Page 56 of Stolen By the Cruel Duke
“I’m ready,” Lady Carfield stated. “I’m ready to sign an affidavit stating I lied on the original bill of sale.”
“That,” said a cold, piercing voice from behind them all, “would be a grave mistake.”
Iris, Anna, and Lady Carfield all turned on the spot to see Lord Carfield standing in the doorway, a look of pure anger on his face.
Chapter Nineteen
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
Lord Carfield stepped into the room, and the moment he did, a cold breeze seemed to follow him in, chilling Iris to the bones. Her father’s presence was large and looming, like a shadow falling across them all, and she had to do everything in her power to keep herself from shrinking back in fear. Now was not the moment to let him intimidate her.
“Lord Carfield!” she heard Mr. Hargrove murmur. “What are you doing here?”
But her father wasn’t looking at the solicitor. Nor was he looking at her. His eyes were fixed, instead, on her mother.
“Bridget…” he murmured, and his voice sounded like a prayer, if Iris could believe that her father had ever prayed.
“Jebediah,” Lady Carfield replied, much more frostily.
She stood up straighter, jutted her chin, and narrowed her eyes. There was an icy power to her that seemed to radiate throughout the room, and Iris wondered how her father could bear to keep looking at her with such an arrogant sneer on his face.
“We meet again.”
“What has it been?” Lord Carfield asked, pretending to count on his fingers. “Eight, nine years?”
“Ten,” his wife replied.
“Ahh, yes. How time flies… I never thought I’d see you again. It is pleasant, indeed, to be wrong.”
Lady Carfield didn’t respond, but no one in the room had any doubt, from the look on her face, that she did not find it pleasant.
“What are you doing here, Father?” Iris asked, her voice snapping like a whip through the room.
Lord Carfield’s eyes flicked to hers, and the simpering sneer vanished, replaced by deep dislike. “Why, I am stopping you from trying to tarnish my good name,” he said, as if this were painfully obvious—which, Iris grudgingly admitted, it was. “As amusing as it is to see so many women mobilized for my downfall, I’m afraid that the jig is up.”
“What does that mean?” Iris snarled.
“It means that I know what you’re up to,” Lord Carfield said smoothly. “You cannot possibly get away with this. You do know that, don’t you? You are mere women, and I am the Viscount Carfield. Whatever evidence you think you have, I have five lawyers who will find a way to discredit it or declare it inadmissible. I have money, I have power, and I have a reputation as an honest businessman. What will your word matter against mine?”
“It won’t just be our word,” Iris snapped, her temper rising. “Phineas is also on our side!”
“Is he?” Lord Carfield looked amused. “Or is he at his club right now, drinking his sorrows away, and falling right back into the pit of despair that got him into this mess in the first place, when he originally signed the land over to me?”
“That’s a lie!” Iris yelled. “He never signed away the land.”
“Anyway,” Lord Carfield continued, “will he really be so quick to jump to your aid? The last I heard, he had left you after accusing you of spying on him at my request. What makes you think that he will come running to you now?”
“It won’t matter if he doesn’t trust me now,” Iris said.
But despite the conviction in her voice, she wasn’t entirely certain. Was it possible that Phineas wouldn’t help them if he still believed in her guilt? And wherewashe? How could he have stayed away for days, instead of coming home to her?
Even if he suspected me of helping Father, doesn’t he at least know that I love him?Shouldn’t he at least believe that I would only continue to help Father out of fear for my sisters?
“He’ll know what we’ve done soon enough,” she forced herself to add, swallowing her doubts, “and he will want to help ensure that you end up behind bars. Then it will be him against you, and no one is going to take the side of a viscount over that of a duke.”
The Viscount’s lips twisted—in anger or amusement, Iris couldn’t tell—as he stared down at her. “That’s very loyal of you to believe, my dear, but you forget that this particular Duke has made it his business to alienate every member of the ton. He is known for his cruelty, for his ruthlessness, and for his unrelenting vendetta against every respectable businessman in London. No one is going to take his side after he has spent a lifetime of not being on their side.”
Iris wasn’t sure if this was true, but she didn’t exactly know how to refute it either. It was possible there was some truth in it. The Duke had been known for trying to take down powerful members of the ton, and people might believe Lord Carfield was just another on his hit list. Which he was… but if they knew the truth, they’d understand why.
