One of the soldiers raised a weapon.
The clerk ran faster out the door.
Daniel coughed, trying hard to keep his laughter inside. “Membership in the Henpecked Club is quite fine.”
Jemina squinted at him with deep furrows growing on her brow. “What did you say? What’s funny?”
“Nothing.” He stepped in front of her and headed down the hall. “Follow me.”
“Always, if I’m not leading.”
He looked back at his wife, so strong and feisty, ready to face her past. Daniel jerked the door open and interrupted Willingham kissing Lady Lavinia. “Slumming so early in the morning, my dear shrew.”
“Lord Ashbrook, your note said to make sure Mr. Willingham was here and not thinking of anything, I took it to heart.”
Willingham jumped to the other side of the table backing up against the whitewashed walls. “Lavinia, dove, what is this?”
“I needed to make amends to Lord Ashbrook. I shouldn’t have tried to compromise you, Daniel, to gain your money and title. Or let my jealousy of Buckles here drive me to do something so terrible. You’ve always been decent to me. You deserve better.”
“Pretty words from a viper.” Jemina approached Lavinia. “And it’s Lady Ashbrook, not Buckles. Remember it or know my boots.”
“Well, you do clean up well. Enjoying Daniel’s money.”
Jemina blew him a kiss. “Everything, everything he has to offer.”
Lavinia frowned and swished past the table. Jemina hit her with the door when she opened it too quickly. “Sorry. Guess I’m the clumsy sort.”
The shrew adjusted the brim of her crushed bonnet. “Another time then.”
She left as Mr. Mosey entered, but Jemina still slammed the door.
“Good. Lord Ashbrook, Mr. Willingham. You are both here,” little man said.
“Mr. Mosey,” she said, her voice low and trembling, “we’re here to settle the matter of my assets. I’m formerly Jemina St. Maur, recently wed to Lord Ashbrook.”
Again, the worm’s five-finger forehead looked up. There was probably no admiration for Daniel’s Pomona green waistcoat with gold threading about the buttonholes or his indigo jacket cut with deep revers.
The plain Mosey probably only saw the barrister, the proud man who bested him in front of the Lord Mayor. Yes. And that was sufficient.
“Lord Ashbrook,” he said, “No hard feelings, I trust?”
“Spare me the pleasantries. Get on with this, sir.”
“I have been appealing to you for a while when I learned you found Mrs. St. Maur. The nature of Cecil St. Maur’s will has it that his holdings are in trust for her and nothing can be done without her agreement.”
“Nothing. Nothing can be sold?” Daniel sat on the long table within punching distance of Willingham. “That’s unusual.”
“Yes, the family had finally arranged for Mr. Willingham to buy the outstanding interests, but that was when Mrs. St. Maur was of diminished capacity.”
Jemina flexed her swatting hand. “You mean as long as I was held as a lunatic, the St. Maur family could sell my interests?”
“Quite simply, yes, but as your husband can attest, you are quite sane.”
Daniel hesitated for dramatic effect, but after a cough and Jemina’s glower, he decided to speak up. “Lady Ashbrook is quite sane. I suspect that she was placed in Bedlam to defraud her of her due. She suffered there for two years. Don’t you think that’s wrong, Mr. Mosey?”
The man looked down, pushed papers about, then nodded. “I see why you help these women. I am truly sorry.”
“She’s a lunatic. I was there.” Willingham said. “She raved like a lunatic about theMinerva’s sinking. She didn’t know her own name.”
