It was folded in half, and across the top, in big, bold letters, the headline readMURDER!He skimmed the article below it.Last night, as revelers gambled away their money, drank away their problems, and fornicated in dark corners at the notorious gaming hell, The Blue Angel, an innocent young woman, Mary Beth Kelley, was brutally murdered in the alley behind the club.Strangled by an unknown assailant, her life snuffed out in the dangerous streets of London.She is just the latest in a string of women who have been killed on the east side.
A barmaid at Red’s Tavern, Anne Johnson, was killed outside of the tavern two months ago.Lucy Stone was killed walking home from her job at the Queen’s Head on Bow Street a fortnight ago.And last Saturday evening, Sarah Felding was killed after leaving her job at the Birdcage in the early morning hours.All of these women were strangled to death.Does London’s east side have a killer stalking working-class women?Is he lying in wait, planning to use his garrote to snuff out yet another life?
“Fuck!”Matthew slapped the paper down on the desk.
Seaton reached forward and grabbed it up.His lips twitched with amusement.“She certainly knows how to write an arresting story.I’ll give her that.”
“The last thing I need is to have the name of the club in the paper linked with a murder.And ‘fornicating in dark corners’?It makes us sound like a fucking brothel.”A gaming establishment might not be the most respectable of businesses, but hell, his girls weren’t prostitutes.“You should’ve seen the crowd last night.The biggest night ever.”
“Best crowd ever,” Ben agreed.
Matthew slammed his fist down on the table.“Do you think they’ll come back if they think someone’s been murdered here?”
Seaton shrugged one shoulder.
Used to his friend’s non-verbal answers, Matthew blew out a long breath.But then he sat up straighter.“Did you say ‘she’?”
“Yes.ThePiccadilly Pressis run by Elizabeth Harper.”
Elizabeth?Lizzie?Could it be the same woman from last night?The lady in red?He clenched his fists.Had she been here looking to write an article about his club?She said she had been looking for her friend.He frowned, remembering the sorrow in her eyes as she stood by Mary Beth’s body in the kitchen and some of his anger drained.But hell, if she hadn’t painted his club in the worst possible light.They’d worked hard to attract more moneyed clientele.This kind of publicity would certainly scare off the toffs.
He narrowed his eyes at Seaton.“How do you know her?”
“She is the mother of my nephew.”
What?“You don’t have a brother.”
“Actually, I do.Half-brothers.Had two.One was killed, and he had a son with Miss Harper.The other one is the current Duke of Hartwick.”
Matthew held up a hand.“You’re the half-brother of a goddamn duke?”A laugh erupted from his chest.What a load of shite.He glanced over at Ben, who laughed as well.They’d known Seaton since he was fifteen and running around with the Newgate gang.There was no way he was related to a duke.
“You assholes don’t have to believe me,” Seaton said with a chuckle.“But it’s true.My mother was the mistress to the Duke of Hartwick for a time, and I am his son.”
Matthew stared at his friend.“Goddamn, you’re serious.”
“That’s how I inherited the street.This house used to be the old Hartwick manor house back when this area was a sheep and shit.He never acknowledged me, but he left me something in the end, so I hold no bad blood for him.”
“Wait, really?”Matthew asked.
Seaton smirked.The long, thin scar that ran from his ear, down across his cheek to his top lip, pulling at the corner, always made him look like he was snarling, even when he was actually laughing at them, like right now.
Matthew reeled at the bombshell.He thought he knew everything about Rhys Seaton.The illegitimate son of a duke.And the lady in red was a fucking newspaper editor.“So, you’re saying Elizabeth Harper, the editor of the paper, is the widow of a duke’s son?”
“No, he died before they married.”
“But not before he got her with child?”
Seaton nodded.“My father and him—he was the heir—were murdered.She kept the child a secret to protect herself and the baby.I found out about them last summer, along with the current duke, who I was hired to protect.”He waved a hand around airily, like this was all old news.
“I know you are a private person, and I respect that, but what the hell, Rhys?You have a whole fucking family that you never bothered to tell us about?”He glanced over at Ben, who looked as shocked as him.
“I knew about them, but I never thought I would ever have any sort of relationship with them.”
Matthew leaned forward.“But you do, don’t you?”Why did that hurt so much?
Seaton was an enigma.Hell, Matthew didn’t even know where the man kept a residence.He came and went like a fucking ghost.But as much as Seaton allowed anyone to know him, Matthew liked to think he knew him best.He’d joined Rhys’s gang at fifteen, and they ran dodges in the streets of London for years.Matthew had been there with him when Rhys’s mother died, and Rhys had ridden north with him when his own mother had died.Their bond of brotherhood was something Matthew cherished.Especially since his actual brother was such a bloody bastard.
“I see him sometimes.”Rhys just shrugged.“Ms.Harper doesn’t approve of me, so I have only met my nephew twice.”
