“You are not in my hair,” Constance said. “And you don’t strike me as a deserving case for charity. You should also be aware I have the means of removing you from my house.”
“Bit hoity-toity for a whore, ain’t you?” Kenny said, with the deliberate insult of the bully. “We knew you for who and what you are as soon as you walked into the shop. Lowering the tone of a respectable establishment,Mrs. Silver.” He smiled, though it was more like a leer. “Or is that Mrs. Grey?”
Solomon—and Madly—were right. He really did think it was a huge revelation, that word of Solomon Grey’s very odd marriage had not begun to trickle out even before it happened. No doubt she had her powerful clients to thank for the discretion of newspapers. It had never even been blared across the worst scandal rags.
“That’s my price,” Kenny said. “Two thousand. Or I walk straight out of here into the office of a very good friend of mine. He works late atHush Magazine.”
Constance knew how to look frightened. “You can’t go to the press. You have no proof.”
“Don’t need any. One paragraph’s all it will take. And everyone knows. You’ll have no punters ’cause the wives’ll keep ’em at home. And no one’ll do business with Mr. Solomon Grey no more. Pariahs,” Kenny pronounced with relish. “That’s what you’ll be. Unless I get my two thousand pounds.”
Constance swung away from him. She counted to ten, slowly, while the back of her neck prickled. She knew better than to turn her back on an enemy, but she had to convince him. Still, she didn’t put it past him to hit her over the head or strangle her before he rummaged about the house looking for money and jewels. Her necklace alone was worth enough to get him abroad…
Eight, nine, ten. “I don’t keep that kind of money in the house,” she said. “I have nothing like it. If you wait until tomorrow—”
“Nope,” Kenny interrupted. “It’s all tonight. Payment—orHush Magazine. Make up your mind. Unlike Mr. Madly, I ain’t got all night.”
Constance turned back to him at last. He hadn’t moved. “What if I give you this necklace, and the few hundred in cash I have in my safe? Is that enough to stop you from giving this story to the magazine and ruining my husband and me?”
Kenny scowled. “How many hundred?”
“Four, maybe five.”
“I ain’t that cheap,” he growled. He looked her up and down with studied insolence. “Still, I’m a gent. Throw in the earrings and the ring on your finger, and I’ll consider it.”
Constance drew in her breath. “Very well… On one condition.”
“No conditions.”
“You blackmailed a friend of mine,” Constance said, her voice shaky but determined. “Mrs. St. John. I’ve been looking into that for her, and I know it was Veronique. Give me the page you tore from your wife’s book, the page with Mrs. St. John’s name on it. And I’ll give you the earrings, too. And one ring.”
“Nope,” said Kenny, smiling wolfishly as he sat back and folded his hands across his small paunch. “All three rings. Including the wedding band.”
“No, please, not my wedding ring…”
“All of them. Or it’sHush Magazineand no hush for you!” He laughed at his own feeble joke, clearly settling into his familiar and comfortable role. His little piggy eyes gleamed.
Constance swallowed. “Then show me the paper. Or…or there is no deal.”
Kenny laughed. He knew she was lying. But he did delve inside his coat for a paper that he let flutter to the floor at his feet. It was of no more use to him. He was fleeing. Constance went and picked it up. The St. John name leapt out at her, but she had no time for more at that moment.
She lifted her gaze slowly to his. “Did you kill Mr. St. John?”
There was no mistaking the startlement in his eyes. “Course I did,” he boasted.
The trouble was, she knew he was lying.
He held out his hand. “Now hand over the jewels and fetch me my money.”
Stuffing the page up her sleeve, she went to the cabinet and took out the small bundle of banknotes she had put there deliberately, along with the fat velvet bag beneath, which was full of cut-up newspaper.
“If I give you all this, you will keep my secret?”
“And if you don’t, I’ll shout it via all the papers I know.”
She returned to him and handed over the bundle of notes. He snatched the bag and again held out his hand.
Now. Come now. Her heart was thudding. She unfastened her necklace and dropped it into his waiting palm. She took off her earrings and added them to the glittering heap. Something must have gone wrong. No one had heard. Were there enough of her own people in the hall to stop him?
