"It would stand out too much," Matt said. "I don't think there are any for that reason. Someone would have noticed."
Willie poked the glowing coals in the grate with the fire iron, stirring them to life. "Pity. I'd like to ride on a flying carpet. Or cowhide."
Duke chuckled. "It's a lot further to fall off a carpet flying over the city than it is a horse."
Willie sniffed. "Ever seen me fall off a horse, Duke? You haven't because I ain't never."
"Not even when you were little?"
"Nope."
"Huh. I figured you'd landed on your head from a fall and that's why you're a bit…you know." He tapped his temple, angling his head so that Cyclops would see his wink but Willie couldn’t.
She brandished the fire iron and Duke pressed back into the chair to avoid it, the smile no longer in evidence. "It's a brave man that calls me mad when I'm holding a hot poker."
"Or a stupid man," Cyclops said. When Duke protested, Cyclops gave an apologetic shrug. "Well I wouldn't have said it to her."
"Doesn't Delancey come from a family of wool magicians?" Matt asked.
"The magic ended with his father," I said.
"There are no distant cousins?"
It might be worth checking. If Delancey lost touch with his cousins, it didn't mean Fabian and I couldn't approach them.
Bristow entered and announced a visitor. "Miss Hope Glass is in the drawing room."
Matt and I exchanged glances. This was my chance to convince her to accept Lord Coyle’s proposal. But I still wasn't sure if I should, or even if I could. Hope wasn't someone whose opinion could be easily swayed.
"She alone?" Cyclops asked. "Or are her sisters with her?"
"She's alone," Bristow said.
Cyclops relaxed. "Think I'll stay in here awhile, just in case."
Matt and I greeted Hope in the drawing room and she responded politely if somewhat stiffly. We exchanged the obligatory pleasantries while we waited for the tea to arrive. After Bristow deposited the tray and left, closing the doors behind him, Hope finally got to the reason for her visit.
"The last time we saw one another," she began, "I warned you that I would discover what hold you have over my brother-in-law, Lord Cox."
She sipped slowly, deliberately, as if she wanted to savor every drop of tea. It was typical of her to turn tea drinking into a dramatic art. I sipped slowly too and didn't prompt her. I would not rise to her bait.
"And so I have," she said.
"Have what?" Matt asked gruffly. It would seem he wasn't going to play any games with his cousin.
"Let me start at the very beginning." Hope set down her teacup and saucer. "Patience and Lord Cox arrived in London two days ago. We dined with them at his townhouse last night. It was immediately obvious that something was amiss. Lord Cox looked drawn and anxious. He barely engaged in conversation and his nerves appeared frayed. Patience was no better, but she seemed worried about her husband rather than nervous. When I spoke to my sister alone, I asked her what was the matter. She said she didn't know, but her husband had been like this for over a week, ever since receiving a letter."
"He didn't tell Patience the contents of the letter?" I asked.
"No."
Matt and I shared everything, so it was odd to me that a husband and wife would keep secrets. Surely Lord Cox would tell Patience about his past soon. It did, after all, affect her too.
On the other hand, it might upset her deeply to learn that he had only married her because he'd been blackmailed into it by me, and he was protecting her feelings by keeping the secret.
"I knew Patience wasn't telling me everything," Hope went on. "I pressed her all night until she finally cracked and admitted she suspected you were involved, India."
"Me?"
"She saw a letter addressed to you in Lord Cox's hand, but she didn’t know the content. I would have opened it before the servants sent it, but Patience was always the obedient one, despite that little incident with the rogue." She dismissed Patience's youthful indiscretion with a wave of her hand, as if it had been nothing and had not led to Lord Cox calling off their first engagement.
"Is that why you're here?" Matt asked. "To ask India why he wrote to her?"
Her eyelashes fluttered. "I know why he wrote to her. He blames India for breaking her promise to keep his secret. The secret India used to force him to marry Patience." She picked up her teacup and sipped.
Despite my shredded nerves, I did the same, keeping my features schooled.
She rested the cup on her knee and regarded me with a cool smile. She was enjoying this. Or perhaps she was enjoying seeing her sister suffer. "When I couldn't get an answer out of Patience, I confronted Lord Cox, and he told me," she said.
"What, precisely?" Matt asked, clearly not believing she knew the secret.
"Everything."
Matt made a scoffing sound.
"He told me that his father was married to another woman before he married his mother," she said. "The first marriage was never dissolved and so the son she bore him is the legitimate heir. He told me his half-brother grew up not knowing this, but Lord Cox had learned it from his father on his deathbed. He had kept the secret to himself and thought no one else knew about it—until you used the scandalous information to blackmail him into marrying my sister."
An icy shiver rippled down my spine.
"Why would he tell you all of that?" Matt asked. He sounded calm, whereas I was wracked with guilt, horror, and utter shamefulness at my role. "I don't believe it's simply because you asked."
"I promised him I could help him," Hope said, matching his tone. "I told him I knew people who can fix all sorts of problems, even those that seem unfixable, and they specialize in problems of a personal, unmentionable, nature."
"Who?" I blurted out.
"Why, you, of course." She smiled at me then turned it on Matt.
He sat unmoving in the chair, regarding her through hooded eyes. "Why would you say something like that?"
"Because it's true. Since you are the one who informed Lord Cox's brother, India, you can uninform him, so to speak. You simply have to tell him it's not true and that you were simply being nasty out of jealousy, spite or some such notion."
"I did not inform him," I said hotly. "I don't know how he found out the truth, but I can assure you, it wasn't through me, Matt or any of our friends."
Her forehead creased. For the first time, she looked uncertain. I was more relieved than I cared to admit that she believed me.
"Then who did?" she asked.
"We can't fix this," Matt said. "If the information is true—and it must be or Cox wouldn't be so worried—then nothing can be done, now that the half-brother is aware of it. You need to speak to Cox and tell him we can't help him. Make sure he knows we kept his secret. Tell him to engage a good lawyer."
"No, Matt, I won't tell him a thing," she snipped off. "Because you can still help him. You've helped the police with all sorts of delicate matters. I believe you're even on good terms with the commissioner."