Oh, Christ. He was in love with his wife. What a time to make such a discovery, with Bradley stinking up his office and threatening to hurt her.
Bradley paled. “I ‘eard a rumor about ‘er, is all.”
Jasper circled the desk. “If any man is caught speaking about my wife, I’ll rip the tongue from his mouth! Starting with you.”
Bradley backed up with such haste, he knocked over his chair. And then he stumbled and fell over it, landing on his back, wild-eyed. Rather like a creature who knew he was about to be put out of his misery.
Jasper stalked forward, having no mercy, and stepped on Bradley’s fingers, pinning him in place. “Did you hear what I said, Bradley?”
The other man howled in pain. “That ‘urts! Get off my bleeding ‘ooks.”
“I’ll break your hooks and pluck out your tongue,” he enunciated slowly, carefully. “Unless you tell me what you heard about my wife.”
“I’ll tell you everything,” Bradley said, sounding desperate. “Just call off your dogs and let me ‘ave my ale and spirits.”
Jasper increased the pressure, leaning more heavily on the foot currently atop his nemesis’s fingers. “You ain’t in a position to bargain, Bradley.”
“Please.”
“Tell me,” Jasper repeated.
He had done his utmost to keep Octavia separate from men of Bradley’s ilk. Hell, he had not even realized anyone knew he’d married. But then, word traveled with haste in their circles. It always had.
“I ‘eard there’s a price on ‘er,” Bradley bit out. “It ain’t me or any of my sons, neither.”
“Who?” Jasper demanded, increasing the pressure again, until he felt Bradley’s knuckle crack.
“Christ! Stop, please. It ain’t me! I don’t know. All I know is one of my lads ‘eard a rumor. Someone wants to use ‘er to get to you.”
The rage that had been building from the moment Bradley first mentioned Octavia had swelled into a massive hellfire within him. How dare anyone threaten his wife? There was a damned price on her? He would find the bastard responsible and tear him limb from limb.
“This is all you know?” he pressed, needing to be certain.
There was also a possibility Bradley had invented the tale himself in an effort to persuade Jasper to allow him to procure more ale and liquor. By allying themselves with the Winter family, the Suttons had become virtually omnipotent. He would have to take this information to his brothers and begin making inquiries.
“It’s all I know. I swear on my mother’s soul,” Bradley said, his voice pained.
Jasper removed his foot from the other man’s fingers, mostly because he was eager for Tim Bradley and his filthy arse to get out of his office. “I’ll see what I can do about your ale and liquor, Bradley. But a warning. If I discover you’ve lied…”
“I ain’t lying.” Bradley scrambled to his feet.
“Fair enough. I don’t want blood on my carpets today. I’ve just recently replaced them.”
That much was true. Although the man who had last bled on this floor had been attempting to kill Gavin Winter, Jasper would not hesitate to kill to protect anyone he loved. He watched dispassionately as Bradley fled.
It would seem he needed to attend to his other problems with far more haste than he had originally supposed. Grimly, he called out to Hugh.
Octavia was in the nursery with Anne and Elizabeth, working once more on letters when the door opened and Jasper came striding over the threshold. He moved, as always, with the assured grace of a man confident in his power. However, there was a tenseness to his shoulders, a difference in the way he held his jaw, that she recognized at once. Something was amiss.
Not another fire, she hoped.
His bruises were fading, and he had assured her that he had made certain the Bradleys would not dare to do further damage to Sutton property. Unaccustomed to this new world, she had believed him.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He flashed her a smile, but she sensed the lack of genuine emotion behind it.