“We don’t want Montague to receive any bills from the bone-mender.” Julius cocked an eyebrow at the Scotsman. “Just pointing him to the door will suffice.”
Dunkeld grumbled, sounding a bit like Reggie when told to do something he’d rather not. But he nodded and pointed a thick finger at the door. Carter fled through it. Dunkeld followed at a more sedate pace.
“Another one of Marcus’s servants fired.” Amanda sighed.
Julius shrugged. “It couldn’t be helped.”
“How long have you known he was working for Hanford?” Amanda asked.
“I received confirmation earlier this morning.” He clenched his jaw. “I should have seen it sooner.”
Lady Mary tossed her pen down on the desk. “I wish you had. I just gave that man a pound and five shillings to buy a dress for his granddaughter.”
“It isn’t the chit’s fault that her grandfather is a lout.” Summerset winked at the older woman. “And money dedicated to fashion is never wasted.”
Sutton rolled his eyes. “You would think that.”
“Gentleman, we have a lot of work ahead of us if we are to pull this off tonight.” Julius strode to the desk and folded his letter. “Now isn’t the time to debate the height of Summerset’s boot heel.”
Amanda sank back onto the settee, feeling for the seat back behind her. The room burst into activity around her, the men discussing strategy, and Lady Mary penning ever more letters and ringing for footmen to deliver them.
Everyone knew their roles, Amanda included. She had convinced Julius to trust her to draw out Lord Hanford. That she could stand before a crowd, in public, and not break.
It only remained to convince herself.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Julius crouched in the shadow of a hedge by the side of Hanford’s townhouse. The skies had cleared, and the light from the full moon created strange and disquieting shadows in the side garden. Sutton knelt next to him, and on his other side a rose bush cast the shape of a hunched goblin.
Julius worried the inside of his cheek. Amanda should be leaving Montague’s house about now. With Lady Mary at her side, Amanda would make it into the carriage. But would she have the nerve to step out when they reached the club? Their plan depended upon Amanda distracting Hanford for the several hours it would take to search his home. And if she did manage to stand up in front of the club, what sort of condition would that leave her in?
“What is taking them so long?” A cloud of vapor burst from Sutton’s mouth.
“It takes time to evacuate a marquess’s house.” Julius had decided that the best way to safely empty the house of all servants would be for Liverpool’s men, posing as city workers, to pound on the doors of all the homes on this block to inform the residents of a dangerous gas leak. The recent installation of the new lamps along the street provided a perfect story. And by evacuating several households, there was less of a chance of Hanford becoming suspicious.
Sutton shifted. “Smoke filling a room empties a house much more quickly.”
Julius didn’t bother rearguing the point.
The door to the kitchen swung open. Summerset poked his head out and waved.
Julius stood, ignoring the twinge in his knee. Each year that passed made his recovery missions a little harder. He slipped inside the door, Sutton breathing down his neck.
Dunkeld walked into the kitchen carrying a lantern. “After Liverpool’s men let us in the side entrance, they left out the front. They’re doing a lot of head-scratching and pointing at the street lamps. I’m not sure how much time they’ll buy us.” He passed out candles and lifted the glass cover of his lamp. “I closed the drapes at the front windows, but still be careful about creating shadows.”
Julius dipped his candle’s wick in the lamp’s flame. His candle hissed to life. “Let’s start with the obvious places. His office, then his bedroom.”
The men nodded and they padded down the hall, poking their heads in doors, before they found the office. Julius headed for the desk.
Dunkeld pulled books from a case built into the wall. He flipped through the pages before replacing the book and removing another. “Anything in particular we’re looking for?”
“It always comes down to money,” Julius said. He tugged on the middle drawer, but it didn’t budge. He knelt beside it and held the candle up, examining the lock. “Foreign bank accounts, land holdings, the usual suspects.” Placing the candlestick on the desk, he removed a leather case from his breast pocket and untied the cord wound around the front cover button. He opened the case and pulled out a small tool.
Summerset stood on a chair and ran a hand along the head of a window. “If Hanford is the ringleader of a major criminal organization, would he leave incriminating evidence laying around his house?”
“You’d be surprised how safe men believe themselves to be in their own homes.” Sutton replaced a painting on the wall, his mouth a grim line. “They rarely take the proper precautions.”
Summerset sneezed loudly.
