“Better you don’t know.”
“I hope you know what you’re getting into,” Hal said. “Angela’s a murderous bitch, Mr. Thorne, the sort would kill anyone to save her own skin. You need to find her and deal with her, before she deals with you.”
“Don’t worry, I can handle her.”
“Can you?” He shook his head.
Sebastian got to his feet. “One last thing, Hal. How did Jed know that I was coming up here? Who told him?”
Hal shook his head. “Jed doesn’t mention any names. I don’t reckon he trusts me. If someone is telling secrets, you’d better look to your friends and acquaintances, Mr. Thorne. Angela has spies everywhere…and they’ll be more afraid of her than of you.”
Francesca paused, resting her hand on the stair rail. It had been a simple matter to walk in through the front door, but she wasn’t at all sure about continuing on up the stairs. That was where the voices were coming from, and her plan had been to burst in and discover what Sebastian was up to.
“Private business,” he’d said, but what could he possibly have to say to Hal the blacksmith that it had brought him all the way from London? She was dying of curiosity. He wouldn’t appreciate her breaking in on them, but it was her adventure.
Feeling her way in the darkness, Francesca moved up the stairs. There was a faint light spilling out from under the door on the landing, and as she drew closer it helped her to see her way. Something made a scuffing sound below her in the shadows, and she came down on the next step more heavily than she’d meant to. It gave a loud creak. Francesca held her breath, listening, but the voices in the upstairs room continued without pause, while downstairs there was only silence. Probably mice, she thought with a shudder.
Go home. This is madness, her inner voice castigated her, but it didn’t seem to matter. Good sense might tell her she should be running as fast as she could in the opposite direction from Sebastian Thorne, but good sense had little to do with it.
“…has friends in high places,” Hal the blacksmith’s voice was slightly muffled by the closed door. “You’d be surprised, Mr. Thorne, what sort of thing some great men fancy. And once she has ’em in her web, that’s it. She never lets ’em go.”
“She blackmails them?” Sebastian sounded cool and collected, but Francesca heard his suppressed excitement.
“Aye.”
She? Who was she? Francesca put her eye to a knot in the wood. She saw a candle on a table, flickering and smoking, but other than that only shadows.
“You said her husband was dead, Hal. Is there anyone else?” Sebastian’s voice went on.
“She has a daughter…”
“Where is she now?”
“I don’ know,” he muttered, “I haven’t seen her for years.” But there was something in his voice that suggested he did know.
Sebastian heard it, too. “You’ve come this far, Hal. If I’m to stop her, I need to know everything you know.”
Francesca pressed closer. Distracted, she heard the creak of the stair behind her. A rough and sweaty hand closed over her mouth, and stopped her from screaming. The door in front of her was wrenched violently open, and Francesca was shoved inside.
She shrieked as soon as he let her go, careering full on into an immovable object. It had a muscular chest and hard arms that wrapped around her, while her nose was pressed hard into a clean-laundered shirt with a familiar scent. She said something like “Oomph.”
“Damn and blast you, Miss Greentree,” Sebastian said with quiet fury. “I told you to wait.”
“Ah, women! They never do as they’re told, Mr. Thorne, you should know that.” The new voice was young and cocky.
Francesca tried to extricate herself from Sebastian’s arms, but he kept a tight grip on her. She turned to look over her shoulder, and the first thing she saw was that the other man was holding a pistol in his hand. The next thing was that she knew him.
“Jed?” she cried. “Is that you?”
Jed cursed beneath his breath. “Now see what you’ve done, Da,” he said to Hal, a trace of a whine in his voice. “She knows me.”
“Of course I know you, Jed,” Francesca retorted. “You used to help in the stables when I was a girl.” She felt Sebastian’s arms tighten, as if she’d said something wrong.
“Aye, well, I’ve better fish to fry these days,” Jed said, full of importance.
“I thought you was gone.” Hal rose to his feet. “You said you was headin’ back to Lon’on.”
“So I was, but I met someone on the road who knew of a gen’leman who’d just been saved from Emerald Mire. So I come back.”