She shook her head. The butler’s eyes narrowed and he lowered his pistol. “You have the advantage now, Miss Winters. What do you mean?”
“I won’t implicate him. As long as Kenny is released, we will disappear.” Oh, God, Mark. She hadn’t spared a thought to her older brother. Gabriel had him. He would be angry when he discovered her gone. And he could reach Mark before she could. Her brooch. She could trade it for a hack ride. She would make it. They could flee to the Continent. Or the colonies. Make a fresh start. Give up everything.
“Implicate whom?” the butler asked. It struck her that she didn’t know his name.
Jeremy’s face was pale. His lips tight. He must know.
She shook her head. “No.” She inched toward the door and his gun rose slightly.
“I can’t let you go until you tell me.”
“No. I said I wouldn’t implicate him, and I won’t.”
“Tell me.”
Her head kept a continuous sideways motion, as if he would eventually understand.
“Yes, tell him, Marietta.” She swung toward the kitchen door behind her and the pistol was ripped from her grasp. Gabriel stood there, leaning against the edge, arms crossed, pistol hanging loosely from his fingertips. “Tell him who you suspect.”
Chapter 17
“Gabriel!” Jeremy sounded strange, but she couldn’t look his way. She could only stare at the man in front of her. He had come through the kitchen door after all. She couldn’t even dredge up the emotion to call herself an idiot.
Gabriel didn’t move, but his gaze shifted behind her, much as the butler had when she’d peered from the window. “Sir,” he said to the butler. “I can’t say I’m surprised to see you.”
She slowly backed away from him. And away from the others—choosing the opposite corner. All exits blocked. No weapon. She felt around behind her for a knife—not that it would do much good against a bullet.
“As you shouldn’t be,” the butler said. “You should have notified me immediately.”
Gabriel raised a brow. “It has been a long time since I’ve been under your control. I daresay I needn’t have had to notify you at all.”
Under his control? Marietta watched the byplay across the butler’s face. Acknowledgment and pain.
“Jeremy sent you a note, I presume,” Gabriel said.
“I didn’t need a note after reading the papers.”
Gabriel cocked his head in acknowledgment. “No, I don’t suppose you would have.”
“You knew I would show.”
“There was little I could do about it.”
“You could havetoldme.”
Definitely pain this time. He practically exuded noble pain.
“There was no need,” Gabriel said, negligently leaning against the doorway as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “What was there to say? I ruled you out as the person responsible a week ago.”
Ruled him out?
The man took a deep breath and drew himself up. “I see. I suppose I should thank you for your confidence, if not for your consideration.”
Gabriel inclined his head. His eyes met hers and she froze in her search for a blade. “A veritable meeting of the damned. Shall we sit and discuss this like proper citizens, or begin shooting?”
The butler’s pistol dropped. Jeremy shifted nervously before sitting. The butler took a seat as well. Gabriel still lounged in the door. “Well, Marietta, what will it be?”
“I hardly have a pistol with which to start shooting,” she said with rancor.
