Page 57 of A Perfect Gentleman

Graeme’s lips quirked up at one corner. “And here I thought Laura was so well-mannered.”

“I’ve found I have a talent for bringing out one’s rude side.” James was silent for a moment, his eyes on Graeme’s face. “What is it that’s changed your mind about Lady Montclair’s character? Last time we talked, you were sure she was scheming against you. Coercing you into—”

“Yes, well . . .” A faint flush rose in Graeme’s cheeks. “I—she—that’s not important.”

“I take it you haven’t found the task too onerous?”

Graeme scowled at him. “That is not what I’m talking about. The other matter—the letters, the secret meetings—wasn’t what I thought. It turned out she was trying to help me. The man she met was trying to blackmail her—or give her information, I’m not entirely sure which.”

“Blackmail. Are you serious? How did you find this out?”

“I followed her.” Graeme related the events leading up to Abigail’s arrival in his house.

James listened, his eyebrows soaring upward. “And here I thought you led a dull life.”

“Not since Abigail came into it.”

“Who shot this man? Why?”

“I’ve no idea. I presume it must have been some other chap he was pressing for money, and he decided it would be easier to kill him than to pay him. The thing is, the man who was shot was Milton Baker.”

“Who? That sounds familiar.”

“He was my father’s man of business.”

“Good Gad, yes, now I remember. But what did he have to blackmail her with— Sorry, I shouldn’t ask.”

Graeme let out a sigh. “Oh, the devil take it. My father embezzled money from the fund for wounded soldiers.”

“So that is why you were asking about that charity today.”

Graeme nodded. “He took it to invest in the same stock and of course lost it all.”

“Good Lord.”

Graeme nodded. “That is how Thurston Price forced me to marry his daughter. It wasn’t only the money, though we needed that desperately. Price was a man who believed in insuring the outcome he wanted. He knew what my father had done, and he threatened to reveal it if I didn’t marry Abigail.”

James gaped at him. Graeme had the dubious satisfaction of seeing that he had managed to shock his cousin. “No wonder you were furious with Price.”

“Yes. I believed Abigail knew all about it, that she was a party to the blackmail.”

“How do you know she wasn’t?”

“By the very fact that she was trying to hide her dealings with Baker from me. If she had been a party to Thurston’s blackmail, she would have been well aware that I knew what Reginald had done. But she tried to protect me from learning of it.” He gave a wry smile.

“What did she say when you told her about her father’s blackmail?”

“I didn’t.”

“She doesn’t know that Thurston forced you into it?”

“She thinks it was just because of my desperate need for money. I started to explain exactly what happened, but then I thought—why put her through that? The man’s her father, and she loves him even if he is a scoundrel. It would only hurt her, and she has suffered enough over the years because of him.”

“It might help her understand why you were so angry ten years ago.”

Graeme shrugged. “I’d rather leave the past in the past. We—things are going smoothly now.”

James was silent for a long moment. “Why did you never tell me?”