Marcus tipped her chin up.
“I promise you that Ben is not going to go to jail, or be arrested by that man. Just leave it to me, Jess. I don’t work for the War Office for just the thrills.”
She smiled sadly at him. “Sometimes, I think the army might be the best place for him. It will keep him on the straight and narrow, and teach him to be a man.”
“Lloyd is a man,” Marcus teased gently.
Jess rolled her eyes. “I was talking about Ben,” she replied dryly. Then she smiled. “But now that you come to mention it, Lloyd might do better in the army.”
Marcus smiled. “I don’t think it would make all that much difference to either man, Jess. I do know of another organisation that might be able to teach your brother a thing or two, though. Just leave it with me, sweetheart. I promise you that it will get better.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, and she stood up on tiptoe to press a kiss to his chin.
Before he could respond, they were interrupted by the voices in the hallway growing louder.
“I told you I haven’t taken it,” Ben was protesting when they joined him.
“Oh, come now. You are good friends with the Smithers’ boy. He has been in jail more times than you have had hot dinners. Do you think I would believe that you would hang around with someone like that and not get drawn into his schemes?” Lloyd drawled mockingly.
“That’s enough,” Marcus snapped. “He has told you his version of events. He wasn’t there. He knows nothing about it. Until you have more in the way of facts, you have no right to come here and harass the boy.”
“Who are you to decide that?” Lloyd challenged. “Are you a magistrate?”
“No, but-”
“So stay out of this. It has nothing to do with you. You are just a lodger in this house, and have no jurisdiction over me.”
“I know a corrupt official when I see one, Lloyd, and plenty of men in the War Office to deal with you.”
His words made the magistrate stop and look hard at him. “Prove it.”
Marcus gave him a cruel smile and stepped forward threateningly.
“Contact Sir Hugo Dunnicliffe at the War Office. He can confirm my credentials. He will also confirm them to your boss. I am a close acquaintance of his too. You are, of course, at liberty to contact whomever you wish. I am on hiatus at the moment while I decide whether to relocate or not. However, whether I am working or not is irrelevant to the likes of you. I still uphold the law. More effectively than you do, it appears. So, I am advising my client here that unless you have hard facts; credible details to support your theories, you are breaking the law by calling around here and threatening people in this house.”
Lloyd stepped forward. “I warn you now that until you provide proof that you do know somebody at the War Office, I will continue to do my duty.”
“Then make sure you stay within the law. I promise you, here and now, that if I see you doing anything else you know you shouldn’t be doing, I will ensure you lose your job,” Marcus snarled.
Lloyd suddenly clicked his fingers at Carruthers, who stomped forward with a look of rage on his face. As soon as Carruthers got within arm’s reach, Marcus spun around. He moved so quickly that Carruthers was helpless to prevent Marcus propelling him out of the front door.
Once the man had gone, Marcus turned to Lloyd.
“Now, if you don’t walk out of here, I shall throw you out,” he growled and pointed meaningfully at the door.
“I am the law around here,” Lloyd protested weakly, a little lost now that his right-hand man had gone. “I just have to ask myself what you have to hide. It is obvious that you don’t want us to question Ben, here. Why?”
“Because I know he is an innocent man,” Marcus warned him. “It is a pity you cannot say the same.”
He shoved Lloyd out of the door before he could say anything else, and closed it on his spluttering protests. He slammed the bolt home and then threw Ben a dark glare.
“If you steal anything from the Priory again, or take another thing off that Smithers fellow, I will have you behind bars, Parkinson, with or without Smithers. I will u
se my connections with the War Office to ensure you go away for a very long time.”
“Are you really a solicitor?” Ben asked curiously. He tried valiantly to ignore the threat but had never seen anybody like Marcus before.
Marcus sighed. He hated to lie to him, but couldn’t tell him the truth either. Not when Mr Ball and Mr Gillespie had come out of the sitting room to see what was happening. Their keen gazes watched with acute interest.