CHAPTER 17
“Thank you for agreeing to see me, milord.” Lady Cordelia peeled off her kidskin gloves as she stepped out from behind the pale-faced Higgins and entered the study. “Please forgive the rather lurid exaggeration, but I had to make sure I wouldn’t be turned away.”
She wasn’t quite so coolly composed as she wished to appear, noted Wrexford. Her hands were tremoring as she unknotted the strings of her bonnet and placed it on the side table.
Sheffield was staring in mute shock. Charlotte had settled back in her chair, schooling her expression to give nothing away.
“We’ve just ordered tea,” said the earl. “Do have a seat. It should be here in a moment.”
“Tea,” repeated Cordelia, her voice hovering between horror and amusement. “Oh, quite right. What would we do without that lifeblood from the East to lubricate all the everyday lies and subterfuges of Polite Society?”
“An interesting choice of words,” observed Wrexford.
She met his gaze without flinching. “I shall endeavor to explain them.”
“Do sit,” said Charlotte as the maid appeared with a large tray of refreshments. “There is something to be said for the power of rituals to break the ice, so to speak, and allow interactions to flow more smoothly.”
Sheffield still hadn’t taken his eyes off Cordelia. While she had studiously avoided any glance in his direction.
After a brief hesitation, Cordelia took a seat on the sofa.
The clink of porcelain punctuated soft splashes of liquid. Vapor curled up in silvery plumes as Charlotte passed around the cups. “By the by, how did you know we were here? We came to the professor’s cottage early this morning, only to find you gone.”
“I walked into the village last night to buy some bread and cheese and overheard a servant mention the earl was expecting guests. I added two and two together,” replied Cordelia. “We left before dawn, as we were planning to return to London—”
“Enough of pleasantries,” interrupted Sheffield, pushing aside his tea untasted. “What the devil are you doing here?”
Wrexford repressed a wince. The sparks crackling in his friend’s gaze were fierce enough to burn Satan to a cinder.
“I imagine that’s a rhetorical question, sir,” replied Cordelia. “But in a nutshell, I’ve come to ask for your help.”
“Why now?” demanded Sheffield
Cordelia carefully smoothed a section of her skirts into three equal pleats.
“Because it’s taken me this long to unravel the lies within lies and follow the money,” she replied.
“I’m now confident I know what evil is afoot, and Professor Sudler and I want to put an end to it.
However, the men responsible for the scheme have threatened to ruin my brother and have him sent to prison unless we cooperate with them. ”
She hesitated. “So the professor and I have, for now, agreed to perform the tasks they demand of us. Not simply to save Jamie, but also to give us time to identify the men in charge and bring them to justice.” Another tiny pause. “However, we can’t do it on our own.”
Sheffield narrowed his eyes. “How do we know you are not simply telling us more lies?”
Cordelia’s face paled as all the blood rushed to her cheeks. “I never lied to you!”
“You . . .” He blinked. “You . . .”
“Yes?” she challenged.
“You and your brother left without any explanation,” mumbled Sheffield. “When we discovered the bank loans he had secured, what else was I supposed to think other than that you had deceived me and used me as pawn to get money from Wrexford?”
Cordelia’s indignation burned out just as quickly as it had flared.
“I haven’t ever lied to you in either word or deed, sir.
Our business venture has nothing to do with my brother and the web of deceit in which he’s become entangled.
It’s completely legitimate. You have my word on that.
” Her chin rose. “Assuming you’ll believe me. ”
“Silence!” commanded the earl, before the discussion became impossibly confused. “If I’m to have any hope of understanding what’s going on, we need to have an orderly explanation of this cursed mystery—”
“I shall try, milord.” Cordelia pinched at the bridge of her nose. “Though I fear it’s difficult to distill it into a simple explanation.”
“Just start somewhere,” Wrexford growled.
“Very well.” She cleared her throat. “Jamie was approached by a friend and invited to invest in a financial venture that guaranteed a great profit. That, of course, seemed too good to be true. So I tried to warn him that there had to be something havey-cavey about it. However, Jamie wouldn’t hear any caveats from me.
Whose word do you think held the greater weight?
That of his sister or that of the East India Company? ”
“The East India Company?” Wrexford felt a chill touch the top of his spine. A glance at Charlotte showed that she had experienced the same frisson of alarm. “To accuse them of impropriety is a very serious allegation to make, Lady Cordelia,” he added softly.
“Nonetheless, it’s true.”
By virtue of its immense wealth and economic clout, the Company wielded great influence on politics and government affairs in Britain. Indeed, its tentacles reached into just about every aspect of society. The earl couldn’t imagine a more dangerous enemy.
“Be that as it may, such statements could put you in grave peril if they reach the wrong ears,” he pointed out.
“I’m safe enough for now, which I shall explain shortly,” Cordelia replied. “But first let me finish explaining what is going on. I will be as clear as I can, but the threads twist and twine into a serpentine maze of deception that isn’t always easy to unwind.”
The earl nodded.
“Jamie was manipulated into taking out a number of bank loans in order to invest in the business venture. They fed him a number of clever lies about why the money couldn’t appear to have come from the East India Company,” she continued.
“They then cobbled together a thick set of complicated legal documents, assuring him they all were simply formalities. My brother, alas, is an honest and trusting soul. He believed them and blithely penned his name everywhere they asked him to sign, and then turned over his personal loan documents for supposed safekeeping.”
Cordelia took a moment to steady her voice.
“And so Jamie is now the sole stockholder of a trading company whose only business is running a very sophisticated financial scheme involving fraud and morally reprehensible commerce. He can’t withdraw or go to the authorities.
The dastards hold all the funds necessary to repay the bank loans.
And they cleverly left no trail to incriminate themselves, so he has no proof of his entrapment. ”
Sheffield uttered an oath. “Then how will you escape their clutches?”
She gave a tight smile. “I met with one of their henchmen and made a deal, which I’ll explain shortly. Suffice it to say, it offers us a way to earn back the money and the legal papers.”
“Assuming they’ll keep their word,” cut in Wrexford.
“I’m not as na?ve as my brother, milord.
I’m under no illusion that they’ll ever release their hold on Jamie.
Which is why I’m here.” Cordelia shifted her gaze from him to Charlotte and then to Sheffield.
“Knowing firsthand how skilled you are at solving diabolically clever crimes, I’m hoping you might help me discover the identity of the dastards and plan a way to bring them to justice. ”
“Is the murder of Henry Peabody part of this financial conspiracy?” asked Charlotte abruptly.
“Yes! But I swear to you that my brother didn’t kill him.
He’s honorable to a fault and abhors violence!
” responded Cordelia. “Jamie was summoned to a mysterious meeting at Queen’s Landing.
A man—he never identified himself, but it seems it must have been Mr. Peabody—somehow came to know that Jamie had become involved in the enterprise, and handed over papers that he claimed revealed it was a fraud.
He also warned my brother of its evils and told him that it must be stopped.
In leaving the dockyards, the two of them were attacked.
Jamie managed to escape and assumed Peabody did, too. ”
Cordelia bit her lower lip. “It was only later, when I arrived at your house for my lesson with Raven, that I learned otherwise.”
“Go on with your story,” urged Sheffield after several moments of silence had slid by.
The mention of murder appeared to have put Cordelia’s nerves on edge. At the sound of steps coming down the corridor, she hesitated.
A discreet click sounded as the door to the study swung open.
“One of the maids mentioned that refreshments had just been served.” The dowager paused to pat back a yawn. “I feel a bit peckish after my nap. Might I join you?”
“That depends on whether you care to digest a sordid tale of intrigue along with the freshly baked sultana muffins,” said Cordelia from her seat in the shadows.
Alison turned and squinted through her spectacles. “Ye heavens! I saw the boys just now in the gardens, and Raven said you still hadn’t been found.”
“Yes, well, like the old adage says, ‘A bad penny always turns up,’ ” came the sardonic reply.
“Do come in, Alison,” murmured Charlotte. “You need to hear this, too, assuming you’re not having second thoughts about getting involved in another murder investigation.” A wry smile. “Wrexford and I seem to be making a habit of it.”
The dowager quickly took a seat. “I wouldn’t miss it for all the tea in China.”
Cordelia huffed a grim laugh. “It’s funny you should mention tea in China.”
* * *
Charlotte tightened her fingers around her cup, the earl’s expensive Imperial blend turning bitter on her tongue. The tea trade was worth a fortune, and while the East India Company had begun to cultivate their own plantations in India, most of the tea served around the world came from China.
And much to the Company’s ire, China kept an iron-fisted control on its export.