“I thought he threw you over?” Daniel asked. “I’ve heard him say—”
Fire blazed in the colorless woman’s eyes. “You needn’t rub it in! I know what Cowan Morgan says about me, Daniel.” She deliberately turned her back on him. “You’re a decent woman,” she said to Martha, “and I know Hugo wouldn’t want me to tell you too much about our trade—”
“He wouldn’t want you in the same room with her,” Daniel muttered.
Laura’s mouth tightened, but she continued, “Daniel is right that Cowan despises me. But he still comes to me. Suffice it to say that I do things for him that most of the other women refuse to do.” Her throat worked as she swallowed. “Demeaning things.”
“I’m not going to judge you for what you do to earn a living,” Martha said softly. “You needn’t go into any detail. It sounds like what you’re saying is that you’ve heard things from this Bevan Davies’s son about my husband?”
“Yes. About Hugo, and about a lot of other things, too.”
“Like what happened yesterday?”
She nodded. “Cowan was laughing about it last night—crowing about how Bev had brought the mighty Hugo Buckingham low. He, er—”
“Go on,” Martha encouraged.
“He’s blackmailing Hugo to, er, service a very powerful client—somebody Bev will be able to squeeze for a great deal of money and other favors.”
Martha’s face scalded at the word service. “Who is this person?”
Laura turned to Daniel. “Do you know who I mean?”
“I can guess,” Daniel said.
“Who?” Martha demanded.
When Laura said the name Martha’s jaw dropped.
“Good God!” Albert gasped. “You have got to be bloody joking!”
Martha had never heard the gentle man swear before.
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t believe this,” Albert said to Martha. “Any of it. Tell me you don’t, either? Hugo would never—”
“He already admitted as much to me, Albert.”
Albert blinked, poleaxed.
“What did this Bevan Davies blackmail Hugo with?” Martha asked Laura, although she was beginning to suspect.
“At first he said that he’d tell you that truth about what Hugo did.”
“How did he know I wasn’t already aware?”
“Bev has had somebody watching Hugo since he learned he was back. Hugo isn’t known for being, er, well tractable, so I’m sure Bev decided that he’d probably need to have some leverage over him at some point. That’s how he found out that Hugo was married.” Her brow furrowed. “Cowan mentioned something about a man who was showing you houses?”
“Yes, we have an agent,” Martha said numbly.
“He’s the one who talked to Bev’s man about you.”
Mr. Duncan knew all about them—Martha had spent hours with him and had doubtless told him everything.
“But I don’t understand,” Martha said. “Hugo came home and told me the truth about everything last night. So how—”
“Bev said he would kill you if Hugo didn’t do what he ordered.”
The two men shot up from their chairs, both loudly chastising the other woman for telling Martha such a thing.
Martha’s mind went back to last night—as it had been doing ever since Hugo had shoved her from his bedchamber—to all the cruel things Hugo had said to her. Now it was blindingly clear what he’d been doing: he wanted her to leave London and stay gone.
He’d said all those things to protect her—true, it was a misguided and foolish and predictably arrogant male response to danger—not to hurt her. He would have known that she would never leave him without extreme provocation.
He hadn’t meant any of it. He’d said what he had because he cared for her.
“Martha?”
She looked up to find Albert squinting down at her.
“Hmmm?”
“Are you smiling?”
Her smile grew into a grin. “Yes.”
His ginger eyebrows drew down. “But—”
“I’ll tell you later,” she promised. She turned to Laura, who was arguing heatedly with Daniel.
Martha cleared her throat and the two turned to her. “You still haven’t said why you’ve come to me, Mrs. Maitland?”
“I came because I wanted to help—but I knew Hugo would never trust me.”
“And you shouldn’t either, Mrs. Buckingham,” Daniel said, giving Laura a look of blistering contempt. “She’s a liar.”
Laura sighed. “Daniel’s right.”
“Perhaps. But I’d like to know what kind of help you have in mind,” Martha said.
“Cowan always talks when he’s, er, well, when he lets down his guard. Two weeks ago, I heard about something big. Something that wouldn’t just put Bev and all the rest in jail—it would put their necks in nooses.” Her gray eyes glowed with an emotion Martha couldn’t identify. “It gave me an idea. An idea that could get Bev out of Hugo’s hair for good.”
“And why would you want to help Hugo?” Daniel demanded, asking the question that Martha was about to ask.
Laura ignored him and leaned closer to Martha. “I lost everything because of Bev Davies.”
Daniel snorted. “And whose fault is that, Laura?”
“It’s mine,” she snapped. “I know that. I’m the one who went to his vile gaming hells and stayed night after night at his tables—I won’t try to place the blame on Bev for my own weakness. But I know now that he had his eye on Solange’s ages ago; he was determined to get it. He came after me because he couldn’t ensnare Melissa or Hugo because neither of them is as weak and stupid as I am.” Her lips thinned. “It’s true that I’m the one who hanged myself. But Bev is the one who handed me the rope, inch by inch. You want to know why I would help you?”
Martha nodded.
Laura smiled, and the hatred in her bloodshot eyes was a frightening sight. “Because the man who is trying to destroy your husband—and your marriage—has already destroyed my life. And I would dearly love to repay the favor.”
Chapter 35
Hugo stood in front of his looking glass, putting the finishing touches on his neckcloth, and deeply regretted that he was not a drinking man.
The last five days had
