35. Chapter 35
“This is a fake.” Mr. Dorling lowered his magnifying glasses to the counter.
“What! Impossible!” Charles Whittingham snatched up the necklace to look it over carefully.
“It’s leaded glass, quite well done, but counterfeit.”
“I can’t believe it.” Charles shook his head.
“Many women of the ton have fake jewelry made. It is quite real to the untrained eye.” Mr. Dorling sneered.
“I know a fake when I see one.” Charles glared at the man.
Dorling raised one eyebrow mockingly.
“I didn’t look closely at it last night. I trusted my thief. I have never had any reason to doubt he would deliver.”
“Perhaps he thought this was real?”
Charles frowned. Had Emma betrayed him? Did she have the audacity to try and trick him when there was so much for her to lose?
And where would she get a counterfeit made in such short notice?
He knew he had been tough on her recently, but she needed to know who was in charge of their agreement.
She needed him, and they both knew it. She must not have realized it was a counterfeit.
Perhaps her duke didn’t trust her with the real one.
“Listen, Whittingham, I have buyers coming tomorrow evening who are expecting to bid on a high-end necklace. You have disappointed me terribly, and you know I do not like to be disappointed.” Dorling snapped his fingers.
Two men appeared from the back room. Their burly physiques seem to take up all the available space in the room.
They stood to either side of the door, waiting for instructions from their boss.
Charles swallowed, then cleared his throat. “Mr. Dorling, you know I would never want to jeopardize our working relationship. I can get the real necklace tonight. I know where the lockbox is in the ducal mansion. I will go in myself and see it done.”
Dorling nodded. “Bring me the necklace by morning, or you will be receiving a very unpleasant visit from my friends.” He gestured toward the thugs. “Remember, I know all your hidey-holes, so don’t try and disappear on me.”
Charles slipped back into his bravado as easily as an eel sliding into the river.
No one knew all of his hiding places. “Don’t you worry, I will procure the necklace and save the auction.
You can be certain of that.” He tipped his cane against the brim of his hat.
He turned to walk out the front, only to be faced with a wall of muscle.
He turned back to Dorling, one eyebrow raised.
Dorling gave a nod, and the pair parted to allow Charles to exit the shop into the freedom of the freezing-cold afternoon.
He walked briskly down the street, putting as much distance between him and the shop as possible.
He laughed a bit at the idea that Dorling thought he knew all the places he kept throughout the city.
He could disappear anytime he wanted. But for now, what he wanted was the proceeds that necklace would bring at the auction. He would deal with Emma later.
He had thought to grab her last night from the carriage.
Take her and the necklace on the run. They would make a brilliant pair on the continent.
Emma had so much potential. But that simpering chit Lucy had been with her; she would have raised the alarm for sure.
He had a lot of planning to do if he was going to break into the ducal mansion tonight.
He would have a visit with his niece after the auction and have a nice chat about the difference between real and counterfeit stones.
Saturday turned into a bit of a blur for Emma.
The boys, ecstatic to have the opportunity to play with their friends, were happy upstairs in the nursery.
The girls were in love with the splendor of the house, and in no small part with Andrew and his brother.
At breakfast, Margie and Abby sighed dramatically when Andrew rose to kiss Emma’s hand before he escorted her to her seat.
The girls kept staring at both men over their eggs and toast. When Jack gave them a saucy wink across the table, they had burst into giggles, trying to hide their laughter behind their napkins.
Emma sighed. She really needed to be stricter about which reading material the girls were allowed.
Anxiety gnawed at her stomach all day about what Charles’ next move would be once he figured out the necklace was fake.
She sat in the library with a book, pretending to read, but really, she agonized over the inevitable confrontation with Charles.
Fergus, sensing her mood, had stayed glued to her side all day.
Around four in the afternoon, Lucy and the children barreled into the room and asked her to read them a story. She was reading Robinson Crusoe aloud, the children all sitting in a semicircle in front of her on the rug, when Andrew entered the library.
“Excuse me, may I borrow Miss Whittingham for a few minutes?” Andrew asked the children.
“But, Father, this is the most exciting part!” Grayson complained.
“Perhaps Lucy won’t mind continuing in my stead?” Emma suggested.
“Of course not.” Lucy took the book from Emma.
“But can you do good pirate voices, Lucy?” Max asked.
“I can,” a voice came from the doorway. Vivian swept into the room. She took Emma’s spot on the sofa next to Lucy.
Tyler immediately rose from the floor and climbed up into her lap. “She knows what pirates sound like ’cause her father is a pirate.” He looked up at Vivian adoringly while the other children all gasped in delight. Their afternoon had just gotten far more interesting.
Andrew took Emma’s hand and guided her from the room. “Jack has some information to share with us. He is in my study.”
Jack stood as Emma entered the room. “Emma, I’m glad Andrew found you. Have a seat. Let me tell you what my source told me this afternoon.”
He sat down in one of the wingback chairs, and Emma and Andrew settled themselves on the settee. The fire roared, but it couldn’t warm the chill that had plagued Emma all day.
Jack continued, “I think we have pinpointed the fence your uncle works with, a man named Mr. Dorling. He owns a watch shop as his front. He has been in the business for twenty-odd years. You said your uncle had been using him for a long time, right?”
“Yes, but how can you be sure? How did you find out who this Dorling is? My uncle refused to tell me anything about his fence. He said it was safer for me that way.”
“I have several friends within the Home Office who work intimately with the underbelly of crime in London. Believe it or not, among thieves, your uncle is well-known for his exploits, although most think he is dead. He had several alternate identities he used when he was thieving, and apparently this Dorling was known to have been his fence. In addition, my source found out the auction is set up for Sunday at eight in the evening. But the location is a secret. It will only be revealed to the buyers Sunday morning.”
“Why an auction?” Andrew asked.
“To garner the best price, having people in the same room bidding on the necklace makes it competitive. He will get a quicker return than if he takes the necklace apart and sells the rubies separately.”
“So do you think Charles will show up tonight?” Andrew asked.
“I think unless they have already killed him for bringing in a counterfeit, he will have to show up and try to steal the real thing,” Jack replied.
“He will have talked his way out of danger. He has a silver tongue,” Emma said.
She knew in her gut he would be coming for the necklace tonight.
She thought of all the things that Charles could say to get himself out of trouble.
Her shoulders sagged. This was never going to work.
She was sure to be exposed as his accomplice.
“All right, tonight we hope to catch Whittingham red-handed as he tries to break into the lockbox. You made sure he knew the location, right?” Jack turned to Emma, and she nodded.
“I’ve the name of a trusted constable we will call in to come and arrest him.
Constable Woolsey has been working on burglary cases his whole career. ”
Emma twisted her hands together in her lap.
Remember to trust. Andrew and Jack want to help.
She voiced her concern. “What if Charles tells them all about the jobs I have done? Once he is caught, I am sure he will try to blame it all on me.” Too afraid to meet Andrew’s eye, she focused on the pattern on her skirt.
“And what do you think the magistrate will believe? That Miss Emma Whittingham, a viscount’s daughter, is really a thief?
That she climbs through windows at night to relieve the rich of their baubles?
More likely, they will think he is a raving madman who will spin any wild tale to get out of going to prison.
Your uncle’s own precautions make it very difficult for him to pin anything on you.
The fence, any informants, none have ever met you, correct?
” Andrew tipped Emma’s chin back up. She nodded.
Then he gave her a quick kiss. “Don’t worry, you are under my protection now. ”
That amazing warmth of being protected washed through Emma and eradicated her nervousness over the inevitable confrontation with Charles.
Much later, after they tucked the children into bed, Emma and Andrew sat on the floor of the dark library.
They leaned against the back of the settee and waited for the thief to arrive.
Andrew had initially tried to order her to wait in the next room with Jack and Constable Woolsey, but Emma was having none of his high-handedness tonight.
Charles was her problem. She would deal with him personally.
She glanced over at Andrew. He looked quite stiff and proper in his snowy-white cravat, dinner jacket, and polished shoes.
He sat cross-legged with his back ramrod straight, on alert for any sounds indicating Charles had arrived.
Emma, on the other hand, had changed from the gown she’d worn to dinner into a simple cotton house dress of dark blue.
She had a knobby wool shawl around her shoulders to ward off the chill in the empty room.
She would have preferred to be wearing her pants for a night of sitting on the floor but could not be seen by the constable in such a getup. She must play the perfect lady tonight.
“You are dressed rather formally for a night of waiting on the floor, my lord,” she teased him.
Andrew raised an eyebrow. “This is what I wore to dinner. Should I have changed again in order to catch a thief?”
Emma giggled at his affronted expression.
“You look every inch the Duke of Gilchrest, as usual. I guess I prefer the man underneath, that’s all.
” Scooting closer, she reached out and untied his cravat, exposing the tanned hollow of his neck.
Then she leaned forward and placed a kiss right in that spot.
His spicy scent ignited a fire in her blood, and she ran her hands under his jacket, enjoying his sharp intake of breath.
Emma slipped the jacket off his shoulders and helped him out of it.
Setting the jacket and cravat aside, she sat back on her haunches to assess him.
“Hmm, one more thing, I think.” Unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt, she rolled each up, revealing his strong forearms. “Yes, much better. Now you look like you’re ready to catch a thief.”