“Oh, do shut up,” said Jack, going to close the door against any passing servants. “Have the feathers you wear got inside your skull?”
Colouring angrily, she said, “It’s your stupid story! I never agreed to it.”
“No. You only agreed to Min being lost on the streets of London. Thank God for Miss Sedgewick. I dread to think what would have happened if she hadn’t come to the rescue.”
To his surprise, instead of her usual scowl at the mention of his favoured one, Nell laughed. A wicked, sharp little laugh.
“Rescue! You’ve got worse than feathers in your head if you think Miss Sedgewick is acting out of any charitable motive. You were right when you said she knows everyone—and therefore everything. It seems she caught wind of it days before anyone else, and her plan is already in motion.”
“Plan? What plan?”
“Harbouring Lucy under her own roof, where she’s in exactly the right place to be caught by her brother. Your beloved is the web, her brother is the spider, and Min is the juicy fly!”
Had one of Jackson’s hits rattled his brain? “What the devil are you talking about? Spiders, webs? Sedge to marry Min? He hasn’t two shillings to rub together. He’s on the hunt for an heiress. Has been for a while. Problem is, everyone knows it.”
“And you have just delivered him one!”
“Me? Who?”
“Lucy!”
He looked at her. “Min’s as poor as a church mouse. Her father left her nothing, it was all entailed away.”
“But her aunt is leaving hereverything.”
His glass paused in mid-air. Was that true? Min hadn’t mentioned it, but it certainly seemed like something that might be possible, now he thought about it. Min had been living as her aunt’s sole companion for years. And the old dragon, guarding her hoard from all those grasping relatives Min had laughingly described to him, might be clear-sighted enough to see Min wasn’t one of them.
“It it’s true, Min doesn’t know,” he said decisively, sure of that much. “And I don’t see how Miss Sedgewick, or anyone else, can know it either.”
“You said yourself the Sedgewicks have family up there.”
“And I very much doubt the contents of the old lady’s will are going to be posted up by the inn door for everyone to see. How do they know what Min herself doesn’t?”
“Apparently the doctor has been called.”
“Her aunt is unwell?”
“Apparently.”
He scoffed at the word and finished his drink, putting the glass down. “Apparently,” he repeated. “This is all just rumour and conjecture, isn’t it?Morerumours. I told you I didn’t want Min to be the talk of the town, and here you are—”
“It’s not me spreading it around! Lady Weeton called on me this morning, I had it from her! You can imagine the whole town already knows. And you should’ve seen her expression when I told her Lucy had removed to the Sedgewicks’s.Shesaw the implications of it, and so will everyone else. You’re right abouteveryone knowing the captain is holding out for an heiress, and now he’s recruited his sister to the cause.”
“It would please you vastly, wouldn’t it, to have the whole town share your low opinion of Miss Sedgewick? To reduce her to a mercenary, with as few scruples as a bawdy house procurer?”
Nell pulled a face. “You may know of such people. I do not.”
Jack tried to cool his temper. “Miss Sedgewick acted out of charity and goodness of heart. They might be difficult concepts for you to understand, but I can assure you it is so. When I dined at their house, from what I observed, Miss Sedgewick is taking pains to keep her brotherawayfrom Min. He wasn’t even there.”
Nell only smirked. “Just you wait and watch, Jack. He’ll soon be sniffing around her like a fly around honey. And so willeveryman with an eye to an easy fortune.”
Jack didn’t like this mental image one bit, but it was easy enough to dismiss.
“The only one who’s shown the faintest interest in Min is George. And you can hardly accusehimof being on the hunt for a rich wife.”
Nell smiled strangely. “He’s not quite theonlyone, Jack.”
Jack frowned. “Who else?”
