“Would you like some tea?” Alice asked, finding to her amusement that she wished to keep him talking now. She wanted to know more about this man and what had happened to his mother’s diamonds. Also… Lord, but hewasa handsome fellow, such broad shoulders, and those lovely green eyes.Stop looking, she scolded.
He glanced at the teapot in front of her in surprise, as if only just realising he was in a teashop and drinking tea was quite an acceptable thing to be doing.
“I would.” He smiled suddenly and Alice felt a little frisson of pleasure at the way he looked at her. That flicker of admiration had returned to his eyes. “Thank you.”
Alice ordered a fresh pot of tea and another cup and saucer.
“Milk, no sugar,” he told her, once refreshments had been provided and Alice poured for him.
“Sweet enough,” she quipped, handing him the cup and rather pleased with herself when he smiled.
He snorted, his manner disarmingly frank now. “Hardly, after my behaviour to you this morning. I am most dreadfully sorry, Miss Marwick. I promise you I do not make a habit of bullying women. In fact I despise such high-handed behaviour.”
“Not a bit of it,” she replied, pouring her own tea while she tried to figure out the best way to deal with him. She had sold the rest of the diamond parure to which the brooch had belonged for a good price, not nearly what they were worth, but enough that she and Lill were secure for the rest of their lives. They’d not live in the lap of luxury, but they’d never go hungry again. Perhaps if she simply handed the brooch over, he’d leave it at that? Surely it was worth a try. She could almost hear Lill snorting in disgust at that suggestion. She stirred her tea, offering him a sympathetic smile. “I can only imagine how shocked you were to see something that belonged to someone you loved at your grandmother’s ball.”
Sadness filled his eyes and Alice felt a jolt of remorse for having put it there. “It was a shock. The truth is… the truth is—”
He stopped, shaking his head.
Alice set down her teacup and held his gaze. She might feel a little guilty for her part in his distress, but she was also damned curious. “I know we are strangers to each other, but I am not a tattlemonger, Mr Seymour. If there is something you wish to unburden yourself of, I promise it will go no further. I shall take it to my grave,” she said sincerely. She meant it, too. Well, she’d tell Lill,obviously. But that was different.
His expression became intense, his brows drawing together. “One way or another, I intend to get those diamonds back for my sister’s sake. They have been handed down from mother to daughter for several generations and I know it hurt my mother dreadfully to give them up, yet I am certain she believed my aunt would return them to Vinnie after… after she was gone.”
He stared at her for a long moment, and all at once a flicker of unease sparked to life in Alice’s guts. She was a cynic to her bones and could spot a con from a mile off. Surviving life on the streets as a child made one an excellent judge of character. It was then it struck her, Mr Aubrey Seymourwasthe heroic type. He was the fellow all those romantic writers pictured in their mind’s eye, the one that rescued the damsel in distress, that threw himself in front of a deadly bullet to save the day, that was entirely selfless and good. All that lovely thick auburn hair, those beautiful green eyes, they were not disguising a wicked deceiver, not a fellow with a heart of stone, but someone to admire, to trust. Her stomach clenched with guilt.
Devil take the fellow!
He opened his mouth, but she beat him to it, desperate now to shut him up. Shedid notwish to be this man’s confidante under any circumstances. This good man unsettled her, his desire to retrieve the diamonds for his sister’s sake admirable and bloody inconvenient. “Of course, if it is a family secret, itreally ought to stay in the family. One must not go opening cupboard doors and rattling the skeletons in public.”
He smiled ruefully, picking up his cup and saucer, regarding her steadily over the rim. “But you’ll take it to your grave, won’t you, Miss Marwick?” He took a sip before setting the cup down and Alice began to deny any such thing but this time he spoke over her.
“My father made a bad investment. A shocking one, actually,” he said with a laugh. He sat back in his chair, looking far more at ease now, ready to unburden his soul to her, curse him. “He’s a dear fellow, a wonderful father, but no head for business. Not outside being a landowner, at any rate, and… well it was all terribly embarrassing. We needed funds quickly, and it’s hard to come by large sums of ready money at short notice when everything is tied up and entailed, but Mama went to my uncle behind his back and sold him her diamonds to get the money we needed. Not for half of what their true value was, but she said it was worth it to save Papa’s blushes, you see. He’s a proud man and the gossip would have mortified him. As it was, he was furious, but he could hardly complain when she’d got him out of such a fix, and then… and then she died just a few months later. We’d not even known she was ill, it was so… so sudden. Aunt Pauline tried to give the diamonds back then, knowing the sentimental value attached to them, but uncle wouldn’t let her. There was a terrible scene, so she promised to leave them to Vinnie—that’s my sister—in her will.”
Alice felt something weighty and uncomfortable lodge in her throat but swallowed it down. She wouldnotfeel guilt for a family who owned enough diamonds to sink a man o’ war. They probably had just as many rubies and emeralds, which were also family heirlooms, and they could console themselves with those. Yet the guilt weighed heavily in her guts all the same.She returned her attention to the conversation, meeting Mr Seymour’s eyes. “I see. And so, you think the people that stole the jewels sold them on, and that my brother unwittingly bought the brooch for me?”
“I suppose that’s it in a nutshell. I should dearly like to speak to your brother, Miss Marwick, and discover just where he bought that brooch.”
I just bet you would, Alice thought sourly.Damnation.
“I’m afraid my brother is away from home at the moment,” she said, feeling a disquieting sensation like manacles sliding around her wrists, the harsh rasp of coarse rope closing about her throat. “And I… I do not know when he’ll be back.”
“But surely he won’t leave you alone indefinitely?”
Oh, and he looked concerned by the idea. How endearing he was, like a devoted puppy. Something like hysteria curdled in her belly. “Oh, well, one never knows with Alfie,” she said weakly, knowing she was backing herself into a corner but unable to do anything else.
“Well, I shall just have to stay put until he turns up,” he said with a sigh, hammering the nail home with an inevitability that made her groan inwardly. “Grandmama will be delighted. I know she’d never ask us to stay, but the old dear loves company.”
Alice made a noncommittal sound, wondering how she had got herself in such an appalling fix. She wasn’t usually so inept at managing things. It was his green eyes, she thought crossly, and those big shoulders, and his damnable sincerity. The combination had addled her brain.
“Besides, I can think of plenty of other reasons to stay,” he added, his gaze holding hers, and Alice jolted, suddenly realisinghe was flirting with her. Her heart did an odd little hop, skip, and a jump behind her ribs.
Behave,she told it sternly, but butterflies erupted in her stomach without her permission. Oh, he was dangerous. She ought to deal with this situation at once. Before things got complicated.Morecomplicated.
“I’m sure. Little Valentine is a splendid place, and you have family here, of course,” Alice replied, adding with quiet desperation, “and, of course, Alfie is a law unto himself. For all I know, he might turn up at… at any moment!”
“We can only hope,” he said cheerfully, and lifted his teacup in a silent salute.
Ocean View Villa, Little Valentine, 7thJanuary 1816
