“Hard to get more disloyal, Uncle, than having me killed.”
“You hadn’t learned to mind your own business.”
Wycliff laughed. “Stealing from my father made it my business. How are you—with no money, no barony for Nicholas, and jail impending to rot out your years? Terrible, I trust?”
“You weren’t killed. That fool Johnson sold you off to the Navy. You lived. That should settle all debts.”
So Nickie had lied to his father. He couldn’t even own what he’d done. Wycliff slid his hands to the shaft of the sjambok. “You did succeed in killing my companion. I was rather partial to her.”
His cousin blinked and looked down.
Uncle didn’t. He thought Ruth dead. Nickie knew otherwise.
Soulden shrugged. “Things happen. Again, that’s the past. You’re a Wilkinson. You’ve proved it. It’s time we work together. I have lots of connections that you can use.”
The notion of a coming-together made Wycliff want to toss his uncle over the balcony and ensure he crashed through each of the floors below. “I work with no one but men of honor. That’s not you or Nickie.”
“Wycliff, you want me to beg?” Uncle came closer. Out of the shadows, he looked even older but still deadly. There was no doubt in Wycliff’s mind that the man would exact revenge if he could. Good thing they’d visited the bankers, in addition to the bawdy house. Soulden would be jailed in days.
“I just need one more shipment, Wycliff. Then Nicholas and I can start over. He’ll be left something. That’s what matters now.”
“Do you think Captain Steward’s widow would agree that you two should be left something?”
Nickie was jumpy, nervous. “I told you there was no reasoning with him.”
“Things happen, Wycliff. What will it take to convince you to let bygones be bygones?”
“Four years of my life back with my father.”
“We didn’t kill him.”
“You made him suffer, even set him up for the fate you now have, debtors’ prison.”
“There’s nothing more to be gained, Wycliff. You’ve made me suffer. Nacknel is gone. Johnson committed suicide in Marshalsea this evening.”
“Yes, but you are still here, Uncle. You’re too old to be impressed into the Navy.”
The music started to ramp up. Intermission would soon happen.
“Nephew, your father would want peace. You know that.”
Wycliff felt his smirk fade. “Yes, but he’s dead. Your absconded fortune is now gone, too, restored to those you’ve defrauded.”
Uncle shook his yellowed fists, ones that used to strike fear in Wycliff. “Those accounts had more money in them. They had my profits, too.”
“You’ve paid interest. Well done, gentlemen.”
His cousin charged.
Lawden stepped in his way, guns drawn. “Gentlemen, intermission will happen soon. Let’s be speedy.”
Uncle Soulden pulled Nickie back. “In spite of all, we are family. Wycliff, you were the one who wanted to be a vicar. I’ve not forgotten. You lived. Now have mercy for Nicholas’s sake.”
“Pray for relief, Uncle. My answer came in four years.”
Nickie shook free of his father’s grasp. “We don’t have four years.”
“Then you have your answer, gentlemen.”
