Page 110 of The Truth Serum
“Which is what, exactly?”
“Which is what I want from him. Exactly.”
And that was all he said. And she was at a loss what to do about it.
She looked out the window, her eyes picking up details here and there. They were nearing summer, so it was still light out, even this late. But even if she couldn’t see much, she could smell the Thames.
“We’re heading for the docks. Is my brother buying something for you?” She looked at him, her expression as open as she could make it, but inside she was praying he said yes. Purchasing smuggled goods wasn’t nearly as terrible a crime.
“With what money? Henry keeps Fletcher’s purse very lean.”
“With your money, I assume.”
“I do not make a habit of allowing someone else to carry my purse.”
“So he’s selling.”
The baron gave a quick nod. “He and my brother.”
She frowned. Nate had said something about that, hadn’t he? “Your brother?”
“Half-brother. My father’s bastard. Works at the Tower of London with me.” He grinned. “He gets the rifles out but is a damned coward when meeting the French. Runs at the first sign of trouble. I’ve lost good money because he turned tail.”
“So you sell them—”
“Me? Goodness no. All that skulking about on the docks? A man could get his head bashed in for that.”
There was something in his tone of voice, something in the way he said those words that made her look at him sharply. “Get his head bashed in,” she echoed slowly. Just as Nate had before. “You did it?” she asked quietly. “You’ve bashed someone’s head in, just for being at the docks?”
He patted her hand. “There’s a time and place for everything, my dear. If someone pokes his nose into my business, I pokeback.” Then he squeezed her hand with increasing strength, harder and harder until she tried to jerk it away. She couldn’t. He was too strong, and pain began to radiate up her arm. If he kept it up, he was going to break her bones.
“Stop it!”
He abruptly let her go, and she pulled her throbbing hand back to her chest. “Why would you do that to me?” she whispered.
“I want you to understand. I can be very generous, but I also must be obeyed.”
The threat was obvious. Indeed, she might think him an overblown villain in a novel, except that he was right here with her. He was telling her everything as if she…as if she could do nothing about it. As if he could not conceive that she would ever betray him.
“We’re not married,” she said. “I will tell—”
“And see your brother hanged? Drawn and quartered for treason?”
“You’re the one—”
“No, my dear, he is. And we are going now to watch him, you and me, so that you will know what we are a part of.”
“But I’m not!”
“But you are, because you are his sister. And I am on the Board of Ordinance. It makes perfect sense that I would make friends with your brother just so I could expose him as a thief and a traitor.”
“What?”
“I see you begin to understand but let me make things clear. Fletcher is about to turn traitor to England. He is selling rifles to Fance. And if you say anything about it, I will claim that I was investigating you both, with my brother’s help, of course. And then you will hang right beside him.”
He could do it. He could spin a tale that sent both her and Fletcher to the gallows. And to make everything worse, she knew that Nate was there, with officers from the War Office. They would capture Fletcher, and the baron would take great glee in letting her brother hang for his crime.
She had to stop this. For her brother’s sake. For her own sake. For the nation’s sake, she had to stop the baron.
