Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Liar.
Cheat.
But you still love her, Frank.
I pick up my feet and walk to the royal park to hopefully clear my head of all these irritating thoughts so that I may clear my mind and concentrate on solving my business problem.
Alas, by noon, I have walked the park in circles and still not found a resolution. God damn it, I’m buggered.
‘Frank!’ Clara comes running down the path towards me, alone, and I look beyond her for who may be chaperoning her. ‘Yes, I am alone, but it is an emergency.’
My heart starts to gallop, and all the possible dreaded scenarios run circles through my head. Mama? Papa? Eliza, is she all right? The baby? ‘What is it, Clara. You must tell me at once.’
She slows to a stop before me, huffing and puffing. ‘Eliza has sent for you.’
‘Why?’
‘I know not, except that she said I must find you at once.’ She takes my arm and starts hauling me out of the royal park. ‘Come, I have been promised five shillings to deliver you.’
‘I am not a telegram, Clara.’
‘No, you are an idiot.’
‘Hey!’ But I let her drag me, all the way to Eliza’s house, where I am escorted to the drawing room, a most lavish space with velvet draperies and sumptuous chairs. I find my sister in her house coat pacing in front of the fireplace.
‘You are up,’ I say, pleased to see her on her feet.
She whirls round. ‘You must cease with your mission to uncover the identity of the highwaywoman,’ she blurts, knocking me back quite a few paces. ‘Immediately.’
Oh. Why would she ask me that unless she knew who the highwaywoman really is? The fact of the matter is, she wouldn’t. She knows. But how? I ponder that for a moment, and something slowly clicks into place. Eliza knew of my business deal with Fleming. She must have told the Duke, and he must have decided to go to Fleming and request he terminate his mission to discover the identity to protect Taya. Or, perhaps, and more likely, as to ask Fleming to cease in his mission may rouse suspicion, I expect the Duke instead requested he not enter into business with me at all. My God. Johnny and Sampson know Taya is the highwaywoman! They weren’t sending her away because of me. They were sending her away because she is a danger onto herself! And are they still enforcing that?
But I highly doubt Johnny would tell Eliza, not to protect Taya, but to protect his wife from distress when she is so very weak.
God, my head aches.
How should one play this game? ‘Why must I stop?’ I ask, pacing over to Eliza and helping her to a chair before she drops. ‘I have a story to finish, a name to reveal to the ton.’
She looks up at me, nibbling her lip, obviously stuck for how to explain herself. I won’t play the game with her any more. Besides, I need to know how she knows if I am to fathom how I deal with this godawful mess.
I take a chair next to her and hold her hand. ‘I know, Eliza.’
‘Know what?’
‘I know that Taya in the highwaywoman.’
She bursts out laughing, holding her tummy, falling back in her chair, and what do I do? I sit back too, a tired look on my face, waiting for her to shut the hell up and stop treating me like I am the stupidest of idiots. She catches my affronted expression, stops laughing abruptly, and sags. ‘Fine, I cannot lie to you, brother.’
‘How do you know, Eliza?’
‘How do you know?’ she asks.
‘I asked first.’
‘She came home yesterday evening in quite a frightful state. Cuts and bruises everywhere, crying!’ she says, and I inwardly flinch. Crying? Obviously with pain from her injuries rather than, like me, pain of the damn heart. Because she can’t possibly have a heart. ‘She claimed to have taken a fall from her horse, which, of course, was perfectly reasonable since, like me, Taya is quite the breaker of rules and doesn’t ride side-saddle at a snail’s pace, but instead canters everywhere she goes. Anyway,’ she waves a hand flippantly. ‘I helped clean her up with Lady Wisteria, and then got her comfortable in her bed. I was suspicious, there were a few funny looks being passed around the Winters, but it was not my place to ask, and I highly doubted my enquiries would be met with honesty, so I chose to play stupid.’
‘You have plenty of practice.’
She smiles and it is wholly sarcastic. ‘I learned from the best, of course.’ I roll my eyes and gesture for her to continue. ‘Yes, so,’ she goes on. ‘I went back to my room and heard Johnny and Sampson enter, so I got a glass and pushed it up against the wall to hear.’