"He's the one who told me about your…predicament," I said. "He wanted me to owe him a favor, so he gave me the information to use. I'm sorry, Patience. I really am, but…it worked out for the best, didn't it?"
She looked away, her face pale, her lower lip quivering.
"How did he discover it?" Lord Cox asked.
"I don't know," I said.
The muscles in Lord Cox's jaw worked as he stared straight ahead. "Why would he want you to owe him a favor, Mrs. Glass?"
"That's none of your affair," Matt said.
"She owes me answers."
"She owes you nothing. She didn't tell anyone your secret."
"She blackmailed me!"
"Into something you wanted anyway."
Lord Cox's lips thinned and he stared straight ahead again. He did not refute it, at least.
"He wants me to owe him a favor because I'm a magician," I said, "and he has an interest in magic objects."
Lord Cox snorted. "That's absurd."
I'd given him an explanation; I wouldn't beg him to believe it.
"Have you spoken to your brother yet?" Matt asked.
"Half-brother." Lord Cox crossed his arms, and I thought he was going to remain silent, but after a long, awkward moment, he blew out a breath. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "I've written to him, offering him an allowance if he signed an agreement stating he wouldn't pursue the matter further. He refused."
"Offer him more."
"It was a sizeable amount! More than generous. More than I can afford," he added in a mutter.
Patience winced. She looked to be in pain as she watched her husband's demeanor change from defiant to defeated. I wished she would go to him, comfort him, but she remained seated.
"Ask to meet with him," Matt said. "If you can explain the impact it will have on your family face to face, he might give up the claim."
"That's why I'm in London, to see him. He traveled here to meet with a lawyer, according to the letter. He wants to meet me too, but not to get to know his brother better," he bit off. "He wants to look the man who cheated him out of his inheritance in the eye. That's how he worded it."
That was either the rash reaction of a deeply hurt man or the thoughtless reaction of a cruel one. I sincerely hoped the brother was the former, because the latter was going to be impossible to reason with. "I'm sure once he meets you both and sees that he would be hurting good people, he'll change his mind," I said.
"I doubt it. He asked me to bring the family coronet to the meeting and hand it over as a symbol of good faith."
"Coronet?"
"A priceless heirloom, given to my ancestor by Charles II after the restoration of the monarchy. My family fought for the Royalists in the civil war. It's kept under lock and key on the estate and only worn on special occasions."
"Did you bring it with you?" Matt asked.
Lord Cox nodded.
"You're not going to give it to him," I said, aghast.
"Why not? It's his."
"Legally, yes, but…" I didn't finish. He was right, and the brother had the law on his side. If I hadn't known the protagonists in the story personally, I would have been on the brother's side too, hoping he would take what was rightfully and morally his.
My relationship to Patience had colored my judgment and sent my own moral compass pointing in the wrong direction. I bit my lip, folded my hands in my lap, and remained quiet.
"After I hand over the coronet, he wants the rest," Lord Cox said heavily. "If I don't walk away from…from everything, he'll take me to court."
Patience dabbed at her eyes but tears still spilled down her cheeks. Her husband cast an anxious glance at her from beneath lowered lashes but she wasn't looking his way and wouldn't have noticed.
"When are you meeting him?" Matt asked.
"Tonight," Lord Cox said.
"On a Sunday night? No lawyer will agree to that."
"It'll just be us."
"Let me come with you," Matt said. "I have enough legal knowledge to know if he's bluffing."
"Fine. We're meeting here." Lord Cox rubbed his forehead again. "If it weren't for my family…I don't know if I'd bother fighting."
"Why?" Patience blurted out. "You'll lose everything, Byron. The home you grew up in, your lands and tenants, your livelihood! Not to mention your reputation will be in tatters, and your friends will abandon you."
I was about to retort that true friends would rally around him, but I kept my mouth shut. Perhaps Lord Cox didn't have true friends who looked beyond his title. He certainly didn't leap to their defense. Indeed, he remained quiet. I'd never thought of him as middle-aged, with his smooth face and full head of blond hair, but in that moment, he looked every bit his forty-odd years.
Patience retreated into silence too, as if her outburst had never happened. Husband and wife didn't make eye contact.
I signaled to Matt that I wanted to speak to Patience alone. At least, I tried to signal to him. When he simply frowned at me when I jerked my head at the door, I winked. He still didn't understand, however, so I had to resort to a more obvious method.
"My lord, my husband has an interest in historical objects from the English civil war period," I said. "May he look at your coronet?"
Lord Cox blinked at Matt. "I would never have guessed you to be an enthusiast of English history. I'll fetch it."
Matt smiled and watched him leave.
"What about the civil war fascinates you?" Patience asked.
"Just the whole thing, really," Matt said. "The Royalists and the…"
"Roundheads," I filled in.
"Fascinating stuff."
I cleared my throat but Matt still didn't understand my hint and remained seated, a rather blank look on his face. It would be up to me to draw Patience away instead. She wouldn't speak openly if Matt were listening in.
"What a lovely clock," I said, moving to the mantel where a tortoise shell and gilt ormolu clock stood proudly in the center between two ornate gilt candlesticks. "Tell me all about it, Patience."
"I don't know anything about it," she said.
I held out my hand to her. "Then let me tell you what I know. It's in the style of Louis XIV but is a modern reproduction."
"You can tell that just from looking at it?" she said, joining me.
I took her hand and urged her to face the mantel with me, our backs to Matt. "I wanted to tell you something," I whispered. "Something between just us women."
She withdrew her hand. "If this is your way of apologizing for your meddling then…then I don't know if I'm ready to forgive you, India. I'm sorry. Perhaps one day."
"I'm not sorry that I helped him make up his mind to marry you," I said quietly. When she went to walk off, I grabbed her elbow and held tightly. "Listen to me, Patience. I want you to know that I'm not sorry because Matt's right. Lord Cox did really want to marry you. I knew it then, and I know it now. If there was no admiration on his part, no affection, I wouldn't have gone ahead with the blackmail."