Page 90 of The Scarred Duchess
A light knock on the closed door interrupted their exchange. A man entered and bowed. “Sirs, I have the information you requested.” He produced a pencilled note. “The betting line is strange. I wrote it downso as not to be in error.”
“Very well.” Darcy read it silently and cursed. “Reeves will not take this well,” he said as he handed it to his father.
The older man raised a hand. “It is paramount that I notify Bennet before all others.” He looked at the book’s captain.
“Begging your pardon, sirs.”
“Yes?”
“Name is Hawkins, sirs. Archibald Hawkins.”
Darcy glanced at his father, then back to the thin young man hovering nervously. “You were saying, Mr Hawkins?”
“Would you be referring to Mr Matthew Reeves, sirs?”
“We would, yes,” confirmed George Darcy.
“May I surmise that the Hammer, as we know him, may have an interest in the target of this betting line?”
“You may.”
“With your permission, sirs, I shall reach out to a colleague of his.”
“Who is?”
“Mr Roark, the infamous ‘Anvil’, sirs.”
“Send him to Gardiner.” George Darcy then mused, “Hammer and Anvil. Howà propos.”
Mr Hawkins looked grim. “For those men on this list, that allegory is surely an epitaph.”
A dirty street urchin approached the man with a milk-white scar running through his eye.
“I has one from the book man, Mr Roark.”
Roark read the note. “You done good, Billy.” He tossed the lad a coin. “Keep on with your ears on everything.”
Billy nodded and ran off. Roark hailed a hackney to fetchthe page and names from the betting book.Hawkins has done well.
Two hours later, he and Reeves stood by Gardiner’s side, staring down at the list.
“Heinous,” hissed Gardiner.
“You going to tell the Colonel?” asked Reeves.
Gardiner replied, “You believe Darcy has not?”
Roark shook his head. “There be quite a blood-letting on the horizon, far as I see.”
“Indeed,” agreed Gardiner.
Bennet arrived at Gracechurch Street the next morning. Sickened and furious, he stared at the paper in his shaking hand.
Betting Line: To Pluck the Scarred Lily ...
Eight men had wagered large sums of money that one of them would deprive his eldest daughter of her innocence.Wagered on my Jane for money!Cursing under his breath, Bennet surveyed the three men in the room. Reeves snapped to attention. Roark’s face was stone; Gardiner leant over his desk, his hands fisted.
“Gardiner, who on this list do you own?”
