“I did not say he was.” The way the little man raised his white brows reminded Jamie of his old tutor. “But I believe the man behind the scheme was a mercer—and a powerful member of the guild.”
“Then I shall go to the Hall of the Worshipful Company of Mercers,” Jamie said, rising to his feet, “and knock some heads together until someone tells me what I wish to know.”
“But Sir James…,” the clerk said behind him as he headed down the stairs, but Jamie was done with talking. He needed to do something, and knocking mercer heads together seemed as good as any.
Just as he reached the front door, someone pounded on the other side. He flung it open to find two girls on the step, looking up at him as if he were a wolf about to eat them.
Who the devil were they? Sisters, that much was clear, though one was still a child and the other all voluptuous curves. Their faces, however, were like mirror images, ten years apart.
He forced himself to take a deep breath and to say, “Good day to you.”
“We are here to see Lady Linnet,” the older one said. Her voice was breathy, and she leaned forward as she spoke.
“We’ve come to warn her!” the younger one shouted over her.
Perhaps the clue he’d prayed for had come in the form of these two big-eyed girls.
“Come inside, quickly,” he said.
The older girl was staring at him with her mouth slightly open. When she took a step forward, the younger girl grabbed her arm and held her back.
“We do not know him,” the younger girl hissed at her sister. Then to Jamie she said, “If Lady Linnet is not here, we are willin’ to speak with her brother.”
“He is not here either, but I am Sir James Rayburn, the man Linnet is going to marry.”If he ever got his hands on her again.
“Then we’ve no time to waste,” the younger girl said, pulling her sister over the threshold past Jamie. “Not if you want a wife who is aboveground.”
Once they were in the solar, the girls, whose names he learned were Rose and Lily, told him what they knew.
Rose, the older girl, spoke first. “Our father agreed to help Lady Linnet.”
“She had him over a barrel, ’tis why he did it,” Lily put in.
Rose smoothed her skirts, then looked up at Jamie from under thick, dark lashes. “Since Father is a member of the guild and she is not, he sold her cloth under his own name for a percentage of the profit.”
“He cheated her, ’a course,” Lily added.
Rose gave her sister a sideways glance, then cleared her throat. “He also agreed to make inquiries—”
“Nose about, she means,” Lily said, nodding. “But he never meant to.”
“You do not know that, Lily,” Rose said.
Lily crossed her arms. “Ha. Father lies like a—” “Girls, please,” Jamie said, putting his hands up. “Tell me what you know.”
“We overheard Father talking to a man,” Rose said. “We hid under the stairs to listen,” Lily said, “like we always do.”
Rose’s breasts rose and fell as she heaved a sigh. Jamie glanced at his squire, who was staring with openmouthed admiration at the older girl.
“Father said that frightening Lady Linnet wasn’t likely to work,” Rose said.
“Aye, he says ‘the only way to stop that one is to have her restin’ on the bottom of the Thames,’ ” Lily added. “ ‘’Cause she is stubborn as an ox.’ ”
Rose cleared her throat again. “Father asked the other man how he wanted it done, but the man said he did not need Father’s help.”
“That’s when the other man starts talkin’ ’bout witches and sorcerers,” Lily said, her eyes wide.
“Is this true?” Jamie fixed his gaze on Rose, though he knew in his soul it was.
