Anna raised her chin and held his gaze. “My brother is missing.”
At his quickly indrawn breath, she pressed on. In for a penny... “And I have every reason to suspect Mrs. Dove-Lyon is responsible for his disappearance.”
He should haveknown Anna’s presence at the Lyon’s Den had had to do with William.Missing.
Jackson mentally cursed. How hadn’t he known? What was the point of paying his contact for inside information on the Runners if he learned the facts from a third party?
He knew the answer, of course; Bow Street was as crooked as the Thames. One of the reasons he made a point to peek at any ongoing investigations when the files crossed desks. Still...
“How wasn’t a missing viscount reported in every paper from here to Scotland?”
Anna blinked. An innocent gesture and one bespeaking honesty. “I don’t know. The runner I spoke to said a public announcement would only muddy the investigation.”
Someone in Bow Street has a brain.He blew out his breath. More small miracles. “Let’s keep it that way.” With Anna, there had to be more. “I’m surprised Mrs. Dove-Lyon agreed to see you,” he said. It had taken him six months to get the woman’s private invitation.
“About that...” Anna shifted from one foot to the other. “I may have been caught breaking into the woman’s private office.”
Bloody hell.
“You were—” Jackson shook his head. “You might have led with that.” Breaking and entering,a crime. And if he hadn’t lost at cards, some other lucky bastard would be in his place.
Jackson frowned. Being forced to marry an exceptional woman was doable—and elating, maddening, trouble—but she had other relatives. At least one particular woman of the Greene family found a ducal title the Devil’s curse instead of a blessing. “What of your uncle?”
Anna froze. “He is not to be informed of our marriage or William’s disappearance.”
He knew that tone. Familial strain. Worse?A bloody pain. Good thing Anna was of age and did not require her former guardian’s consent.
He sighed and focused on the problem at hand.
He’d send Roberts a missive before the end of the hour. There wasn’t a man alive more thorough. William Greene would be found by week’s end, in time for the wedding... Best he not dwell on howthatchat would go.
Brothers had a tendency to grow minotaur-ish where innocent sisters were concerned.
Choosing the words to pen in his note to his man, Jackson’s other half continued to think of the circumstances of his and Anna’s reunion. There had to have been more to it. If there was no fee... Mrs. Dove-Lyon didn’t force a woman’s hand for something as inane as trespassing. Despite his wish to vilify the widow, she did havesomemoral lines.
Was Anna meant to distracthim? That would mean Mrs. Dove-Lyon had uncovered his investigation, surmised his connection with Anna, and manipulated them both, all from behind a rather extravagant kneehole desk.
Jackson’s jaw clenched. If the whole production had been by the woman’s design, breaking the engagement would be a nightmare.
“I’m surprised the threat of Scotland Yard was enough to talk you into wrapping the noose around your neck,” he said.
“It isn’t.”
He waited.
That stubborn chin dipped when she sighed. “Apparently, William had amassed a debt that put the Prince Regent’s spending into a most agreeable light by comparison.”
Well, hell.
Jackson only knew William as a constant mention in Anna’s stories when they had been young, but he’d never have taken the younger brother who’d dominated every heroic role in her tales as a profligate risktaker.
The thought that William would put himself—and Anna—in such a position had Jackson’s temper rising.
“I could—”
“If you offer to pay my family’s debts, I will do more than cork you, Duke.”
He had been thinking that, but...No.He knew better than to use money to persuade a woman like Mrs. Dove-Lyon to bend. More likely to have the switch retaliate with a sting across the cheeks. Because, if money and favors weren’t part of the widow’s scheme, the feather of matchmaking the Duke of Grandfellow was an adornment she could proudly display in her cap.
