“What did he want?” Denis had seated himself at his desk and now drew a letter from a stack that had been placed there. He broke its seal and scanned the contents while he waited for my answer.
I did not ask how he knew I’d been to see Creasey. Brewster hadn’t said a word to any but me since we’d entered the house, but as Creasey had acknowledged, Denis would have sent men to watch my every move.
“To offer me a post,” I answered. “At least, so he said. In truth, I imagine he was trying to pry information from me.”
“I doubt that.” Denis laid the letter aside. “He would have more information from his spies. He summoned you to discover what sort of man you are. To learn what it would take to make you betray me.”
“I am not in the habit of betraying people,” I said stiffly.
Denis spread his fingers. “He will poke at you until he understands your exact price. Every man has one.”
“So you said to me when we first met.”
“I stand by my assessment.” Denis gave me a slight nod and placed his hands, palm down, on the desk. “I would like to know all he said to you.”
I saw no reason not to repeat the conversation and told him all I could remember. “He painted you in the wrong, which did not surprise me. That he’d agreed to a truce he’d suggested and abided by it until you sent him the queen.”
Brewster huffed and began to speak, but Denis quelled him with a glance. “The truce was forced upon him,” Denis said. “He never liked it. I knew about Creasey long before he was aware of me. I told you once how I grew up on the streets. He was a force then, one I avoided. If anything, I owe my success to him, as I found avenues of business he had neglected. Nothing I did overlapped with what he had—I was very careful about that. But he saw me as a threat, wisely, I think. I offered the truce when it became clear we would soon clash. I promised to keep to my pursuits and leave his alone if he did the same for me. If either of us failed in the bargain we were to send the chess piece to signal that all restraints were off.” He shrugged. “Creasey is an old man now, and he has not groomed any lieutenant to take his place on the day he dies. He trusts no one. I could wait.”
He finished with the air of one who assumes they have far more time on this earth than those of their grandfather’s generation.
“But that is no longer the case?” I asked.
Denis slid his hands together in one abrupt movement. “A ship came in from China. It contained antiquities, very rare and difficult to find. One agent of mine nearly lost his life acquiring them and another actually did. The buyer had already paid a high price up front for the expedition and was to pay me the balance upon delivery of goods. He is a powerful man, more powerful than Creasey, or even me. Creasey stole that cargo. Whether he knew my things were among it, I do not know, but he took all. His actions forced me to return my client’s money, bearing the cost of the expedition myself, and make my apologies.” Denis’s usually cool tones took on a harder note as he spoke. “Creasey overstepped the bounds of our agreement. Even if he hadn’t known part of the cargo was mine, upon realizing it, he should have turned that portion over to me. He did not. I sent a man to tell him of my disapprobation, and he had that messenger beaten and returned to me half dead. Thus, I had you deliver the white queen, the agreed-upon signal that the truce was over, that I felt free to take over his empire. Which I will do.”
A chill touched the air at his last words. I shivered, wondering that the fire and all the candles couldn’t warm me.
“A moment,” I said in rising irritation. “Your first messenger was beaten within an inch of his life, yet you sent me straight into the lion’s den without a warning?”
Denis’s eyes remained icy. “I debated for a long time whether to do so, but in the end decided you were the best person to deliver the package. You are a gentleman. Creasey has no qualms about killing a fellow thief, but he’d hesitate to injure you until he understood who would retaliate against him if you came to harm.”
I gripped the mahogany arms of my chair. “My wife and her rather powerful father would, I suppose. I hope so, anyway. Or perhaps they’d be happy to see the back of me.” I smiled at my feeble joke.
Denis’s eyes didn’t flicker. “Just so. You have far stronger connections now than you did when we first became acquainted. You have Mr. Grenville, who is worshipped by most of thehaut ton,in spite of his misalliance marriage. Sir Gideon Derwent is always poised to wipe out the dregs of London, in his most well-bred way. Even your colonel would charge to your aid, if only to appear loyal to his fellow officer. You also have magistrates who respect you, though Creasey controls some who do not.”
A warm feeling began in my chest as he spoke. It was true that I’d been alone for a long time, but I did now have friends and family to assist me.
“You asked me to conduct this task when we were still in Brighton,” I said. “Some months ago. Why wait until now?”
Denis forced his hands to return to a calm position. “Creasey had not yet betrayed me when we were in Brighton. When I told you I wished you to do a task for me, I did not have a specific one in mind. I knew that one would present itself. Unfortunately, it did.”
“You crafty bugger.” I couldn’t stop the words. Brewster tensed, as though expecting Denis to signal one of his men to punch me in the mouth.
“Not crafty,” Denis said coolly. “Expedient.”
“I am rather tired of being expedient for you,” I growled.
Denis’s brows lifted the slightest amount. “I realized when I first met you that I would have to either use you or kill you—you’d never let me alone otherwise. You have proved to be very useful, so my decision was sound, but if you prefer the other …” He rocked his hands open as though leaving it up to me.
With any other man, I’d think him teasing me. With Denis, I had to take the words at face value.
“If you believe doing your bidding is my choice, you are wrong.” I cleared my throat. “Though I have appreciated your help in the past.”
“Just so. We have built an understanding, and each of us will keep our words to the other. I know this. Creasey, on the other hand, does not understand the value of honor.”
Denis rose, a signal that he was finished with our conversation. I climbed to my feet and Brewster pried himself from the wall he’d been leaning against.
“Go home, Captain,” Denis said. “Play no more chess with Creasey. Please put aside any notion that you can reason with him, beguile him, or warn him off. You cannot. It is best you take your family and leave London while I attend to this business.”
