Page 89 of To Free a Trapped Baroness
“He never cared for Lady Valeria,” Henry said. “I believe he would have done anything to interfere with your courtship. Of course he would have taken steps to send a debt collector after you.”
“My goodness,” Duncan said. “I can’t believe we never thought of that. But it makes perfect sense. What should we do?”
Thomas looked at Crowle. “You really don’t know who it was?” he asked. “It’s just that this story doesn’t feel quite right. Lord Milton hated Lady Valeria, it’s true, but this never felt like an attack againsther. He only ever wanted her to go away.”
“And you don’t think he might have thought she would go away if she lost you?” Duncan said.
“No, I don’t think so,” Thomas said. “She wouldn’t have, would she? She would have stayed with you and your mother, and eventually courted someone else. If anything, I think Lord Milton would havewantedus married to one another, because he despised us both, didn’t he? It would have been convenient for him to see us paired up together like that.”
“Well,” Crowle said, “if it helps, I do have the note here.”
Henry whipped his head around. “You have it?”
“I’ve carried it with me ever since,” Crowle said. “I’ll let you see it. But you have to promise not to hand me over to the constables if I do.”
Duncan thought about that for a moment. If they changed their minds later, they could always go to the constables and report what they had discovered. It wouldn’t be quite as good as actually giving Crowle to them, but at least they would have enough leverage—probably—to prevent him from doing this to anyone in the future.
“All right,” he said. “Show us the note.”
“Hold on,” Henry protested. “We’re just going to let him go?”
“He’s not the one we need to worry about,” Duncan said. Thomas nodded in agreement. “We need to find out who was so eager to destroy Thomas’ happiness. That’s the person we need to find.” He turned back to Crowle. “Show us the note and we’ll let you leave.”
Crowle pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over. Duncan unfolded it to read what it said.
He stared, not taking in the words.
He knew the handwriting.
Chapter 36
“What?” Thomas demanded. “What is it?”
Duncan had gone rigid. He was staring at the piece of paper he held in his hands as if he had seen something horrifying. He didn’t even appear to have heard Thomas’ question.
Thomas hurried over and held out his hand for the paper.
Duncan looked up from it, but didn’t hand it over. “This is your handwriting,” he said.
“What?” Thomas was utterly confused. “My handwriting?”
Duncan’s eyes focused on him. “No,” he said. “Not yours.”
Then he turned to face Henry.
“It’s your handwriting,” he said. “I recognize it. You wrote this note.”
Henry let out an uneasy laugh. “What are you talking about, Duncan? That’s madness.”
Thomas agreed. “You’ve made a mistake,” he said. “Of course Henry didn’t write that note. He couldn’t have.”
Duncan handed it wordlessly to Thomas.
Thomas looked down at the impeccable penmanship.
Duncan was right. It was Henry’s handwriting.
He knew it from their school days together. He had always admired his friend’s tidy handwriting. Henry had teased them both for their sloppy penmanship, insisting that they would never get anywhere in the business world if they didn’t learn how to write legibly.
