Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83053 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83053 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
So why in God’s name would Jonathan be interested in the Ashford Estate and its coffers?
Was it the title he wanted?
And why get Viscount Polk involved?
Unless they weren’t involved… Or unknowingly involved.
Thomas scurried around the office again, opening drawer after drawer, pulling leather-bound volumes off the shelves and swishing through the pages, looking for something hidden within. Eventually he stopped replacing the books and simply threw them on the ground once he was done with them.
He’d been led to believe by his own father that Uncle Pem and his family had done well in the Americas. He had no reason to believe otherwise.
He continued going through books and throwing them on the floor until—
A gasp. “Good Lord, Thomas, what has gotten into you?”
Lily stood in the doorway. Hadn’t he locked the door when he came inside? Now he was second-guessing himself. Perhaps he had left the door unlocked when Jonathan and Polk were skulking around. He sighed. Whether he locked it now wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Lily still had a skeleton key to the entire mansion. Of course, most ladies wouldn’t dream of entering an earl’s study without an invitation, but Lily was not most ladies.
Being a duchess hadn’t changed her a bit. Not that he would have her any other way.
Lily frowned as she eyed the mess of books littering the floor. “These are Papa’s books. Some are antiques, Thomas. You can’t treat them like this. Have you gone mad?”
Thomas shook his head and looked at the mess around his feet.
His sister was right. Some of these volumes were quite old, and he may have loosened their bindings to the point that they were irreparable.
He buried his face in his hands. “I just don’t understand, Lily. What the hell is going on?”
“I have some news for you,” she said. “But first, we need to get some servants in here to clean up this mess.”
Thomas shook his head again. “No. I made this mess, and I shall take care of it.”
Lily kneeled daintily and picked up a book. “Thomas, this is a copy of the Bible. Seeing the Word of God thrown about would mortify Papa.”
Thomas shrugged. He was not nearly as religious as his father was. Still, he wondered if the fires of hell would rain down on him after having treated his father’s sacred book in such a horrid matter.
Lily placed the Bible back on the shelf. “Exactly what were you looking for?”
“I don’t know. Just a clue. Any kind of clue.”
“I think I may have something for you,” Lily said.
Thomas raised his eyebrows.
“I just shared an early luncheon with Viscountess Polk.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, and she’s a dreadful bore, Thomas. But I managed to convince her to try a little of my brandy, and then her lips started flapping like a bird’s wings.”
“What about?”
“Nothing at first. She knows nothing about how her estate is run.”
“I would imagine that’s true of most wives, including our own mother.”
“Yes, ’tis true,” Lily said. “I’m so glad I have a husband who shares with me and respects my intelligence. But in Mummy’s case, I don’t think it was a lack of respect for her intelligence. I just don’t think she had any interest in it.”
“Yes, agreed,” Thomas said. “But what did you ultimately find out, Lily?”
“I admired the ruby brooch she was wearing,” she said. “And she said it was a gift from Jonathan, our cousin.”
Thomas dropped his jaw.
“Naturally,” Lily continued, “that sparked interest in me. I gushed on and on about it, and I asked if I could borrow it, show it to my jeweler, and perhaps have it re-created.”
“Oh? I’m not sure what this has to do with any of—” Thomas stopped, his mind racing.
“I see your mind is going exactly where mine went,” Lily said. “The viscountess was good enough to let me borrow the brooch for a brief time, and I was able to ask Mr. Lawson about it.”
“I didn’t even realize he was here,” Thomas said.
“Yes, he travels with Daniel and me on occasion. Especially when we’re in the market for gemstones. Daniel compensates him quite well for his troubles.”
“I see. What did he say about the brooch?”
Lily took a seat at the chair opposite Thomas’s desk. “Mr. Lawson had a look at it, and though he said it was of spectacular quality, it was also counterfeit.”
Thomas scratched his chin. “So you mean spectacular quality for a fake?”
“Indeed. He used some chemical—I’ve no idea what it was—and scraped a bit of the gold plating off the brooch. It is brass, plated with gold. The stones, while they are no doubt beautiful, are decidedly fake.”
“So our father’s brother didn’t do as well as he’d hoped over in the Americas,” Thomas said.
“It would seem so. There’s no way to check, of course, unless we could find out the exact locations of his so-called investments. Even then, it would require a trip to the Americas, and you know how long that would take.”