Page 52 of Fatal By Design
Audrey recoiled from his hateful outburst while Millie leaned forward, livid.
“The only shameful thing is your shallow heart,” Millie said. “He is your family. Your blood—”
“Sit back and seal your lips, viscountess,” Mr. Henley hissed.
Millie snapped back in her seat, her anger palpable.
But the mention of Lord Montague led Audrey to another quandary. “Surely, you could have repaid the others’ lost investments if you’d asked the marquess’s for assistance? Why take such drastic measures?”
Mr. Henley snorted derisive laughter. “Grandfather? He is destitute! He’s sold everything that is not entailed, right down to the furniture. Hell, if his properties weren’t entailed, he’d have sold them too.”
“I see. And yet your plans don’t include helping your grandfather, only yourself.”
“Spare me your moral superiority,” he said. “He willingly buried himself, without a second thought for me. That ring will fetch a tidy sum, enough to purchase a new life abroad. It is all I have left to me.”
“You are despicable.” Millie fairly trembled with impotent rage.
Mr. Henley shifted his jaw, and for a terrifying moment, Audrey thought he might pull the trigger. But he only sighed. “You know, none of this would have been so difficult if Lady Redding only told my men where the ring was straightaway. Instead, Your Grace, your devoted sister refused to speak. Refused to give you up as keeper of the diamond, unwitting as you were.”
Millie tucked her chin and closed her eyes, her face contorting again with a suppressed sob. Audrey covered her sister’s hand. She felt no anger toward her for their circumstances. When Millie opened her eyes, a smile wobbled over her lips.
“You carried that shell with you everywhere. Treated it like a good luck charm.”
She had, even more so after James was gone. It surprised her that Millie had noticed. She’d always believed she was invisible to her older sister.
“I couldn’t take the chance of one of my maids noticing the ring, especially after that scandal with Reggie’s arrest,” she went on. “And you know how Mother is always changing the décor at Haverfield. I could not keep it there and risk it being thrown away or removed from the house.”
Her sister’s chin trembled. This was a side of Millie she had never seen. Emotional. Vulnerable. Her sister had always been so severe, so rigid. That she would have tried to protect Audrey from Mr. Henley and his thugs, at her own expense, made her wonder what other hidden depths she possessed.
If she wanted to find out, she needed to keep them both alive. That meant not playing into Mr. Henley’s hands.
She set her jaw and said, “I knew.”
Millie’s eyes widened. “You knew?”
“I did. All along, I knew. I found the ring several years ago.”
Mr. Henley hinged forward. “What?”
Recklessly—something Hugh had accused her of being countless times—Audrey plunged forward with her ruse, even though to what end was not yet clear.
“The ring must have shifted within the shell. I heard it rattling inside, and I pulled it free. I had no idea it belonged to you,” Audrey said, the words rushing out just as quickly as she was cobbling together a plan.
“Where is it?” A new, dangerous edge dragged his voice low.
She held her breath. Then took the plunge. “I don’t know. I sold it.”
Silence. Their captor froze. Then, he erupted with a howl so grating and pained that Audrey winced and clapped her hands over her ears. Millie yelped and cowered as Mr. Henley’s face turned a mottled red, a vein standing out on his forehead.
“You are lying,” he shouted, the pistol practically shaking as he aimed it at her head.
“I wish I was. But I did sell it. For a vast sum, too. I hid the money from everyone, even my husband.”
“Why would you do that?” he asked, his suspicion still surging.
“My husband would already gain my dowry. Why give him this, too?” she replied with a single shoulder shrug. “I wasn’t sure at the time how he managed his finances. If he might gamble it all away.”
Mr. Henley shook his head, still not convinced. She had to admit, it was a flimsy excuse. “You said it was at Fournier Downs,” he reminded her.
