Page 64 of Her Impeccable Scoundrel
“Very well,” she said, her voice more brittle than she would have liked. “Bridie Lane,” she called to the driver and then turned to Graeme. “Lunetta Casale claims to have the only copy of the new will,” she said softly. “She wants five hundred pounds for it.”
Graeme looked away and frowned. “What are her circumstances?”
“She says she contracted an illness from Archie.”
“And is unable to work at her trade? What is this place we are visiting?”
“A house where someone she knew had rooms. She had Archie frank correspondence to send to Bridie Lane. She may be living there now.”
“Is it a brothel?”
“That is a good guess but I don’t know. My emissaries have not had success.”
“I’m glad you’re not going there alone. Who have you sent to look for her?”
“My brother, of course, and a street urchin, Bobby, who it seems you have befriended already. Did you bribe him to walk me to the hackney you hired?”
Graeme hid a smile at her shrewdness.
“Bobby is as happy as the next urchin to accept a coin, but in all truth, he was as worried about you going out alone as I am. He regards you fondly, my lady.”
“He regards Cook’s pies even more fondly.”
“What is your plan today? Did you bring the money?”
“If I pawned all my jewelry I could not come up with that amount. And I would not take the Chilcombe jewels, which will rightly belong to the next Lady Chilcombe. I am not a thief. I will simply negotiate with her.”
“You are a cool one, Lady Chilcombe.”
She turned her gaze on him, and he saw the turmoil in her eyes and felt a twinge of guilt. But he must go on.
“I applaud your… adaptability. Your quick thinking. If I were sitting across the negotiating table from you, I might use the word wiliness. You burned the copy of that new will that Sir Morris was carrying to London, didn’t you. How did you obtain it?”
Though her eyes remained open, she’d drawn a shade down on her emotions.
“Let me speculate,” he said. “You followed Sir Morris and found him after his crash. You’re not a murderer, you said, and I believe you. He was already dead when you arrived. You withdrew the will from his baggage and took it back to Bluebelle Lodge, where Coralie saw you burning it.”
That brought the slightest of gasps before her mouth firmed in a mulish line.
“Coralie told me. I don’t believe she’s told anyone else. And who would think to question a young girl? Was it not a bit cruel for you to leave Sir Morris to the mercy of the elements?”
A long moment ticked by before she spoke.
“As you said, he was already dead when I came across him,” she said quietly. “I was going for help at Risley Manor when a coach came along and stopped for him. They did not see me.”
“Was the will the same as Diddenton asserts?”
She nodded. “And as Archie described to me that day.” She took in a tight breath. “There is more. A letter Sir Morris was carrying to Diddenton. I… I took it also. It was from Lord Vernon to his father, telling him that, as his father had suggested, he’d supplied Archie with the Indian opium and left Sir Morris to persuade Archie to sign the new will. He said that Archie’s health and his addiction were such that his death would be imminent, and having performed this task, he expected to take possession of Bluebelle Lodge before summer.”
“Astonishing. The letter?—”
“Is hidden. I didn’t destroy it. But I couldn’t see a way to produce it to the court without incurring suspicions of my own.”
Graeme sat, thinking.
“If Lunetta has the will, what do you intend to do with it, Lord Chilcombe?”
“I thought we might burn it together,” he said.
