Page 17 of The Boxing Baroness

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“I’ve been monitoring Farnham’s mail,” Elliot reminded him. “There’s been no proof—”

“You only started going through his mail after Sin received Dominic’s letter, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“What if Dom sent him a letter before?”

“Of course, that’s poss—”

“Or what if he’s sending and receiving his correspondence using somebody else? Maybe another accomplice in this ransom scheme?”

“Yes, that’s—”

Guy leaned forward in his chair. “We have an older smuggling connection between Farnham and Strickland—”

“But there’s no evidence that Farnham did anything more than smuggle goods, Guy,” Elliot said. “Certainly nothing linking him to Beauvais’s escape.”

Guy scoffed. “You think Farnham was up to his neck in smuggling in Deal yet didn’t know what else Strickland was doing using the same network?”

“I agree it seems likely Farnham knows more than we’ve been able to discover,” Elliot conceded. “But we have no evidence on Simpson—none. I need proof before I accuse a man—or woman—of treason.”

“We’re not condemning her to hang, Elliot, we just want something we can use to convince Simpson that she has to go with us and talk to Dominic.”

“By convince, you mean force,” Elliot said.

Before Guy could answer, Sin said, “Putting aside the fact that we shall have to force Simpson to go along with this”—he glanced at Guy—“and that is a significant issue to put aside, what makes you so sure Strickland doesn’t have something nefarious planned for her if we hand her over to him?”

“Surely her uncle wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her?”

“You’re assuming that Farnham is involved in all this. What if he’s not? What if this is all Dominic?” Sin shook his head irritably. “This is a bloody tangled mess, with something very rotten at its core. Why does Dominic want to see her so badly?”

Guy waved a dismissive hand. “It doesn’t matter what he’s got planned because we’ll be there with her; we can protect her.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain about that. Dominic Strickland’s brain is murky and devious. We can’t hope to guess what he’s got in mind,” Sin said. “The man has never done anything for nothing. If he wants to talk to Simpson, he has something to gain. It is only conjecture, but I doubt he means the woman well. Besides,” he added, “it will only be the three of us if we encounter trouble. If Dominic is behind this rash of ransom demands, then he is probably not working alone. Somebody has to be holding these men prisoner. Who knows how many people are involved or what we might be facing? He might have a bloody army.”

The other two men digested that possibility for a moment.

“I still think we should bring our own army,” Guy said. “Not actual soldiers,” he corrected hastily at Sin’s look of annoyance. “We should hire some—”

“Absolutely not,” Sin and Elliot said at the same time.

“Fine,” Guy said. “Let’s go over this again. You said that your office has been investigating Dominic for years—and that he was suspected of selling secrets before whatever happened with Beauvais?”

Elliot nodded.

“Then I’d say it’s fair to assume that Farnham—whom we know smuggled goods alongside Strickland in Deal for several years—was also involved. And then there is Miss Simpson, who was conveniently living with Strickland at the time of Beauvais’s escape.” Guy turned to Sin. “The way I see it, Simpson owes you her cooperation if she wants to save her uncle’s hide and clear her own name. If she won’t help you willingly? Well, then I think you have every right to force her. Hell, you’re not asking for the world—you only want her to take a few days out of her tour to go with us to Metz.” Guy raised his eyebrows. “Not a whole lot to ask to save a man’s life, is it?”

Sin looked at Elliot.

“I agree with Guy,” Elliot said. “If her presence is a nonnegotiable part of the price to find out where Ben is being kept, then . . .” He shrugged, not needing to spell it out.

If Sin wanted to save Ben’s life, he needed Marianne’s cooperation. Sin’s choice was clear—and extremely distasteful to him: If she wouldn’t come along willingly, then he’d have to resort to force—regardless of her guilt or innocence.

Wouldn’t that make him just as bad, if not worse, than Dominic Strickland?

Chapter 5