Page 64 of To Treasure an Heiress
Her fingers curled into her palms. It wasn’t like him. Or maybe it was. What did she really know about him?
Rory’s laughter slithered through the rain. “Don’t pretend that would be enough to make you see things my way—it never has before. And you weren’t exactly leaping to my defense with Senara the other night, were you?”
Ainsley said nothing, though she could imagine how he would look. He’d be still and steady, not even blinking out of turn.
Rory went on, voice low. “Well, it’s like this, cousin. I need some actual information, and she’s my best chance of getting it. And the amount they’re paying me—well, it’s certainly worth a few vows that don’t mean much anyway.”
“You are such a reprobate.” The words snapped out in Ainsley’s voice, full of leashed feeling.
“Sticks and stones, Hank. But if you want to spare her poor heart, you know what you have to do. If you want to keep her out of it, you have to take her place.”
Senara stared with horror at the stone before her. Not just at how little she meant to Rory, though it still stung. But Ainsley . . . he wouldn’t be drawn into Rory’s scheme. Not forher.
Would he?
The silence stretched long, thin, taut. It felt like an eternity later that Ainsley gusted out a breath audible even over the rain and said, “If I help you, do you swear to stay away from her?”
Rory’s laugh slid into her ears like poison. “You have my word.”
“Is that supposed to satisfy me? We both know how much your word is worth.”
“Now, Henry, don’t go insulting me or I’ll change my mind.”
Ainsley made a low, frustrated noise. “Just tell me what you need.”
Rory chuckled. “Just feed me a bit of reliable information, that’s all. They have specific questions, you see. Questions that I can’t make up the answers to or they’ll know and cut me off.”
Silence. And then another heaving breath. “Such as?”
Senara let her eyes slide shut. No. This couldn’t be happening. Ainsley wouldn’t turn on Sheridan just to try to spare her a future with his cousin. She couldn’t possibly be that important to him.
Or maybe . . . maybe she was just an excuse, like she’d been to Rory himself. Maybe it was the money tempting him. Maybe he’d gather the information they wanted but then not turn it over until Rory cut him into the deal.
A gust of wind tore through the Gardens, sending rain sluicing off leaves and onto the path. The patter turned to a drumming, overpowering any other sound. Senara pressed closer to the wall, trying to hear Rory over the noise.
“... archives. They didn’t realize it until the bloke vanished, and now they can’t trace who paid him. Was it Sheridan?”
Archives? Senara sent her mind back through all the tidy lists she’d made over the last weeks, all the things the others had asked her to note. Lady Emily had mentioned a concern about the archives—not in Senara’s hearing, but Beth had relayed it later. That someone was doing all the copy work for her family. Which meant someone else knew everything they did. Sheridan had lit up at that, proposed that they ought to be the ones to leverage it—but Telford and Oliver had insisted it was an unnecessary expense and not quite aboveboard, respectively. But that didn’t mean the marquess hadn’t done it anyway.
“I have no idea,” Ainsley said evenly. Though he would. He knew everything Sheridan did. “But I’ll see what I can discover. What else?”
“They’re still a bit miffed that some bloke initially hired by Sheridan but then recruited by them was arrested last month.”
“Lorne.”
“Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway, they’re convinced Sheridan has more people out there working from different angles. They want to know who they are.”
Senara pressed her hand to the ivy-covered stone behind her. Sheridan didn’t, in fact, have anyone else working on this—LordTelford and Oliver had both asked him point-blank if he had, within her first day home. He’d assured them both that they were now the only ones researching the questions from his end. And she couldn’t imagine him lying to his best friend.
But Ainsley said, “Of course he has. At least three that I know of. I’ll have to poke through his papers to get you their names and how to reach them.”
Three? Senara frowned. Had Sheridan lied to his best friend?
Rory chuckled. “I knew you’d come through for us, old boy. How quick can you get the information to me?”
“It shouldn’t take long. A day or so. Where are you staying?”
“Penzance. No rooms to let here, so I’ve been ferrying over. I can come back tomorrow.”
