Hugo pointed at her. “Don’t lie to me, Laura. Because if I learn you’ve lied—”
“It was Cowan’s idea to get your half.”
Hugo gave an ugly laugh. “You mean he was faking the grand passion he claimed he felt for you?”
“Yes, he used me!” Her face twisted into a scowl. “Does that make you happy?”
“As a matter of fact, it does a bit. So, the dumb bastard thought you’d be able to sell the place if I wasn’t around, eh? It must have come as quite a shock to him when he learned you were in debt up to your neck.”
“It’s worse than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s one of Bev’s bastards.”
“So what? That’s not exactly rare. I understand Bev’s got more brats running around the rookeries than that bloke from the Bible.”
“It turns out that Bev is makin’ noises about getting’ old,” Laura said. “He’s talking about choosing an heir and he’ll pick the one who impresses him the most.”
“Ah,” Hugo said, comprehension dawning. “Solange’s would be quite a prize for Cowan to bring home to dear old Da.” He studied her miserable face. “But you didn’t know about any of that, did you?”
“No. At least not until—well, not until after it was done.”
“You bloody fool.”
Laura didn’t bother to deny it.
Go on,” he ordered.
“Cowan said that if I could get rid of you, he knew a forger who could help with the deed. He said once it was all mine then I could sell the place, pay off the money to Bev—with some left over—and we could get married. He said that he earned enough from his work with Bev that I never needed to work again.”
“I’m guessing it wasn’t Cowan’s plan to have me arrested?”
“No, he wanted you dead.” She locked eyes with him. “I went behind his back and arranged this with a bloke I knew. I couldn’t do it, Hugo. I couldn’t have you killed.”
“I’m touched. Finish the story.”
“Things didn’t go the way Cowan said.”
Hugo gave a bitter laugh.
“The forger didn’t fix all the documents in my name, he used Bev’s.” Her face twitched, her eyes haunted. “When I found out, I tracked Cowan down. He laughed at me—the things he said—” She choked on a sob. “I threatened to tell and—and—” She swallowed convulsively. “He beat me so hard I pissed blood for a week.”
Hugo shook his head in disgust.
“So you were gone, Bev owned your half with nobody to dispute it, and I still owed him all that money. I signed over my half two days later.”
“How could you be so bloody stupid, Laura? Didn’t you think—”
“I thought Cowan loved me!” Her words echoed in the dank room. “I thought maybe I’d finally gotten lucky. Why not—it wasn’t as if Cowan were anything special. Melissa married a bloody lord and got out of the business—both her and Joss married into the aristocracy. Was I asking too much to marry the bastard son of a criminal?” She pinioned Hugo with her ravaged gaze. “Was I?”
Hugo gritted his teeth against the pity that stabbed at him. She deserved nothing from him but scorched earth retribution.
Based on what he’d observed the past few nights as he’d skulked around Solange’s their clients had already begun to scatter. It was physically painful to see the business he had poured his life into—for years—falling apart.
And all because of her.
He sneered. “So now you work for him?”
“I only work two nights a week and he lets me live there, although I had to move into a smaller room. He said he’ll let me stay as long as I pull my weight.”
Which, judging by her sickly pallor, significant tremors, and the bones pressing against her grayish skin, wouldn’t be long.
He shoved his hand into his hair and pulled until his eyes watered. Christ. His head was bloody spinning. What, in the name of God, could he do to salvage any of this?
“Hugo?”
“What?” He had to force himself to look at her.
“If Bev learns you’re back, um, well—”
“Why do you think I haven’t just strolled into Solange’s?” Hugo snorted. “Of course, I didn’t have any idea of the extent to which I was fucked until talking to you, sweetheart.”
Laura’s pale cheeks flushed slightly, making her look like a feverish corpse.
“Do you know the name of the man who forged my name?” he asked.
She swallowed and then nodded again. “But if you put me in front of a judge, I’ll say it was you that signed it, Hugo.” She gave a slightly hysterical laugh. “I’d not survive the day if I ever tried to drag Bev or one of his men into a courtroom. Even if he didn’t kill me, I’d never survive a journey in the belly of a convict ship.”
She was right on both counts.
Hugo had to clench his hands behind his back to keep from grabbing and shaking her. “In my room there was a—”
“Strongbox under the floorboards,” she finished. “I took it. I’m sorry,” she said, dully.
Hugo closed his eyes and clenched his teeth against the impotent rage threatening to boil over. He’d kept five hundred pounds in banknotes tucked away in that box, not to mention a great deal of jewelry and other valuables—all of which he’d hidden close at hand in case of an emergency. Gone. All of it gone. He laughed weakly and opened his eyes to find Laura staring.
“What are you going to do, Hugo?”
“I have no bloody idea.”
Chapter 27
Martha was dreaming that she lived in a house with over one hundred cats.
“Darling?” one of the cats said.
A warm hand slid over her belly, the touch jolting her awake. She opened her eyes to find Hugo smiling down at her.
“Let’s take this off, Martha. Sit up a bit, love.”
Her body responded even though her brain was still half-asleep. “I was having the strangest dream,” she said, lifting first her hips and then her arms as he raised the nightgown over her head.
He shrugged off his robe and it slithered to the floor with a
