Page 28 of How to Seduce a Viscount
The doctor stepped away with a nod and Luce stepped in. ‘Let’s start with the easy questions. Who are you working for, gentlemen? I will give you this one chance to answer voluntarily. Should you choose not to, we’ll forego the magistrate and send you to a place where answers will be retrieved involuntarily.’
They would not leave his grandfather’s network alive. But, with cooperation, Luce would settle for turning them over to the local magistrate on charges of drunken conduct. They’d get some time in the local jail and then be free to go—a far better and far lighter sentence than being turned over to his grandfather’s minions.
‘We aren’t telling you anything.’ Wilkes’ bloody spittle landed at Luce’s feet, courtesy of Luce’s fist to his jaw earlier. Some resistance was to be expected, Luce supposed.
‘Jail might be the safest place for you,’ he reminded them. ‘Perhaps you fear your own boss’s retribution if you give me a name. Will that be worse than what the network might visit upon you?’ He knew it wouldn’t be. They’d be safe in jail. And when they were out they’d have a fighting chance,ifthey were clever, to disappear and escape any retribution that might be waiting for them. Wilkes slanted a look at Paterson. Luce could see the reasoning move in their eyes.
‘Tell him.’ Paterson coughed and spat blood, the effort bringing him pain. Luce wondered if his wound was worse than it had looked.
Wilkes gave him a malevolent look. ‘Dieter Gerlitz sent us.’ His mouth twisted into a sneer. ‘That name means nothing to you, does it? Hah hah.’ The laugh cost him. His ribs hurt. Served the bastard right.
Wren stepped forward, fingering her blade, her tangled hair and wrecked ball gown giving her a fierce beauty. Primal desire surged through Luce, savage and sharp. She put the blade to Wilkes’ neck. ‘Dieter Gerlitz worked for Cabot Roan. He was Roan’s right-hand man when it came to munition sales in Europe. He and Roan were selling arms to the Ottomans and hoped to sell to the Greeks via connections in England before the Horsemen foiled their plans that night in Wapping.’
Luce shot her a warning look. ‘Put the knife away.’ He didn’t want Wilkes and Paterson dead. At least not yet and not by her hand. She stepped back and he watched Wilkes breathe a little easier although the man’s gaze emanated pure hatred for her.
‘Of coursesheknows,’ the man growled, wanting to bait him but Luce didn’t bite, at least not out loud. Internally, he did wonder what the man meant. What did Wren know? The man’s gaze lingered on Wren. ‘I bet not even you knows the rest though. You put that blade in me or Paterson here and you’ll never know. Not until it’s too late.’
Luce shifted his gaze to Wren, gauging her reaction in order to adjust his own guesses as to what Wilkes might be alluding. Clearly, there was information to be had. Wren had gone pale, her eyes two blazing grey lights, her hand subtly flexing around the hilt of her blade as if she knew or guessed what that information might be and would do anything to extract it.
‘I don’t have to tell you anything.’ Wilkes sneered. ‘Maybe I’m just playing with you. Sowing doubt. Sowing worry.’ Luce hated Wilkes’ eyes on her. He should have given the man a black eye instead of a sore jaw. But that was what Wilkes wanted. He wanted this to be about emotions, about forgetting what the goal of the interaction was. Luce needed information. That would be the real revenge, not the short-term, base satisfaction of wrecking violence for violence.
‘I don’t think so,’ Luce replied coolly. He split his gaze between Wren and Paterson. Wrenknewthere was information and Paterson was hurt badly. ‘Your friend here is going to need more than bandages.’ Already, blood was slowly seeping through the doctor’s hasty work. Wren had done more damage than originally suspected. Paterson was paling, struggling against unconsciousness and pain. ‘We have laudanum. We can get him stitches if need be. But you have to pay in information.’
‘That’s extortion,’ Wilkes bit out. ‘The Hippocratic oath…’
‘Holds no sway with me. I am not a physician,’ Luce snapped. ‘It’s not extortion, it’s a trade. Or perhaps you’d like to join your comrade in feeling the effects of Miss Audley’s blade?’
‘Miss Audley. That’s sweet. She isn’t any Miss, any more than you’re really a lord. Look at you two, giving yourselves airs.’ There it was again, this indicator that Wilkes knew something about her. But that was not the goal of this interrogation. He would not let Wilkes distract him.
‘Tell him. It won’t matter in the long run,’ Paterson urged hoarsely, starting to slouch in his chair. ‘Get me the drugs.’
For a moment, Wilkes looked nervous, concerned about his comrade’s condition. It was good to note the man had a modicum of loyalty. Luce would continue to use that as long as he needed to.
‘It’s about your brother,’ Wilkes snarled. He might confess but he wouldn’t be nice about it. Luce felt the man’s gaze shift to him and carefully schooled his features. Wilkes had been trying to provoke him from the start. Features schooled, but his pulse still raced. Wilkes knew something about Stepan?
‘Gerlitz has found him in Essex. He is sending a team to finish the business started in Wapping. The explosives expert your brother killed in the water was Gerlitz’s cousin.’
Myriad reactions rocketed through Luce. Joy that Stepan was alive. Fear that Stepan was in danger. A thousand questionsjockeyed for his attention but now was not the time for it. Wren was on the move, her blade pressed once more to Wilkes’ throat.
‘That is not a given.’ Luce had the impression her words were for him, not for Wilkes. ‘There is a supposition only that Stepan is in Essex. There is no proof.’
Luce stiffened, another flood of realisations sweeping him. ‘You knew?’ He threw the accusation at her.
Wilkes chuckled. ‘Seems like the two of you have a lot to talk about.’
No, he would not let this scoundrel of a man sow his doubt. Wilkes wanted a wedge between them. Luce would not give him the satisfaction. Luce stepped forward, waving Wren away. He gripped the man’s lapels and tipped back the chair. ‘Where’s the team now?’ How much time did he have to get to Stepan? To warn him? To save him? The Essex coast was up to four days away from the Surrey Hills by horse. ‘Tell me or there’s no laudanum, no magistrate, no protection of jail. I’ll feed you back to Gerlitz myself and tell him how you betrayed him.’
Paterson moaned. The doctor stepped forward, but Luce waved him off.
‘Cap Gris-Nez, that’s the last I knew,’ Wilkes offered and Luce beckoned the doctor forward.
Cap Gris-Nez was thirteen miles from Dover on the French side of the Channel.
‘Storms would have kept them in port. They won’t have been able to cross yet,’ Wren added.
‘She knows all about Cap Gris-Nez,’ Wilkes hissed. ‘It’s Falcon’s favourite port. Discreet and less public than Calais.’ He sneered at Wren. ‘It took Gerlitz a while to figure out where you’d disappear to, but he finally did it.’
Luce whirled back to face Wilkes. ‘What did you say?’
