“You owe me, boy!” Jessop leaned closer to Kendrick. Brynn started toward him, but Kendrick raised a hand.
“Go quietly, Isaiah, if you want me to sit down with you, or I’ll have Colonel Morgan and his brother escort you back to the Nottingham jail for disturbing the peace of The Willow and the Rose.”
“Gotten damned mighty for a tavern brat,” Jessop spat. He tossed a hateful glance toward Brynn. “I’m not afraid of your bully-boy friends, no more ’n I was of your rutting sire.”
“Colonel Morgan, kindly escort this gentleman to the private dining room,” Mr. Benson said with diplomacy born of decades managing the seething mass of humanity from all classes in a coaching inn. He showed neither surprise nor alarm over the scene and Jessop’s revelations.
“Go, Isaiah,” Kendrick said.
Brynn gripped Jessop’s arm. The man threw him off but walked quietly toward the stairs. “You best be down in ten minutes or I’m coming up. You won’t wiggle away.”
When he went quietly, Brynn hesitated. He wanted a word with Kendrick.
“I’ll make sure he stays out of trouble,” Rhys murmured, shouldering past and following Jessop and the innkeeper.
Kendrick’s face, pale but resolute, boded poorly for Jessop. “He won’t stop until we talk. I’m the only one who can silence him.”
“Is that what you want?” Brynn asked.
“I haven’t changed my mind since that day at Brynhafan, if that’s what you’re asking. I already told Phillip that. We need to send my uncle back to Charleston one way or another.”
For the first time, Brynn realized Kendrick was capable of great ruthlessness. He hadn’t survived his horrific father and the mines by being soft.
“Do you want witnesses?” Brynn asked.
The corner of Kendrick’s mouth quirked up. “So that I can claim self-defense when I throttle him?”
“Or I can,” Brynn said with an answering grin. “But I meant objective eyes and ears to his claims.”
Kendrick nodded. “Give me ten minutes to finish dressing and help the nursemaid get the children sorted.”
He was as prompt as promised. Brynn, dressed but not shaved, met him as specified, and they went down together. Brynn peered across the entranceway to see Rhys standing guard at the door to the private parlor. Brynn paid him little mind, distracted as he was by the sight of Madelyn.
She stood near the entrance from the stable yard, newly arrived in a deep-blue cloak and a wide-brimmed coal-scuttle bonnet, staring at the door, her eyes darting between Brynn and Kendrick. “That was Jessop,” she breathed. It wasn’t a question.
*
Maddy wasn’t entirelysure whether what she felt was relief or stone-cold fear when Gideon bowed to her insistence that she join him in confronting Jessop. Only the presence of Brynn, looking deliciously raffish with a day’s growth of beard, soothed her nerves. Rhys had stepped aside when they’d arrived. “I’ll be nearby if you need me,” he’d murmured before heading for the public dining area.
Gideon peered at her. “I won’t be cowed, Madelyn, and I won’t change my mind about the title. Jessop has to be neutralized.” A dark expression came over Gideon, and for the first time since she’d met him, he reminded her of Randolph. She shivered at the thought.
Jessop didn’t rise when they entered. “The duchess joins us. Did she come to protect you?” he sneered.
Kendrick glared at his uncle, a study in contained fury, though Maddy couldn’t say whether his rage arose from Jessop’s poor manners, from his cruel boyhood, or from his resentment over the title.Probably all of it. He wants to go back to his quiet life.
“Shall we sit and hear this man out?” she suggested.
Before they could, Alice, the Willow’s cheerful serving girl, emerged from the kitchen with a tray of cups, a tub of butter, and Chelsea buns covered with a cloth to keep them warm. The potboy followed with hot coffee. The girl’s brows rose at the sight of Maddy. “Would you prefer tea, Your Grace?” she asked, setting down her tray.
“This will do, Alice, thank you.”
Brynn closed the door behind the servants. Maddy moved the tray as far from Jessop as the table allowed and sat there, prepared to pour. Brynn sat next to her. She kept her eyes on the coffee, calling on every ounce of her upbringing while she poured four cups, determined that Jessop would see no sign of weakness.
Brynn distributed the coffee and buns. Kendrick ignored it. Jessop devoured the food as if he was starving. Maddy suspected he was.
Jessop spoke first, after wiping his mouth with the back of one hand. “Let yourself be diddled out of what were rightfully yours, did you boy?”
“You know nothing,” Gideon retorted.
