Page 80 of Honeythorn
He then began to spin a tall tale of all he had suffered from Raphael. How he had been controlling, violent, unpredictable—all the typical stereotypes that were assigned to Alphas. Milan threw Raphael looks throughout Jack’s little speech, but his face was set in stone as if not one of Jack’s words were piercing through.
“It has not only been me. I’m sorry to reveal your secrets, Milan, but—he was almost killed by Lord Ledford. I have proof here from a Dr. Fitch that Milan was suffering from symptoms of something called a neglected bond—Lord Ledford refused to take care of the bond when it was recently implemented, and watched Milan almost perish for it.”
That was the first time Raphael reacted—a simple stiffening of his shoulders, a twitch of his hand. Milan rubbed his thumb over Raphael’s knuckles soothingly.
“And so,” Jack finished, dabbing at his watery eyes. Oh, the production. “I feel like I must be repaid for my suffering, and that the world must know of Lord Ledford’s evil deeds.”
There was a moment of silence as Jack’s solicitor patted him on the back in comfort.
“Well,” Miss Claude said. “Those are quite serious allegations, Mister Vipond.”
Jack just sniffled theatrically.
“Do you have a defence, Lord Ledford?” she asked, turning to Raphael. Milan slid the file of papers to him smoothly.
“In fact, I do.” He opened the file. “Let’s start with the allegations of my abusive behaviour towards Mister Vipond. I’m afraid that the abuse went quite the other way. I do not need to go into details, however. Here are sworn statements—taken by the constable, Missus Lint—from Orson, my butler, Ingrid, my cook, and three other of my previous staff in employ when I was bonded to Mister Vipond, all alleging that he suffered no abuse from my hand, but that it was he with the venomous tongue.”
Jack blinked at the papers that had been slid over to each solicitor. Milan smiled slowly. By revealing his plan four nights ago at the ball, Jack had given them everything they needed to collect the exact proof that would bring him down.
“Here is a statement from our current doctor that although what Milan suffered was indeed a neglected bond, it was not purposely done by me. Furthermore, I have proof that Mister Vipond was extricating money illegally from the Ledford estate by colluding with my previous accountant, who is in custody as of yesterday. Here are the statements.”
At that, Jack’s face drained of all colour, but they weren’t done yet.
“As it should be obvious now, Jack has been trying to take advantage of the law by plotting with one Jason Clarke to have us killed if Milan did not agree to testify against me.”
Jack spluttered. “That’s preposterous. I would never—”
“We collected the correspondence Mister Clarke had between him and Mister Vipond, which outlines their plan quite clearly. You may speak to Mister Clarke yourselves, as he is also in custody.”
Jack got up quickly from his chair. “I don’t need to hear any more of this.” He collected his coat from the back of his chair and went to move towards the door, which took the opportunity to open dramatically.
Missus Lint stepped inside. “Mister Vipond. I have a warrant for your arrest.”
“What! No—this is absolutely—I will not—Mister Sitwell! Are you just going to sit there?”
“Ah…well…”
“No!” Jack cried, but his wailing was completely ineffective, as the constable was already dragging him away.
Milan’s heart was racing with triumph. “Well. I’m terribly famished after all that,” he said as Mister Sitwell sat, stunned.
Miss Claude, of course, had already known what was going to happen, although she wondered why the constable couldn’t simply arrest Mister Vipond at his rooms and have it over with without so much drama.
Obviously, she had no appreciation for theatre.
Raphael smiled, gathering his remaining papers and standing up. “Shall we have breakfast in town?”
“Oh, yes. Let’s get some pastries from the bakery.”
“We’ll have to hide them from Ingrid, lest she takes offence.”
“We wouldn’t want that.”
Raphael smiled, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on his cheek.
Milan could feel the gratitude and fondness through the bond, but it was shining from his eyes, too. “Shall we go, then?”
“Yes. There’s nothing else for us here.”
