“I’m afraid, my good sir,” Hugh said, suddenly tired from the day’s events and eager to send the steward off, “that you were the person to ruin your reputation, not myself and most definitelynotMiss Crone.”
And then the man’s faced took on a deviousness Hugh hadn’t seen before. “Ah, my lord, but Miss Crone has been equally as careless with her own reputation, would you not agree?”
Although lounging in the deep leather chair upon which he sat, Hugh suddenly came to be completely alert. He did not respond with questions as the man surely expected. He merely waited for Periwinkle to explain himself. People like him never failed in this regard.
“A lady.” The man would have spat on the floor, Hugh was quite certain, if he’d been in the room with anyone but himself. “What would all of those nabobs have to say if they’d come to know that the lady stayed in residence with a single gentleman overnight, with no companion or nothing.”
“She had a chaperone,” Hugh stated casually. Thank Heavens she’d had Rose with her. “Nothing inappropriate about her visit.”
“Maybe not that particular visit, perhaps.” The little man drew out his silence for as long as he possibly could, in utter hopes of putting Hugh on edge even further, before at last revealing his hand. “Call me old fashioned, perhaps, but ain’t it somewhat frowned upon for an unmarried lady of thetonto get herself into such an interesting condition?”
An interesting condition… what?
And then it all began to make sense. The fainting, the dizzy spells, the fullness of her…
Her sudden, inexplicable desire to marry him.
It could not be. But…
Why him?
What had happened to the man who’d fathered her child?
Rage replaced the sorrow and tiredness within him.
God damn that woman! She’d been going to use him! She’d been planning on going so far as to actually pass another man’s child off as his heir! As these thoughts coiled around inside of him, he realized that the foiled steward was watching him for a reaction.
“Don’t know where you got such an outlandish idea.” Hugh had always been excellent at cards in that nobody could ever read him. And as angry as he was with Penelope, he’d like to strangle Mr. Periwinkle for his impudence. He sat impassively, waiting to hear more of what the damned man had to say.
“From her own mouth and her maid’s. Awfully informal with her betters, that one.” Hugh had known Rose for almost as long as he’d known Penelope. Periwinkle’s opinion on the matter gave his earlier claim even further credibility.
Damn you, Penelope!
“Sitting, talking, they was, in the kitchen. Talking about how the babe was already showing, making the lady sick and all. But I’ll tell you one thing, and it’s from my mouth to God’s ears. They was talking about how to get you to marry the lady. Her needing a husband and all that.”
It took all Hugh’s self-control not to slam his fists down upon the desk. She’d meant to use him. Did she not think he knew how biology worked? Did she think he would not notice when a child was born just a few months after the wedding? Did she, in fact, think he was a complete and utter fool?
Apparently so.
“Now, I can’t help but be thinking to myself that this type of information is worth something to you. And to the soon-to-be mother, as well. I can’t help but think she wouldn’t wish this information to be shared with all those hoity-toities up in London. Would you, my lord?”
So, Periwinkle had presented himself to Hugh, at his mother’s home on the day of her death so that he could blackmail him.
“It’s not worth one pence.” Hugh was wise enough to know that if one gave into a blackmailer once, the thief would never truly go away.
Perhaps that’s why Penelope had been so afraid. Had Periwinkle gone to her already?
Should Hugh care?
But he would deal with these questions later. For now, he needed to keep Periwinkle quiet. He did have some leverage after all.
“You have come to my home. Demanded my audience. On the day of my mother’s death. You have stolen from me, stolen from others in my name, and are now threatening to blackmail me.” Hugh spoke softly as he rose from his chair and casually moved around the desk. The look on Periwinkle’s face had altered from smug arrogance to barely suppressed fear.
“The new steward at Augusta Heights, your replacement, mind you,” Hugh continued, “has brought certain accounting irregularities to my attention; irregularities that are considered to be illegal. Do you really believe that my peers, mine and Miss Crone’s, would believe words coming out of the mouth of a known criminal?”
The steward laughed shakily in one final attempt at bravado. “Maybe not my words but what are they to think when the little lady turns into a whale?”
That did it.
