Chapter Five #2
“Hush, Polly,” Lady Cora said in the least soothing voice Ian had ever heard.
“Please, Mrs. Wren, your son is safe with you. We only came to talk,” Diana added, in a much gentler tone.
“That’s what they all say.” Polly hiccupped. “Before they take our babies.”
Ian had done terrible things to protect his family and their business. Many were necessary; others he regretted. But he’d never rip a mother apart from her child.
He could insist that he wasn’t like the men Polly knew, but she’d never believe him. Diana didn’t jump to his defense either, which he hoped was a tactic to disarm Polly’s wariness. The woman watched them through slitted eyes, suspicious of them both.
They took a collective silent moment of contemplation to process Polly’s words.
Eventually, Diana cleared her throat and turned to Lady Cora. “How are you and Mrs. Wren acquainted?”
“The Ladies’ Discussion and Improvement Society received a pressing request from Polly for help with legal documents.”
“The society is an instructional institute for young ladies, to improve their entrance to society,” Diana explained to Ian. “They also provide employment training for working women and other types of support.”
“Couldn’t read them papers,” Polly said in a smaller voice. She retreated to the cradle and lifted the sleeping baby from it. “Learned my letters, but Lord, if I couldn’t understand a word of that mess. Someone said that Lady Cora’s group could help.”
Ian scrubbed a hand down his face. “Were the papers the only reason Jared paid you a visit last night?”
“What’s it to you?” Polly drawled. The woman was undereducated, but she wasn’t stupid.
“He was missing for a good part of last evening, and when we found him this morning, he was unconscious,” Ian replied. “We haven’t been able to revive him.”
“Good God. Could he di—” Polly’s voice cut out in a swallow and her face turned ashen. “You think I’m to blame for it!”
“Not at all, Mrs. Wren. Come here. I know this is most upsetting to us all.” Diana’s tone was gentle without being patronizing.
She gathered a blanket from the settee and settled it over Polly’s shoulders.
“We only want to piece together what happened. It could make all the difference for Jared. Will you help us?”
Polly heaved a sigh and shared a nod with Diana. There was a shift of energy in the room with their alignment.
Ian had once read a story in The Times about a rattlesnake let loose in the lobby of Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo.
An Italian monk had strolled among the screaming patrons and staff, taken a firm hold of the snake, and tossed it into a nearby bucket of water.
Then the man had walked calmly out the door as if he’d performed such services countless times before.
Ian wondered if the monk’s expression had been as calm as the one Diana now wore.
He realized, with a cold certainty, that she must have uncovered the truth about Polly and Jared’s child long before arriving in St. Giles.
How had she continued on with the pretense of the engagement, apathetic to the way Jared had treated her? Had she become so numb over the years that nothing wounded her? When they were young, she’d taken the waves at the beach at full force.
Ian couldn’t fathom what had snuffed out her passion, her ferocity for life.
As he silently held her gaze, he begged her to tell him, How much did you know?
She lifted a shoulder, as if to say, Less than you’re imagining.
When Polly had quieted enough to take a sip of water, Diana asked, “What time did Jared arrive last night?”
“Must have been close to half-eleven.”
“And he wasn’t himself.”
“He’d been drinking. But I think he took something else. His hands were shaky, like. Usually, when he comes in, he sits with the baby. But last night, he was so cold, so distant,” Polly said thickly. “And then he threw down those papers and said he was taking Johnny away.”
“Johnny?” Ian murmured.
“That’s his nickname for John. Named him after…” Her voice trailed off before she could say they’d given him Ian’s father’s name.
Ian’s head went fuzzy as he tried to reconcile the wildly conflicting information. Naming the boy after their father was no small thing. Jared truly must have cared for the boy. It made his overtures to take the child from Polly completely baffling.
Lady Cora smoothed the papers together on the table. “This is a legal affidavit stating Johnny is Jared’s son. It instructs Mrs. Wren to deliver Johnny to the care of Grayson Institute in Surrey.”
Grayson was a home where the aristocracy and gentlemen of means sent their bastards for rearing. The previous night, one cretin among Jared’s stags had extolled the virtues of the place.
“They can’t take him!’ Polly wailed. “I’m his mother!”
“Of course you are,” Diana said softly. She exchanged an inquisitive glance with Lady Cora.
“By law, the courts favor a father’s rights.” Lady Cora shook her head. “More so if the parents are unmarried.”
When all three women turned to him, Ian had never wanted to run further or faster from any spot in his life.
He had to settle for pacing the length of the small room.
Diana observed him warily, and he glared at her because it was easier than accepting her betrayal and the possibility she’d been toying with him since she’d leaped into the dumbwaiter.
“You need a solicitor who can advise you. An expert in this type of law,” Ian said eventually. “I can help.”
Polly stopped mid-sob.
“In exchange for some information.”
He ignored the hostile looks the women tossed at him. “Mrs. Wren, why did Jared deliver the papers last night? He’d known about Johnny, and you had a long-standing arrangement.”
“That’s what you’d call this?”
“What changed?”
“He was getting married.”
They all avoided looking at Diana.
“Jared said he couldn’t afford to keep us any longer,” Polly added, her voice hard. “I always thought your kind came into money when you married.”
The woman was no dimwit, Ian would give her that. “Do you know of anyone who would have wished Jared harm? Someone he was trying to protect Johnny from, by sending him away?”
“Are we in danger?”
Ian couldn’t deny his belief that someone had come after Jared. It could have been whoever loaned him money. Or someone his brother had crossed in the professional sphere; their business was a competitive one, barely removed from the work of cutthroats and smugglers.
He also couldn’t discount the enemies their father had made over thirty years ago. Jared might have encountered any of them if he’d been stupid enough to mention the emeralds in the wrong circles.
There was no solid evidence pointing to a suspect, but Ian couldn’t lie to Polly about her son, so he turned to the one person who was better at it than he was.
“There’s no threat that we know of,” Diana said smoothly. “But we are worried about Jared. If you help us find out what happened last night, it could help you. And Johnny.”
“He had debts.” Polly shrugged. “Most gents do. But I’ve no idea who held them. Or what we’ll do if they come looking for us to settle them.”
She started to cry again, this time more quietly, and that was Ian’s undoing.
He turned to Lady Cora. “Contact Henry Eden. You can find him at chambers on Fleet Street. Ellison and Carter.”
Lady Cora nodded. “Yes, I know the name.”
“You may use mine as a reference. We’re old friends.”
When Polly sniffled again, Diana crossed the room and handed her a handkerchief. She peered down at the baby and asked Polly, “Do you love him?”
A sudden hush fell over the room.
Polly looked quizzically at Lady Cora, who glowered silently at Ian.
There was an unspoken acknowledgment among all three of them that Diana was confronting cogent evidence of the betrayal of the man she was supposed to marry. On her wedding day. Reasonable women would have blazed a trail of scorn and fury in the wake of such revelations.
It made Diana’s unfailing composure seem more dangerous than ever.
Polly gave a short cough. “You’re asking if I love Jared?”
Diana nodded.
“I depended on him. He’s the father of my child. Our time together is always short. Never in the open. He insists on it that way.” With a shake of her head, Polly added, “I love him the only way he’ll let me.”
Ian had never had an amorous affair that lasted longer than a week.
Never wanted one either, for exactly the reasons that were playing out in this small flat off a shadowed lane in St. Giles.
He’d know what a burden he’d been to his mother in the years before his father’s return, and he’d never wanted to exact that on any woman, particularly one he cared for.
Until he dealt with the emeralds, he couldn’t promise anyone his name, or his life.
But for the first time in years, he allowed himself to question what would happen if he could. And those thoughts only ever took him in one direction.
To one person.
When Diana caught his eye, and hers widened slightly, he was momentarily terrified he’d revealed every thought and fear as explicitly as taking out an advertisement on the side of a building.
“Thank you for the hospitality, Mrs. Wren,” he said stiffly. “I shall send word to Henry to expect your call.” He tipped his hat and opened the door to allow Diana through.
She paused by the small window to evaluate a stray raindrop that tracked along the glass. “Mrs. Wren, where did you say Jared was before he arrived here?”
“The Swan’s Nest.”
“That’s the public house down the lane? We passed it on the way.”
“I would not recommend it,” Lady Cora quipped. “Not dressed as you are.”
Outside, a deluge assaulted the cobblestones.
“Should have believed me about the rain,” Ian couldn’t resist remarking from the doorway. Mostly to assure himself that he was right about something and that his intuition was still functioning.
“It rained last night.” Diana studied the wet street. “What time did it start?”
“Around midnight.”
“That must have been why Jared ended up at the bordello. When Polly tossed him out on his ear, he wouldn’t have been able to walk far enough to find a hack without getting soaked.”
She turned to him. “We have to find out what he was doing at the Swan’s Nest.”
“We don’t.”
If she thought he’d allow her involvement to go any further, she was deluding herself. Not after what she’d concealed, for God only knew how long. She had to be itching for retribution, and he needed to squelch whatever she was scheming at.
“Well, we can’t stay here. And before you say it, we’re not going back,” Diana insisted. “Not until we find out who drugged Jared.”
“He could have taken the opium himself. It wouldn’t have been the first time.”
“It still doesn’t explain what he was doing at the pub. Why would he go to the Swan’s Nest before he brought the papers to Polly? What was so important he had to stop there before delivering them to her?”
Ian shook his head. Gangs and other less than legal entities conducted business at the Swan’s Nest. He’d gone there himself when he needed an off-the-books contract.
And as the date of the wedding and his access to the emeralds had drawn closer, he’d played cards there to sniff around for any inquiries about who was searching for the gems. So he’d have a full picture of who might chase after him once he had the necklace.
It was possible Jared had followed Ian one night. And probable his brother was stupid enough to have gambled with unsavory company and lost a prize he wasn’t in a position to stake.
“You need to leave this to me now.” There was nothing soft about his voice.
“Nonsense. You can’t go in there alone. That is unwise.” She smoothed a hand over her hair. “We both know I can defend myself. I can help.”
“You’ve done enough.”
An alluring flush rose over her cheeks. “You’re angry I didn’t tell you. About Johnny.”
“We’re not discussing it. Not here. Not now.” Not ever, if he had his way.
“I thought you knew.”
“And you believed I intentionally kept it from you?” They hadn’t spoken openly with each other in eight years, but she must have thought he was a veritable devil if she believed he’d let her marry Jared, knowing his brother already had a son with another woman.
“You didn’t tell me about Polly,” she argued.
“I thought you knew.”
She made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat, and with her pink cheeks and her uneven breaths and the way her attention fixed on him, he had to strangle the umbrella to resist touching her.
Diana registered the motion.
She took a step closer to him.
When her eyes dropped to his mouth, a swell of lust rose over him like a tidal wave.
“You’re genuinely furious at me,” she murmured. “Is it because I didn’t tell you about Johnny? Or do you think, after all this, that I drugged Jared myself?”
She leaned perilously close to him. The scent of her violet perfume set his skin on fire and made his muscles shake. He squeezed his eyes shut and searched for the strength to resist her.
Dampness kissed his cheek before a frigid gust of wind revived him like a cold bucket of water.
When he blinked his eyes open, he was alone.
In the distance, Diana scurried down the street under the shelter of his umbrella.