“Five guineas will not cover your debt any longer.”
“How much do you want?”
“It iswhatwe want that matters. I have people I answer to as well. You want money, we want money, they want money—it goes round and round. The new terms are a hundred pounds.”
Char almost fell backward. “A hundred pounds? There is no way I will have that sort of money.”
“You could. You do have a talent for filching a purse—”
“I’m done with it. I never want to do it again—”
“Or you can pay us when you marry your duke. There will be interest, of course.”
“This is outrageous.”
“Aye, but it is too late now. You have done it. We are partners whether you like it or not. If you want our silence, you will be paying for it, Duchess.”
He was right and it broke her heart.
She thought of Sarah. Her aunt would be horrified to learn of the turn Charlene had taken. “What if I don’t?”
“Then you will be in Newgate prison. Pity you already know how to read. They have good tutors.”
“No one will believe that I’m a pickpocket,” Char said, trying to brazen it out.
“The papers will. There are always those interested in bits of scandal and they don’t much care if it is true or not. And the Duke of B., if he is wise, and they say he is, he’ll run.”
He would.
“But this won’t be the end, will it?” she suggested. “You will always come to me for money.”
“You have the reputation to protect, my lady. We don’t.”
Char’s hands curled into fists at her side. She looked around at the faces of the Seven. They watched her with the expressions of cats who have trapped a mouse, and it was all her own fault. This was the desperation her father had experienced. There was no way to be free of them.
She also noticed something she had not paid particular attention to before; none of these lads showed the signs that they were keeping their money. Their clothes were threadbare, the soles of their shoes thin. Even Leo did not appear wealthy in spite of his cockychapeau bras. The money they made went to criminals higher up the chain of authority from them. They didn’t even look as if they ate decently.
“May I leave now?” Char asked.
Leo nodded to Danny. “See her out. The rest of you, we have an hour until dark. Be busy.” The boys scattered, many leaving through the alley passageway.
“This way, my lady,” Danny said, and led her away.
Char felt as if her feet had been turned to weights. A part of her refused to believe any of this was real, including Leo’s threats.
The sane part of her knew it was all too true.
They came out onto the street. The pedestrians were thinning and there were more men out and about. Groups of them. A few sailors, some lads looking for trouble, men hurrying to wherever they had to go.
Char pulled her hat lower over her head and followed Danny. She was anxious to return home and prayed Lady Baldwin had not woken from her nap because Char’s feeble brain was growing tired of all the lies she’d told. She also needed to put together what would undoubtedly be a cold supper. A bit of the chicken left from last night’s meal, some cheese, bread, and apples.
Indeed, this task, making a meal and taking care of the house on Mulberry Street, now seemed the most longed for experience in her life—
Whitridge’s tall, commanding figure stepped out from around a corner, blocking her path. Danny took one look at the angry blue eyes and firm jaw and took off running.
Char wished she could run, too, but she wouldn’t. The time had come for a reckoning.
“Go ahead,” she dared. “Send me to Newgate.”
