“There is no life built on this,” Jasper said.
“What is it you want, Clementine?” Miss Saint Lawrence cut in. “What is your price for the girl?”
“You’ve taken Madelina.” That truth lanced pain through Jasper, even as he realized he shouldn’t be surprised. “Where is she?”
“She’s safe.” Smiling, Clementine sat on the edge of the desk and smoothed her skirt. “There’s nothing you can give me, Aubrey. Except silence.” Clementine’s tone held a hard edge Jasper had never heard, or, he thought, never wanted to hear before. “There will be no involving the marquess.”
“If you’ve harmed Madelina….” Jasper breathed.
“Don’t think so poorly of me, dearest.” Clementine’s features pulled into a pout. “That isn’t fair. I only borrowed the girl because you’ve been terribly unreasonable since meeting her, and I require something from you for which I need you on your best behavior.”
Jasper crossed his arms, his heart a hard knot in his chest. If Clementine didn’t hold Madelina as leverage, he’d half a mind to lift her from her seat on his desk and…. He stopped himself. He wouldn’t become a monster, too. “What?”
“Marriage. I wish to be Missus Mclintock. I should never have broken off our engagement. Look what it almost cost me: losing you to some silly girl. I want a wedding. I want it done proper, with banns and a ceremony; a breakfast at your house afterwards. Your mother can come.”
“My mother?” Jasper repeated. Clementine had gone mad. Or, had she always been, and he’d been too blind to see? “You think I will marry you, now?”
“Yes.” She stood, clasped her hands behind her back and sauntered closer. He backed against a bookshelf as though from a rising snake. “I promise to stop my evil ways, as it were.” She stepped close to him and pressed a hand to his chest. “Further, I can’t free your little Madelina unless you agree.”
Miss Saint Lawrence thudded her cane hard on the wood floor. “How do we know you haven’t killed her already?”
A chill fear raced through Jasper at Miss Saint Lawrence’s question.
Clementine patted his chest and her lips widened into a grin. “You’ll have to take my word for it, of course. And if you’re both very, very good, I’ll let you see her the day of the wedding.”
Jasper growled. “What’s to stop me from killing you now?”
Clementine pouted again, a petulant, spoiled look that used to get her anything she wanted. How had he ever found her beautiful? Her lips were a slash of red, the blood-like color painted on as thick as the lies she’d worn for years.
“Come now, you’re not a killer,” she said. “And it’s me. You know me.” She reached to stroke his chin, but he turned his head away. “You’re upset.”
“I won’t marry you.”
“Because I did what I had to? Not all of us can be born to wealth. I had to build my fortunes.”
“Because you are Madam Dequenne. You’ve ruined the lives of how many young women? Shattered those who love them. Stolen their futures.” He shook his head. “And stolen from me. How many thousands of pounds have you taken from myself and my friends, funds I promised to use to help the very girls you took?”
She shrugged. “I never meant to steal from you, darling. The others, though….” She smiled, malevolence clear in her eyes. “That was part of the fun. They think they’re so much better.” She eyed Miss Saint Lawrence up and down. “You have no idea how much relieving the wealthy of their undeserved money delights me.”
Jasper’s mind raced through the years of scheming. Each lie unfolded before him, leading to another, and another, as far back as he’d known her. She’d stolen the girls, sold them to him, then pushed him to campaign for more funds as she plucked more innocent girls from their families right under his nose. If he’d listened to Madelina, if he’d seen the evidence in front of his face…. He glared at Clementine.
“I need an answer, Jasper,” Clementine said. “If my man doesn’t receive word from me soon, I daresay harm might befall that little lass who has temporarily ensnared you. Promise you’ll marry me, and she lives. It’s not hard.”
“Mclintock?” Miss Saint Lawrence growled. “Time is wasting.”
Jasper met Clementine’s gaze. “You’re the devil,” he said.
A smile spread across her face. “You don’t mean that, and I’ll make you a wonderful wife, dearest. I won’t bother you with petty concerns. We shall continue to run the club together, and it will be like it always was.”
Jasper grit his teeth. She had him in a corner, but if he must agree, perhaps some good could come of it. “The girls all go.”
“They like it here,” Clementine said. “They’re our clientele’s biggest draw. You can’t send them away.”
He shook his head. “You said I get two things for wedding you, Madelina’s life and no more Madam Dequenne. The girls go.”
Miss Saint Lawrence rapped her cane again. “Madelina is waiting.”
“Stay out of this Aubrey, or I’ll put a ball in your other hip,” Clementine snapped. She turned back to Jasper. “Surely,” she purred, “the girls can decide their own fate. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”
