“Is he here?” Douglas asked.
“What shall I tell His Grace is the purpose for this meeting?” Simons asked.
“His Grace’s impatience, Simons.”
“I doubt His Grace will want to discuss that, Mr. Eston. Instead, I believe that he will want to see the results of your labors. I trust you have diamonds with you, Mr. Eston.”
“Where is he?”
Simons bowed, then turned on his heel, leading the way to the duke’s library. At the door, Simons rapped lightly on the wood, waited one moment and turned the handle. Once the door was open, he stepped aside and announced Douglas.
The Duke of Herridge didn’t stand at his arrival. Nor did he even bother looking up from the papers he was signing. Instead, he waited until Douglas walked to the middle of the room and came to stand in front of his desk. Only then did he look up, replacing the quill in its stand.
“You said it would be only a short time until you had results, Eston.”
“I said it was a matter of weeks, Your Grace. Not days. Threats will not accelerate the process.”
“Threats?”
“To dissolve my marriage?”
The Duke smiled. “I wondered if that would work. You are quite taken with my daughter, aren’t you?”
The Duke of Herridge was one of those creatures that, once scenting vulnerability, used the knowledge as a weapon. He wasn’t about to give him any information, especially about Sarah.
“There was an explosion at Chavensworth,” he said.
Herridge sat back and regarded him steadily, his smile fading.
“All of the diamonds that were being harvested were destroyed in the fire,” he said.
The duke’s expression didn’t change.
“You’ll have to wait even longer than I originally estimated,” Douglas said.
“Why did this explosion occur?” Herridge asked, staring down at the blotter on his desk. “Is there a flaw in your formula?”
“There is no flaw. Perhaps the mortar for the furnace didn’t cure long enough. Perhaps I tried to fire too many diamonds at once.”
“Can you prevent such a disaster from happening in the future?”
Douglas frowned. The Duke of Herridge had begun to smile, which was not a good sign. Anything that pleased the older man was probably not in anyone else’s best interests.
“I believe so, yes,” he said cautiously.
“Then you will have to prove that,” Herridge said.
He stretched out his hand, grabbed a brass bell from the corner of his desk, and rang it twice.
Simons opened the door so quickly that Douglas wondered if he’d been standing on the other side all this time.
“See Mr. Eston to the third floor,” he said. “Make sure he has suitable accommodations and all the equipment he needs to make his diamonds.”
“I’m not staying here, Herridge,” Douglas said.
“Oh, but you are, Mr. Eston.”
Simons stepped aside. Two burly men who looked more like fighters than footmen entered the room. Each man grabbed one of his arms, and although he struggled, he was no match for the two of them.
