“You were too busy guzzling gin to keep your wits about you,” snapped the earl. “Let him go, but keep a pistol trained on him.”
“What a consummate achievement,” drawled Gideon, straightening his ruffles. “To hold your own daughter to ransom.”
The earl spread his handkerchief on a deal table, then leaned against it, all graceful elegance. “You are not astonished, I perceive. Was I too lavish with my grief, perchance?”
“A little. But I was far from sure that you were involved.”
“Still, you suspected. Why? My lost—ah, chess piece?”
“Partly. But one of the ruffians who invaded Promontory Point had lost a finger. Naomi’s groom, Camber, has a hand mutilated by an accident. He wore gloves each time I saw him, but he fitted my man’s description, and later was seen going into the Derrydene house.”
“Yes.” Collington shook his head and said regretfully, “Poor Derrydene will pay for that bungle, I fancy. Still, I don’t see how that led you to connect me with this particular business. And be dashed if I can think how you guessed we had Naomi here.”
“Tummet told me, although he had to resort to rhyming slang. At the time I was not sure whom he feared, but now I recall that you held a pistol, and that Camber stood by me, also with a pistol in his hand.”
The earl nodded. “Astute. I’ll own I judged your man delirious. He babbled something about… his daughter’s medicine, as I recall.”
“He said ‘daughter—pill.’ Which rhymes with ‘water mill.’ Information he has by now undoubtedly relayed to others.”
One of the ruffians yelped, “Hi! Do that mean as there’ll be Bow Street Runners comin’? If it do, I’m slopin’!”
“You will leave when I tell you and not before,” said the earl in a voice of ice.
The big fellow they called Bill came in, holding his head painfully. His small eyes alighted on Gideon and narrowed. He sprang forward, whipping back his fist.
The earl snapped, “No! We’ll have none of that. This is a matter between gentlemen.”
Bill hesitated, glaring in frustrated fury. “I ain’t no gent, and I gotta right! Knocked me dahn, ’e did!”
“I do not pay you to be knocked down.”
“You don’t pay me ’tall. We’re paid by the—”
The earl fixed him with a deadly glare and interposed in a low, rasping voice, “Do notdaretake that tone to me, animal, else you’ll not live long enough to be paid by anyone!”
Bill’s eyes dropped. He muttered an apology and snatched at the gin bottle. The man Gideon had knocked down when first he entered had climbed to his feet and also decided to fortify himself with the gin. There was a small tussle, the bottle was sent spinning, and fell, the pale liquor splashing onto the dusty boards to the accompaniment of outraged howls.
“That could as easily have been the lamp,” Gideon pointed out. “A fine set of rogues to entrust with your daughter’s life!”
The earl smiled mirthlessly. “As a father, I fear I leave much to be desired. However, although Naomi is a tiresome chit, I do admire her spirit, and I assure you nothing will happen to her. I’d not have resorted to this nonsense save that she was my best hope of inducing you to return the icons.”
“If, for some peculiar reason, your main objective was to destroy my father, I fail to—”
“For some peculiar reason?”The earl’s handsome face twisted into a mask of hatred. “You are your father’s heir, Rossiter, and as such have no conception of what ’tis like to be a younger son! That wasmymiserable fate!”
“I really fail to see what your frustration has to do with my—”
“It has to do with your father becausehecaused it!”
Gideon stared at him, baffled. “Myfathercaused you to be born a younger son?”
“No, fool! He was my friend, all through our school years.Sucha good friend! We both were fourteen and my elder brother was escorting us home for the Christmas holidays when our coach was hit by flood waters. Ah, I see you are unaware of the incident. Allow me to enlighten you. My arm was broke and I was barely able to crawl to safety. Vincent was trapped in the coach. And who dived into the flood repeatedly, to save my so dear brother? Who kept his head above water ’til help came? My friend! My damnably courageous, interfering busybody of a friend! Markknewmy hopes! Heknewwhat Vincent was. It would have been soeasyfor him to stop searching. But—no! Mark Rossiter had to show everyone how brave he was! And so he saved the snivelling cur. And condemned me to a life of purgatory! Living on the niggardly allowance Vincent made me, whilehegambled away thousands at the tables. Scraping and scrimping to make ends meet for my family. Fighting to keep the estate from going to rack and ruin, while Vincent gave not a button for the old place. When I was sufficiently desperate and appealed to your noble father for help, he was all generosity. So gentle, so patronizing! Damn him! God, how I hated him!”
Appalled, Gideon said softly, “You’ve an odd sense of values, sir. I can scarce believe that because you held so twisted a grudge you would wipe out the hopes and fortunes of countless innocent—”
“They deserved it, stupid fools.” Collington shrugged. “But there is more to it, of course. Much more.” He smiled a craftily secretive smile. “My particular business happened to fit in nicely. And I must say it went off surprisingly well.”
Gideon thought of his father’s haggard, worn face, and had to fight the need to wipe the leer from the earl’s lips. He drawled, “But there were more than just your brains behind it, I think. The—Squire’s, for instance.”
