have preferred her unspoiled by a rutting beast like you.”
“You pig,” Paulette said. “You vile, greedy, bottom-sucking arse of a pig. You willnevertouch me. You willneverlay a hand on me.”
Filomena smiled. “That’s my girl,” she said softly.
Agruen’s mouth contorted. He dropped the pencil. “This is a pretty letter, but it’s not the right one. You’ve not brought me the right one.” He jerked his head at his man. “Kill him.”
“Wait,” Paulette shouted, even as she saw Bink whisper to the man, who scratched at his jaw and stared at his master.
“Kill him,” Agruen growled.
“M’brother died in that war. In Spain it was.”
“That’s where he cheated men like us,” Bink said. “Bastards and lords alike. Moore and his men, driven into the sea.”
“You fool.” Agruen pushed from the table and flew at Bink.
Bink’s foot swung out, kicking the big chair at Agruen, catching the villain’s blade.
Paulette threw off her bonds and Agruen’s man looked at her, startled.
“Get out,” Fil shouted.
The man backed toward the door.
“Get him,” Agruen yelled at his man.
