Morgan took a sip of his drink and then looked at Blake and responded, “Easy. She lives in the house directly behind him, and something tells me she knew he would be with her.”
The corners of Blake’s lips lifted in a knowing grin. “As in all night?”
“Most of it, anyway,” Morgan offered.
“You two can be such bloody blackguards,” Race mumbled.
Blake landed a fist on the table with a thump. “So she lured you into her bed, and then she had someone sneak into your house and pilfer what she came to Town for. She got the pearls.”
“I thought so at first, but not anymore. There are other, more likely suspects,” Race countered, not wanting his cousins to condemn Susannah as he had.
“But if not Susannah, who?” Blake queried.
“I don’t know the answer to that yet.”
“But we do know whom she was in bed with,” Morgan remarked slyly. “Did she give you that little scratch under your eye?”
Race reached up and touched the scrape he’d received on his cheek while crawling through the hedge after he’d left Susannah’s house that morning. That cut was minor compared to some of the ones on his chest and back. He looked like he’d been in a fight with a cat and lost.
Race didn’t want to discuss Susannah with his cousins. He had to tell them the necklace had been stolen but he didn’t have to tell them anything else about Susannah.
Blake picked up his wine glass and took a sip. “Have you been to see the magistrate?”
“Not yet and may not for a time. I will be having some things done that he wouldn’t approve of. I spent most of the afternoon with a man on Bow Street named Mr. Walter Bickerman.”
“I’ve heard of him,” Blake said. “He has one of the best reputations of all the runners.”
Race nodded. “He immediately dispatched men to watch Spyglass’s and Winston’s residences, Smith’s shop, and Spyglass’s ship, theGolden Pearl, which as of a short time ago was still in the harbor. They will be followed wherever they go, even if they leave Town. That way we’ll know where they are at all times.”
“I think I’m missing something.” Morgan paused and rubbed the area between his eyes with his thumb. “How is following them going to get the pearls back?”
Blake rested his forearm on the table. “It stands to reason that if Spyglass is the thief, he will now prepare to leave Town, since obtaining the pearls seems to be the only reason he came to London.”
“I would think all of them are smart enough not to run the minute they got their hands on the pearls,” Morgan offered. “That would be like waving a flag and saying they were guilty.”
“Bickerman and I discussed that. But we thought it was better to have the houses, shop, and ship watched anyway, to be safe. He is going to hire a man who can go in and search for safes and hiding places and try to find the pearls.”
“Now that sounds like the right thing to do,” Morgan said.
“And the reason the magistrate doesn’t need to know about this.”
Race swallowed wine past a tight throat. “Yes. I wanted to go in and check the safes myself, but Bickerman reminded me of a very important point. I wouldn’t know how to open their safes even if I found where they were hidden.”
Blake tilted his chair back again. “Yes, our grandmother saw that we were taught how to ride, play cards, and shoot, but not how to open a safe. How thoughtless.”
“I don’t think our grandmother intended for us to rob anyone,” Race countered dryly. “The good thing is that Bickerman knows of a man who can do just that and he’s going to employ him for me.”
“Someone who knows how to break into a house and open safes?” Morgan asked. “Who is he?”
Race chuckled ruefully. “He wouldn’t tell me, of course. People who can do that sort of thing don’t want too many people knowing they can do it. It’s against the law, you know. Bickerman knows how badly I want the pearls back, and he wants the money I’ve promised when he finds them.”
“So, I suppose the possibility that the duchess might be in on this will end your affair with her,” Blake said.
Morgan picked up the wine bottle and topped off their glasses. “I’m sure it will. Remember Lord Chesterfield said that ‘Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret.’ We know about his liaison with her, so what fun could it be for him now?”
Blake agreed with a nod and said, “But I was just remembering one of Chesterfield’s other quotes. ‘Hatred is by far the longest pleasure; men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.’”
“Damn both of you,” Race muttered. “You know good and well Chesterfield never said either of those things. You’re both making them up just to get me riled, as if I wasn’t already.”
