“Just as he had you take the garnets to the jewelry shop.”
“As you say, yes. I recognized you that day, which is why I hid my face as I rushed past. Not that anyone ever remembers my face. It’s both my curse and my blessing.”
Coop stood up. He felt more comfortable, standing. “So you’re in league with your soon-to-be brother-in-law.”
“Hardly. Like my sister, and courtesy of our gambling-mad father, I am firmly held beneath the thumb of my soon-to-be brother-in-law. There is a discernible difference, if one cares to look.”
“I do. The jewelry you attempted to sell. That wasn’t your first visit to the shop to do such business.”
“No. The other visits were to deliver minor pieces of the Lanisford family’s enormous collection, to have the larger of the genuine stones popped out and replaced with glass.”
“Why would he do that?” Gabe asked, relaxing enough to put down the statuette and take up his position, seating himself on one edge of the desk. “Ferdie’s rich as Croesus, last I heard.”
“The late marquis’s will left several of the minor, unentailed pieces to his late wife’s sisters and nieces. Ferdie figured out that his father’s will did not demand they be given in their original condition.”
Coop actually saw the humor in that. “Sounds just like the man. What is that Irish saying? Oh, yes—‘If he had only an egg, he’d give you the shell.’ Now tell me why you continue to cooperate with him—and if you were the man who shot at me today from the trees.”
“You might still be able to stop publication if I tell you the address of the printer,” Bruxton said, which fairly well answered Coop’s question.
“That information won’t save you. The chapbook is already in our possession. You shot my tiger. You could have killed my fiancée.”
“I could have hit you squarely in the back of your head,” the man said, actually boasted. “Instead, at the last minute, I came to my senses, and shot low, knowing I had to hit something, or else you might not even realize your life was in danger. My apologies to your tiger. It was only a graze.”
“That graze cost me a pony, the four-legged kind. So now you’ve come to your senses. Why?”
Bruxton pointed to the drinks table. “May I?” He walked over and poured himself a glass of gin, downed it and then poured another. “Do you know what it’s like to be poor, my lord? Poor, after years of not being poor? I think that’s even worse, because you’ve known better, and don’t precisely know how to be poor. At any rate, when Lanisford decided he fancied Sally, asking no dowry, and paying Papa’s gambling debts, his mortgages into the bargain, it became easy, at least for a while, to turn my head away from what was really going on with my sister.”
“You once pursued Sally, didn’t you, Coop? Pretty girl, as I recall, and always with a smile. What happened there?”
“She had to leave town in the middle of the season. Her mother fell ill, I believe it was.”
“Our mother was fine. It was our finances that suffered a near-fatal affliction. And if you haven’t seen Sally since her engagement, she doesn’t smile much anymore. I think I miss her smiles most of all. I told her tonight. The marriage, the title, the prospect of never being poor again? They’re simply not worth another day of Ferdie and his curious predilections. That’s why I’m here tonight while he’s on the town, to collect my severance upon departing his employ. You’re standing on it, my lord, by the way—my severance. Sally and I take ship on the morning tide, for Boston, and the home of our mother’s sister. There, that’s honest for you, gentlemen. Since you say you already have the chapbook, why are you here?”
Coop looked down at his feet, then pushed the chair away and lifted the small rug. There was a thick iron ring cut into the floor, and the wood was carefully cut on four sides. “A trapdoor? Where does it lead?”
“Nowhere. It’s more of a secret compartment. Open it. Oh, and if you’d be so kind as to turn the black metal box over to me, I’ll be on my way. Time and tide wait for no man, you know.”
“Chaucer,” Gabe said. “You are an educated man. You and your sister should land on your feet.”
Coop had checked the contents of the box, and then handed it to Bruxton. “I believe they’ll be reasonably well cushioned until our new friend here finds employment. My quick guess is ten thousand pounds.”
“More than twelve actually. I counted it last time I was fortunate enough to be left alone in here. My aunt has already secured a position for me in a school named Harvard. You may have heard of it? I’ll be instructing students in classical literature. And now I’m off. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“I think we just have, yes, thank you. And thank your sister, for it’s only because of her that you aren’t leaving this room with two blackened eyes. Gabe?” Coop held up a nearly inch-thick stack of letters tied with a black bow. “A lesser man might even cry out, Eureka!”
“Archimedes,” Bruxton called over his shoulder, and then he was gone.
Gabe joined Coop behind the desk. “Is there anything else in there?”
“There is more, yes. But we’ve got what we came for, as did Bruxton. I don’t know that I feel justified delving any deeper.”
“Really? Well, let me tell you, friend-straight-and-narrow, that’s why you need the rest of us. Move aside, and let me do the delving.”
“All right, but be quick about it. I don’t trust that dragon at the door to not have sent off a note to his employer, alerting him to our presence.”
“True. Ah, here we go. I believe I’ll just take these interesting bits, and we can look at them more carefully later. Are you ready?”
Coop rolled his eyes as Gabe stuck several sheaves of paper into his waistcoat. “Not quite, no. I thought we’d have someone come stoke the fire and share some of Ferdie’s brandy while we have a pleasant coze—of course I’m ready. And for the love of all that’s holy, wipe that grin from your face. We’re here in service of the king, remember?”
“The king who’s locked up in the castle, convinced he can fly? Yes, yes. We needs must show all gravitas.”
“Rigby said you’d settled yourself, perhaps even become domesticated.”
“So much for Rigby’s powers of observation. Thea would never let me settle.”
Taking one last look about the room, Coop picked up one of the less revolting statuettes and opened the door to the hallway.
The majordomo rushed to meet them, wringing his hands.
“Sirs! That’s one of his lordship’s most favored pieces.”
“I’m certain it is, my good man,” Coop told him as he brushed past. “Unfortunately for your employer, it is also the property of the Crown, having quite recently resided in its own secure case in the Tower. Please inform his lordship that he is to make himself available tomorrow at ten of the clock, when another colleague of mine will arrive to discuss the matter further. Good evening to you. George—our hats and gloves, if you please.”
The young footman hastened to assist the gentlemen, and in another minute they were on the flagway, clear of the mansion, and increasing their pace until they exited the square and were safely ensconced in the back of yet another hackney.
“What the devil am I supposed to do with this monstrosity?” Coop asked his friend, who was sitting at his ease on the cracked leather seat, chuckling in amusement.
Gabe took the figure and leaned forward, to wave it in the driver’s face. “Hey—you up there. How would you like this