“Gwen, Beth, Meredith, Bobby, me, and you, if you want a seat. The girls would love it.”
James hesitates. Two weeks of tossing and turning, of desperately trying to figure out how to make that last piece of his life—the most important one that comes with a four-letter word and soppy kisses and amazing sex—fit in with the rest of the world he’s building for himself. He hasn’t figured it out yet.
“Bobby would probably love it too,” Albert continues.
James opens his mouth, tongue feeling swollen around too many words, then someone crashes into him from behind.
“Oi, watch it,” Albert says.
James stands up straight and comes face-to-face with Raverson, glaring menacingly down at him. Up close, James can seehe’s lost half a stone, his suit ill-fitting and eyes a little manic. James wants to sink into the ground, but forces himself to stand tall, like Albert, who takes one look between them and pulls himself up to his full height.
“It’s just one bill. There’ll be others,” Albert says, reading the most plausible reason into Raverson’s aggression.
“Not like that one,” Raverson spits.
James blinks. He wasn’t— “What, did youbeton the vote?”
Albert nudges him, but the words are out, and the look on Raverson’s face, sour and simmering, confirms it. “You cost me nearly two thousand pounds,” Raverson says, his voice low but deeply threatening.
Even Albert gapes at that. “How on earth is your gambling my fault?” James wonders.
“I had a lot riding on this vote. And now you’ll need to help me pay for it.”
“We’re hardly going to reimburse you for a poor bet,” Albert says, surreptitiously plucking the envelope from James’ hand behind his back and stuffing that, and his own, into his pockets while Raverson glares at James.
“Ah, but see, Demeroven’s the reason I wastrying other avenues.”
James gapes. “Excuse me?”
“You told me to give up my schoolyard games, and look where it’s gotten me.”
“That is hardly—”
“So now I’m coming back for our arrangement. Or am I going to your daddy?” he asks James.
“My stepfather is no longer in the city,” James says, superimposing his stepfather’s face over Raverson’s. He stood up to Stepfather. He can stand up to this pale facsimile of Raverson now. “And I don’t owe you a thing.”
“You’ll pay. You and Mason, or it’ll be front-page news the day after Cowes,” Raverson says, stepping toward James.
James forces himself to stay still, which puts them chest-to-chest, Raverson’s rank breath wafting over his face. He can’t believe this is the same man who intimidated him in school, who’s been blackmailing him, and Lord Havenfort, and Bobby all season; he’s falling apart.
“There’s nothing to print,” James insists, forcing all the bravado he has through the painful words. Albert moves in, all three of them too close and too conspicuous.
“Oh, just because you’re playing cool now doesn’t mean my evidence is any less valid,” Raverson jeers. “So I think you’ll give me what I want.”
“And if I don’t?” James asks, ignoring the clench of grief in his stomach.
If Raverson is going to come after them whether they’re together or not...
“Then maybe the two of you can share a cell at Newgate while I get fat on your uncle’s money,” Raverson says tightly.
“And that will fix your money problems, two thousand pounds? You don’t get bruises like that”—Albert jabs Raverson quickly in the ribs, and the man flinches—“over just two thousand. What’s your plan once you’ve run us dry, hmm?”
“You’re only the first,” Raverson says, rubbing at his ribs and stepping back from them, out of range of Albert’s hands. “Once I collect on all my scores, I’ll be the richest of all of you. They laughed at me at school,” he says, looking back at James. “The second son, the never-ran. You thought I was small, but I’m not. I’ve gone bigger than you could have ever dreamed, and I’ll have the last laugh.”
“And when someone finally comes for you?” James wonders,agog at who Raverson has become. He knew he was vile, but he never expectedthis.
“I’ll have so much power no one will ever say a word about me,” Raverson says, conviction, vitriol, and delusion heavy in his voice. “Have your purse strings wide open on the last day of Cowes, or prepare to get comfortable in prison.”
