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СКАЧАТЬ she rocked back on her heels, catching her breath. Once again his gaze appraised her with insolent thoroughness, as though stripping every one of her clothes from her.

      ‘How much?’ he repeated. He put the banknotes in her hand.

      ‘Nothing,’ Sally said. She cleared her throat. ‘That is … I have no interest in being your mistress, Mr Kestrel.’

      A cynical smile tugged at Jack’s lips. ‘I am sure you could be persuaded, Miss Bowes, for the right price.’ He straightened. ‘We will discuss this later. In the meantime I want to talk to your sister. She is here?’

      ‘I … Yes …’ Sally tried to pull herself together. ‘Connie is indeed here—I spoke with her this morning.’ She glanced ostentatiously at the clock. ‘Connie will still be abed, Mr Kestrel. You are somewhat early this morning, and I am afraid that my sister seldom rises before midday.’

      ‘Then we will go and wake her,’ Jack said grimly.

      ‘Very well.’ Sally stalked towards the door. She was still shaking. She needed some time alone. The banknotes seemed to burn her palm. ‘Please would you wait here?’ she said.

      ‘I am hardly going to sit idly by whilst Miss Constance escapes out of a back window,’ Jack drawled. He raised a brow. ‘Surely you are not concerned about a gentleman entering her bedroom? There must have been plenty over the years, judging by the detail in these papers.’

      Sally gritted her teeth. Having just proved herself perfidious and money-grabbing in his eyes, she was not in a particularly good position to defend anyone else. She tried to focus on Nell’s children. Now they could have a roof over their heads and the medicines they needed. And Nell would be able to help the other families too …

      ‘Constance,’ Jack was saying thoughtfully. ‘What a damnably inappropriate name for your sister, Miss Bowes. Unless it is constancy in the pursuit of a fortune, of course.’

      Sally ignored him. She thrust open the office door and stormed into the outer office, where Mary and the girl who did the typing were sitting trying to pretend that they had not been eavesdropping on every word. This time Jack had to hurry to keep up with Sally as she marched up the two flights of stairs and charged down the corridor to Connie’s room, flinging the door open.

      The room was in darkness.

      Sally picked her way across to the window and flung back the curtains so that the daylight flooded into the room.

      It looked as though a tornado had swept through, or a very untidy burglar had ransacked the place. The bed was empty and unmade, the sheets and blankets in a tangle at the bottom. The wardrobe door was open and there were piles of clothes strewn on the floor with random shoes littered amongst them.

      ‘What on earth—?’ Jack began.

      ‘Connie is very untidy,’ Sally said abruptly, picking her way through the puddles of clothes to the dressing table.

      ‘She is also very absent,’ Jack pointed out.

      Sally picked up the single sheet of paper that was on the dresser. It was only four hours since she had left Connie to sleep off her excesses, but now a cast-iron certainty hit Sally hard in the stomach. Her sister had never intended to stay. She had sneaked in to get some clothes and then she had run away. With Bertie Basset. She looked at the note.

      Darling Sally, by the time you read this I shall be gone! Bertie and I are to be married and we went away secretly, immediately after I saw you this morning.

      Sally sat down very suddenly on the dressing-table stool. In the mirror she could see her shocked, pale reflection staring back at her. She thought of Connie and Bertie Basset and a lifetime of misery and infidelity and the divorce courts. Connie had never loved anyone but John Pettifer and Sally knew she did not love Bertie in the all-consuming way that a woman should love the man she chose to marry. Connie was using Bertie, and it could only end in heartache.

      We knew that Bertie’s father would never accept our love and would make poor Bertie give me up, so the only way for us to be together was to elope. We had resolved on it even before we heard that Bertie’s horrid cousin Jack was on the warpath. I am sorry to have deceived you, but I love Bertie so much that the fact he now has no money simply cannot be allowed to weigh with me and I must be united with him …

      Little liar, Sally thought. She knew her sister’s feelings were as shallow as a puddle. She could see the whole swindle now: Bertie, immature and easily led, genuinely wanted to marry Connie and she wanted his title, money and status. They had cooked up an elopement together but Connie had also hatched a daring plan to have her cake and eat it. They had guessed, quite rightly, that Lord Basset would cut Bertie off without a penny, so Connie had tried to both blackmail Lord Basset and trick him into thinking the affair was all over. Had he paid up to keep her quiet, she would have got both the money and the man …

      Emotion dried Sally’s throat to cardboard. There was no denying that her sister was a cunning little piece. When Connie had heard of Jack’s involvement she had realised that the money would not be forthcoming and had decided to cut her losses and run away with Bertie anyway. No doubt they would hope that, given time, the family would accept their nuptials.

      Jack came across and took the piece of paper from Sally’s hand. ‘Not some new piece of fiction from your sister, Miss Bowes?’ he said. A frown darkened his brow as he scanned the letter. ‘In love with Bertie? What utter sentimental nonsense! I will say this for you and your sister—you are very inventive! I hardly need ask if you were party to this!’

      ‘Of course I was not,’ Sally said. She slewed around on the seat in order to glare at him. ‘Can you not read, Mr Kestrel? Connie apologises for deceiving me. Or are you so suspicious by nature that you think that we are in this together and that she put that in the letter merely to mislead you?’

      Jack’s eyes narrowed as he reread the lines. ‘It matters little one way or the other, I suppose,’ he said dismissively, ‘since you are both as greedy and materialistic as each other.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘So your sister thought to get my uncle to pay her off and thus finance her to run away with my cousin? A cunning plan!’

      Sally got slowly to her feet.

      ‘It’s a damnable disaster,’ she said.

      Jack stared at her. ‘But surely you must be pleased, Miss Bowes?’ he said sarcastically. ‘Your sister has managed to catch herself a baron’s heir this time, no mere gentleman like Geoffrey Chavenage or John Pettifer. And even though my uncle may cut Bertie off without a penny, he cannot cancel the entail, and of course, my uncle is very sick and might die at any moment …’ Once again Sally felt the stinging contempt in his gaze. ‘It is a neatly executed swindle, I will give you that.’

      ‘It’s nothing of the sort,’ Sally said. ‘It is madness. My own experience teaches me that no one should marry unless they truly love one another—’ She broke off at the look of bored cynicism in Jack’s eyes.

      ‘You really are a piece of work, are you not, Miss Bowes?’ he said. ‘Such high-flown sentiments, such grasping avarice!’

      ‘Neither Mr Basset nor my sister should be contemplating matrimony with anyone,’ Sally snapped. ‘He is weak, immature and easily led and she is not in love with him, whatever she says! Your uncle will probably recover his health and live to be one hundred and in the meantime they will have no money and will fight СКАЧАТЬ