Nicola Cornick Collection: The Last Rake In London / Notorious / Desired. Nicola Cornick

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СКАЧАТЬ in the company name was a recent partner, but Jack had never met him. All his business, including the sorrowful meeting before Jack had been banished ten years before, had been concluded with this man, a thin, stooping figure who had a nervous habit of constantly adjusting the glasses that habitually slid down his nose and whose age was indeterminate. Ten years before, Mr Churchward had been in the unhappy position of confirming that Jack’s father did not intend to pay him any type of allowance at all during his exile. On Jack’s return as a rich, self-made man, Mr Churchward, who had not looked a day older, had seemed genuinely pleased to see him and to discover the independent success Jack had made of his business ventures.

      ‘I came as soon as I could gather the information you required, sir,’ Mr Churchward said now. ‘I have made some enquiries into the background of Miss Bowes and her relationship with Mr Basset.’ He shook his head sorrowfully. ‘A most flighty young lady, if I may say so, sir, and …’ he cleared his throat, blushing slightly ‘… somewhat indiscriminate with her affections as well.’

      ‘You do not surprise me, Churchward,’ Jack said, grimly. ‘Tell me your worst.’

      ‘Well, sir …’ Churchward made a fuss of opening the case and removing a sheaf of papers ‘… Miss Constance Bowes is the youngest daughter of Sir Peter Bowes, an architect of some renown who unfortunately lost all his money in unwise speculation at the end of the last century. She has two elder sisters, the notorious suffragette Petronella Bowes—’ here Churchward’s voice dipped with distinct disapproval ‘—and the equally infamous Mrs Jonathan Hayward, who owns a nightclub in the Strand.’

      ‘Miss Sally Bowes,’ Jack said, his lips twitching. ‘I believe she prefers not to be known by her married name, Churchward.’

      ‘I dare say,’ Mr Churchward said frostily. ‘A woman of that stamp—’

      ‘To return to Miss Constance,’ Jack said, cutting in ruthlessly as Churchward’s description of Sally roused a violently protective feeling in him, ‘what of her subsequent career?’

      ‘Well, sir …’ Churchward cast Jack a startled look at his inflexibility of tone. ‘Miss Constance was twelve when her father lost all his money and fifteen when he died. She lived for a number of years with a maiden aunt. There was …’ he consulted his notes ‘… some scandal over a flirtation with a piano teacher and later a thwarted elopement with a young gentleman called Geoffrey Chavenage.’ He cleared his throat. ‘When her sister, Mrs Hayward—Miss Bowes, that is—was widowed Miss Constance went to live and work with her at the Blue Parrot Club.’ Churchward stopped. ‘Two years ago, both women were involved in a rather unsavoury lawsuit for breach of promise.’

      Jack, who had got up and strolled over to the window whilst this recital was continuing, now turned around sharply. ‘Both women?’ he questioned. He felt a chill down his spine, a premonition that something was about to go awry. ‘Are you sure?’

      ‘Yes, sir.’ Churchward extracted a couple of sheets from his pile of papers. ‘Miss Constance Bowes sued a Mr John Pettifer over breach of promise to marry. Her elder sister stood as a witness and supported her throughout the case. They won,’ Mr Churchward said, with gloomy dissatisfaction, ‘and were awarded substantial damages.’ He paused, pushing his glasses back up his nose. ‘It was also Mrs Hayward who dealt with the matter of her sister’s unfortunate elopement. The Chavenage family allegedly paid out to keep the matter from the courts because Miss Connie was under age at the time.’ He cleared his throat. ‘So one might conclude, sir, that this case involving Miss Constance and your unfortunate cousin is part of a pattern to entrap young gentlemen into indiscretion and subsequently extract payment from them.’

      Jack’s dark eyes had narrowed and a muscle tightened in his cheek. ‘And you are certain,’ he demanded, ‘absolutely certain, that Miss Sally Bowes—Mrs Hayward—supported her sister in bringing both these cases?’

      He saw Churchward’s surprise at the vehemence of his tone. The lawyer’s eyes blinked myopically behind the thick lenses of his glasses. ‘Yes, sir.’ He held out the papers. ‘I have the court transcripts here. Miss Bowes was her younger sister’s most staunch supporter in the case against Mr Pettifer and my sources also informed me of her role in the Chavenage case.’

      Jack took the papers. He would not, he told himself sternly, believe a word against Sally until he had seen the evidence with his own eyes. And yet even as the thought went through his mind he was scanning the papers before him. In Churchward’s neat annotations he read that the Chavenage family had apparently paid Mrs Hayward seven thousand pounds to keep the matter of her sister’s elopement with Mr Geoffrey Chavenage out of the courts. Chavenage senior was a Member of Parliament and Jack could see how badly the elopement of his son with an underage girl might affect his political standing. With increasing anger and disbelief he turned to the court transcripts for the Pettifer breach of promise case. Again, Sally had been very active in supporting her sister’s claim and had presented Connie Bowes as an innocent who had been cruelly betrayed by an experienced older man. Jack raised his brows with incredulity that the judge could have been so taken in.

      ‘Of course,’ Mr Churchward was saying, in his precise manner, ‘we must consider the possibility that Miss Constance Bowes was indeed the injured party in both of these instances—’

      He broke off as Jack slammed one fist into the palm of his other hand. ‘I think,’ Jack said, ‘that is as likely as hell freezing over.’

      ‘Sir?’ Churchward looked confused.

      ‘Apologies, Churchward—’ Jack straightened up, casting the papers aside ‘—but I do not for one moment think that is likely. Miss Constance’s attempt to blackmail my uncle fits too neatly with the pattern for it to be a coincidence.’ He strode over to mantelpiece and rested an arm along the top whilst he tried to think coolly and calculatedly about Sally Bowes’s deception. She had told him that she knew nothing of Connie’s extortion threats and that she would do all she could to return the letters.

      And he had believed her.

      Fool that he was—he had been taken in by her apparent frankness, intrigued by her intelligent mind, led astray by his lust for the luscious body she hid beneath those deliciously silky gowns. There was evidence here, chapter and verse, of two occasions on which the Bowes sisters together had entrapped a young man and walked away with a fortune, but in his hunger for Sally Bowes he had almost fallen for her lies. He had exonerated the elder sister from the greed and cupidity of the younger, when in fact she was probably the one who arranged all the details of these unscrupulous affairs. Sally provided the brains, Connie the looks, to fleece the gentlemen of their choosing.

      Something twisted inside him that felt almost like pain. Jack was not accustomed to feeling pain in any of his love affairs. It was something that had not happened to him for ten years. Then he felt anger, so intense and searing that for a moment his mind went blank.

      ‘Mr Kestrel?’ He became aware that Churchward was addressing him. ‘What would you like me to do now, sir?’

      ‘Churchward,’ Jack said slowly, ‘thank you for gathering this information for me. What I would like you to do now is to find out who the investors are in Miss Sally Bowes’s club, the Blue Parrot. Find out, and then approach them to see if any would be prepared to sell their stake.’

      Churchward’s brows shot up. ‘Are you looking to invest in a nightclub, sir?’

      ‘No,’ Jack said grimly. ‘I am looking to ruin Miss Sally Bowes’s business, Churchward. Find the investors and buy them up. I want that club. I want Miss Bowes in my power.’

      ‘Mr СКАЧАТЬ