“I didn’t,” Luke admitted.
“I’ll speak with Mother. She’ll come around.”
“I appreciate it. It’s been a difficult few years. I’d like to put all the difficulties behind us.”
Marcus licked his lips, darted his gaze around the hallway as though he expected danger to be lurking about. “That’s what I wanted to talk with you about. You said you were attacked one night.”
“Yes.”
“It was Avendale’s doing.”
Luke knew that, but how had Marcus known? Luke stared at him, suspicion creeping in.
“Avendale? What would make you think that?”
“Apparently, he’s lost a good deal of money to you. He’s in financial straits and he’s quite angry about it.”
“And how do you know all this?”
“Because he approached me and told me that he would help me regain my title if I promised to pay him what you’d stolen from him once I inherited.”
“Help you regain it by having me murdered?”
“I didn’t know that was part of his plan. I told him that I wanted to do it legally through the courts. I thought he understood, but I learned too late that he is quite the madman.”
“And you didn’t think I needed to know this when I came before?”
“I was ashamed that I’d become involved with him. And quite honestly, I was terrified.
He indicated that he’d killed before, and I have little doubt he spoke the truth.”
“I appreciate your honesty.”
“For what it’s worth, I always thought you were a decent chap—well, except for killing my father, of course.”
“He brutally raped a twelve-year-old girl. That’s the reason I killed him. And while until recently, I had no memory of my parents’ murder, maybe a part of me did recognize him
—for I hesitated not at all in delivering what I considered justice.”
“You can’t always tell from looking at a person what he’s really like.”
Luke placed his hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “I don’t think you’re like your father.”
“Thank you for that. I’d best get back to Mother. While it’s not obvious, I suspect she’s taken all of this news rather hard.”
After watching his cousin disappear into the drawing room, Luke turned his thoughts to the problem of Avendale. He was going to take a great deal of pleasure in dispensing with the fellow.
Chapter 21
Midnight.
My library.
–L
The missive went out to three of them. There was a time when it would have gone to four.
They slipped into Luke’s library as quiet as the night, coming into the residence through their various preferred entrances. Bill entered through the kitchen. Jim climbed a tree and came in through a bedchamber window. Frannie preferred slipping in through a door that led off of the terrace.
