Marietta trailed behind Noble as they entered the building, still completely enraged at what had happened on the sidewalk. She was barely keeping her anger and fire leashed. And he had been smiling at her ire for the past fifteen minutes, which further stoked the flames.
He turned down the hall and she gripped his tailored sleeve underneath the elbow. “His office is that way.” She pointed in the opposite direction.
“No. It’s this way.”
He pushed open the door on his right without knocking and walked inside. This hadn’t been where she’d met the barrister previously, but there he was. Hackenstay, with his scrawny frame and heavy mustache, lurched up from behind a misshapen desk. A tin box clattered and fell across the desk, and he hastily pushed a thick stack of fallen notes and loose coins back inside, closing the tin firmly and putting a trembling hand on top.
“You must be Mr. Hackenstay. I’m here on behalf of Mr. Winters and Miss Winters.”
Wariness passed through the barrister’s eyes, replaced by obsequiousness as he caught sight of Marietta. She hadn’t liked him before, gin-soaked little toad, and she didn’t like him now.
Noble continued when Hackenstay didn’t respond. “I understand that instead of going through a solicitor, they hired you directly. Is it true that you took the sum of two hundred pounds from Mr. Winters and the sum of one hundred from Miss Winters?”
Money that they didn’t really have. They had leveraged everything. Used everything. And for once Mark had been lucky at the tables. He’d won a hundred pounds. He would have assuredly lost it the next night if they hadn’t used it right away for the barrister. Money never stayed long in the household.
Hackenstay bobbed his head. “For payment.”
Marietta opened her mouth, but Noble beat her to it. “Payment of what?”
“Consultation fees and showing up in court with her brother. I plan to help him until the end.” He puffed out his chest and rattled off a litany of empty jargon about how he would plead Kenneth’s case.
“How much are your usual consultation fees?” Noble looked around the office at the dingy drapes, the faded rug, the ill-placed pictures on the walls. He sent Marietta a glance and a raised brow as if to ask what she’d been thinking to choose this man.
She shook her head and gestured back, trying to convey that she had never been in this office. Hackenstay must have used the main office somewhere else in the building. It had been a long sight better than this one. She’d had second thoughts before, but seeing this office would have given her thirds.
Hackenstay wet his lips nervously. “Do you need another job done?”
“No. I need you to tell me your fee,” Noble said, his voice silky and smooth.
“It depends on the job. I rolled the Winters fees all into one price. They still owe me the last two hundred.” He sent a softly chiding look her way. The obnoxious lump.
“No.”
Hackenstay switched his gaze back to Noble, shock edging his features. “No? What do you mean?”
“I’d like to see the work you’ve done on the case.”
He swallowed. “I-I don’t have that information at hand.”
“How do you expect to help Mr. Kenneth Winters?” Noble idly lifted a folded paper from Hackenstay’s desk. The barrister reached out to reclaim it and put it back in its place, squaring it away.
“I will sit in on his trial and plead his case, just as I said.”
“With his family watching?” Noble picked up a round glass ball.
Hackenstay tried to snatch the ball back as well, but Noble pretended not to notice as he examined it. The barrister looked irritated, but then switched his gaze to her and shook his head, his lips curling under in mock sympathy beneath his bushy mustache. “Unfortunately, family members may not watch. But I will be sure to relay everything to them after the proceedings.” He reached out again for the glass ball and missed grabbing it. “If you could just return my globe?”
Noble tossed it in the air, a short arc of glittering light, and Hackenstay caught it against his chest. He looked more flustered than before.
“I see,” Noble said, fingers drifting through papers. “So really, they will have no way of knowing whether you will really help their brother in court.”
“I will help him until the end! I will convince the judge and jury of his innocence.” The barrister clutched the globe.
“So you keep saying. Let’s be short and frank here.” He stopped and turned to Marietta. “Actually, Miss Winters, why don’t you explain to Mr. Hackenstay what will happen in the next fifteen minutes.”
Surprise stormed through her. What had changed his mind in letting her talk? She didn’t give him a chance to take it back. “Your ‘contract’ is nonsense. As are your promises. You are a terrible man taking advantage of us like that, in our moment of grief and despair. You will return all our money, Mr. Hackenstay. Right now. To the pound.”
“I assure you, miss, that you need a retainer for your brother to speak his case.” Moisture gathered along his hairline.
