Chapter Twenty-Nine
The building was more like a fisherman’s shack, a small, drab room with a door in the middle and two windows on each side.
There was no glass in the windows and the door hung oddly, as if it had partly been pulled off its hinges.
As they circled the shack, he could hear a voice. Male, deep. Stafford.
Tony and Dunstan looked at each other. Tony pulled out the gun, but Dunstan shook his head. “Use it as a last resort. You will have a gang of thugs around you in heartbeat if you use that,” Dunstan whispered. “This place is a rats’ nest of the worst kind.”
Tony put the gun back into the coat pocket and pulled out the dagger he always kept in his boot. Dunstan nodded and moved around the corner. Tony followed. He peeked in the window quickly and then moved to the other window while Dunstan stayed at the first window.
Stafford’s voice was clearer now. “Do not play the fool, dear. We have been looking for you for a very long time. Now you are here, you need to give me the information that your father left you.”
“I do not even know who you are.”
“I am Lord Stafford. I was a… friend of your father’s.”
“He left me nothing, Lord Stafford. Do you not think I want an explanation as to why he left me at that school? If you were such good friends, why did he not give the message to you? Why do you think he would give it to me?”
“He was a fool. He tried to make a deal. His greed got him killed. I should know; I was there.”
Lucinda gasped. “You were there when he was killed? You? You killed him?”
Tony looked at Dunstan, who shrugged. He did not know about it either. Was there no depth to which Stafford had sunk to?
“Not exactly. I do not dirty my hands with such things. I did inform the king however and he was very displeased with your dear papa.” Stafford squatted down in front of her. “Be a good girl, Lucinda, and just tell me where the message is.”
“I told you. I do not know of any message.” This was true. It was not a message, but a formula. Stafford obviously did not know what it was he was looking for.
“You must have it,” Stafford said, his tone frustrated.
“Foxton was no fool. He knew we would come after him. We went looking for you, of course, knowing that he would have made sure it would be safe until he could get it to the man who had paid for it in the first place. A man who does not like being disappointed.”
“Please, Lord Stafford. I cannot give you what you want. Even if I did have it, you would be the last man I would give it to.”
Stafford sighed. “This is not how I wanted to do this, Miss Sterling. If you will not tell me of your own free will, then I will have no recourse but to hurt you to get it.” He went to a table in the far corner and opened a burlap bag.
From this distance, Tony could not see what was in it.
Nothing good, he was sure. “And do not think I will stop there. Oh, how the ton will love to find out that your precious Ashton killed you and that his whole family was involved.”
Tony moved around slightly so he could see her face. She had a slight bruise on her cheek, but that was all he could see from this angle. He wanted to rush in there, but it was more important to make sure it was safe to do so first.
Lucinda said, “No one will believe your lies. The Ashtons are a well-respected family.”
“Of course they will. He practically put a for-sale sign around your neck. Thirty thousand pounds year. That is a nice dowry. Plus, the inheritance from your grandmother. I must say that he made it very hard to resist and yet there were no real suitors were there? Lord Dunstan was not really interested you see. I was paying him to get close to you.”
Lucinda’s tone was cold. “You are a despicable man.”
Tony wished he could somehow signal to her that he was there. Her courage just made him love her more. There was no way he would let Stafford hurt her. He just needed to time his attack so that Lucinda would be safe.
“Tony would never try to sell me off. He loves me.”
“Does he? He was commissioned to find the secret too. How do you know his feelings are real? Perhaps your dowry was too good to resist. He is a younger son after all.”
Lucinda shook her head. “No! I will never believe you. He does love me.”
“Perhaps he does, perhaps he does not. I have not had him standing in my office ready to sacrifice his position for this so-called love.”
Lucinda suddenly fought against her restraints. She screamed at him to let her go.
As soon as Stafford turned away, Tony rushed into the room.
“Stop right there, Stafford. You slimy bastard. I trusted you and all you did was lie for your own benefit.”
Stafford turned and laughed when he saw the dagger in Tony’s hand. “Name calling is beneath you, Ashton. And are you going to peel potatoes with that thing? It is good for nothing else. I am surprised you found us so fast.”
“Tony!” Lucinda’s voice was full of relief.
“I am taking Lucinda home with me.” Tony stood behind her chair, his hand on her shoulder. It was all he could do right now to reassure her as he dared not take his eyes off Stafford.
“Home? To where? She does not have a home, do you, dear? She is an orphan. Do not fall for those sad eyes, Ashton. She knows exactly what we are talking about, don’t you?
” He turned to his young protégé. “Your whole family will be under suspicion for a while after you both disappear but in time the scandal will die down. I hate to have to kill a good agent, but such is life in this business.”
“Do you think Warrington will not find us?” Lucinda asked.
“He can try but the Thames has a way of getting rid of evidence. Ashton, you could have been one of my best if not for your brother, but like a puppy the duke wanted you close by. His shackles must have chafed.”
Tony bristled, anger flowing through him. Stafford intended to stab him in the back and make him thank him for the privilege. Fuck that. He was going to kill the man.
“It is true. The duke requested no overseas missions. Why do you think you were not sent to get Markham? We had an understanding, the duke and I. Better that you concentrate on Miss Sterling here. And you could not even get that right.”
Both his brother and Stafford had set him up from the start.
Betrayed him in the worst way. Lucinda had been right not to trust a man she had not met.
To think he may have just handed over the formula just because the man wanted it.
Because he thought he was a man of integrity.
Now he knew Stafford thought little of him and Edward had prevented him from leaving the country.
This was all too much. Everything he thought was real was a lie.
Stafford picked up the gun from the table and aimed it at Tony. “You have one minute to save your own hide. Leave now and live, but show your face in my affairs again and I will take that face from you.”
“I’m not leaving her here with you. I love her.”
Stafford rolled his eyes.
“What happened to your oath? We do not hurt innocents, remember? It was in the bloody oath we all took when we joined the Ring.”
“That oath does not apply to me. I am Spymaster. You do as I say or pay the consequences.”
“Your lies and deceit have gone far enough.”
“Oh, my dear boy, how are you going to stop me? I have a gun, and you have that puny… knife.”
Tony did not wait a second more but threw the dagger, hitting Stafford in the arm that held the gun. The pistol fell to the floor. Stafford howled and pulled the dagger from his arm. Tony grabbed the pistol off the floor. “Dunstan!”
Dunstan came into the room and quickly went to Lucinda.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he cut the rope with his own dagger.
“Go!” he said, and Lucinda jumped to her feet.
She dashed to the door. Tony handed him the pistol and took out his own.
Having two pistols aimed at him did not seem to deter Stafford.
“Damn you, Dunstan. I should have killed you when you defied me,” Stafford yelled, holding his arm and still holding Tony’s dagger.
“Your word will be mud once she tells the duke what you have done,” Dunstan said.
Both Tony and Dunstan advanced on Stafford. He flung his good arm from side to side in wild arcs as he held Tony’s dagger. Then he charged at them, yelling at the top of his lungs.
There was a boom of gunpowder and then silence. Stafford stopped, dropped the dagger, and looked down at the wound in his belly that was now soaking his waistcoat and jacket.
Lucinda gasped from the doorway at the sight of the blood that was now seeping down his leg and onto the floor as he fell to his knees.
Tony put up a hand. “Lucinda, stay away. There is no need for you to see this.”
“No, but he needs to see this. You all do,” she said, taking off her ring and opening one of the compartments. “This is what you wanted. This is what you are now dying for. You stupid old man.” She turned and threw the ring through the doorway and into the Thames beyond.
In the silence, the sound of it splashing through the surface of the water seemed extremely loud. All the men gasped in shock.
“What have you done?” Stafford yelled, still clutching his belly. “I knew you had it, you bloody bitch,” Stafford groaned out as he collapsed on the floor.
“As you said, the Thames has a way of getting rid of evidence. It was not a message but a recipe for a deadly gas. Something no one should have. My father knew it. I know it, and now you will know it. I only did what my father should have done. I found it two days ago. Tony wanted to give it to you. I refused because I knew it was the type of information that would make a man do the unthinkable. The formula is gone. The world is safe. I am tired and wish to go home.” She lifted her outer skirt and ripped some material off her chemise.
“But first we had better stop that bleeding.”
Tony took it from her, but his eyes were haunted. “No amount of your chemise is going to save him, Lucinda.”