Oh, it was getting very difficult to keep himself in order now. He felt his lips thinning as he pressed them tightly before he said, “This cannot be a topic of interest to you, my lord. It barely ranks as a topic of interest for me.”
“No, of course,” Francis chuckled. “I actually did have a purpose in asking you here.”
“Oh?” Finn didn’t have to feign surprise, he truly felt it. “And what is that?”
“When we spoke last week, I had the impression you might want to carry on the link your house had to Chilton. Would that be true?”
“Certainly,” Finn said. “Men of power must stick together, mustn’t they? We likely share some of the same interests, when it comes to financial dealings or other things of that type.”
Francis eyed him more closely. “And my uncle didn’t turn you off of me before his death?”
Finn wrinkled his brow. “Turn me off of you? What do you mean?”
“Well, it came to my attention before his…hisuntimelydemise that he had occasionally tried to poison others against me.”
The turn of phrase this man had picked was difficult to ignore. “Poison is a hard way to go, I hear,” Finn drawled. “But no, he never spoke much to me about you.”
That much was true. He’d had a sense of the late Chilton’s tension when he spoke of his presumptive heir, but never had gone into much detail. However, if he were turning others against Francis…that was certainly a motive for murder, alongside the inheritance of title and fortune that would follow the previous marquess’s death.
“Interesting,” Francis mused, Finn thought more to himself than to Finn. “Idohave financial interests that I’m trying to find partners in developing. If someone like you were to come on board with them, it would certainly lend credence, wouldn’t it? And benefit us both in the end.”
“Such as?”
“I have an interest in independent country banking, you see. Holding investments, loans, that type. There are already several in my circle who have bought in.”
Finn arched a brow. The country banking system was all privately run and often corrupt. There had been stories of charlatans who stayed in one village just long enough to take the funds of the locals, then disappeared into the night with whatever they had collected, leaving destitution and destruction in their wake.
“Hmm, that can be tricky business,” he said coolly.
“Not if you’re on the right end of it.” Francis chuckled.
Oh yes, if Finn were going to place a wager, he would have put it on the new Marquess of Chilton being involved in some kind of fraudulent banking. Why the last marquess had never warned Finn off, he had no idea.
“An interesting notion.” He leaned back in his chair. “Perhaps you can give me more information in the coming days. Is there anything else you’re thinking about?”
“I know someone who is running supplies to and from the continent.”
“Past the blockades?” Finn asked.
“For the right price, one can make a fortune on such goods,” Francis said. “We could go in together on it. You’d have to do nothing at all, just collect on your investment.”
Finn almost laughed. Anyone who promised that wasdefinitelya charlatan. “And your uncle was aware of these ideas?” he said. “I never would have imagined he’d be so bold.”
He didn’t mean bold, of course. He knew the late Chilton never would have been so criminal. But bold made it sound like he approved on some level. Like there was bravery involved.
Francis’s mouth twisted. “My uncle was a coward. Turned me down flat when I asked for money for some of these things just before his death. Even threatened to go to the authorities. When he was finally gone, the deed done, I was ready to access my due. But there’s a great deal in entail, forced into places where I cannot easily access it. I want more. And now that he’s no longer there to stop me, why shouldn’t I have it?”
The deed done. Those three small words rang in Finn’s head, even though he doubted Francis had even known he’d said them, he was so busy railing in general. But they implied the man had done something. Done exactly what Esme feared. It wasn’t evidence, but it put Finn closer to the edge than ever.
“I’m sorry for your misfortunes,” he said softly.
Francis stopped going on about the injustices he had endured and glared at him. “Don’t take a high and mighty tone with me, Delacourt. We’re equals now, you know.”
“It wasn’t meant to be high or mighty, Chilton,” Finn said.
The room was silent for a moment, thick with tension now. Francis folded his arms and said, “After your sister’s engagement ball, you weren’t alone.”
Finn sat up a little. “I beg your pardon?”
