“There you are,” Lord Redfield said as Nathan stepped out the back door of the townhouse and onto the marble steps that led down to the garden. “I have been waiting for you all evening.”
“I didn’t come here just to meet with you,” Nathan said coolly. “I had other duties to attend to as well.”
“Like dancing with your wife?” Lord Redfield looked annoyed, his face red and sweaty from anxiety. “I saw you wasting time dancing with her.”
“Yes,” Nathan said, and he saw Redfield shrink back at the force of his word. “Like dancing with my wife. There is no task that is more important to me than making sure she is happy. A clandestinely meeting with you at her cousin’s ball iscertainlylower on the list.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Redfield mumbled, looking down. “I’m just nervous.”
“Yes, you said so in your letter.”
Nathan hadn’t been entirely honest with Rosalie about his reasons for attending the ball. Of course, he knew it was expected of him, and he had been more excited than he cared to admit at the thought of dancing with his wife, but there was also this other, secret reason.
The morning of the ball, he had received a note from Lord Redfield, who had also returned to England, saying that there had been an urgent development in the ‘project’ they were embarking on together and asking to meet him in the gardens outside the Viscount’s ball in order to discuss it.
“You could have just written to me about the urgent matter, you know,” Nathan said as he descended the stairs with Redfield.
“And leave a paper trail of our plans?!” Redfield looked shocked. “Absolutely not. The authorities are already keeping a close eye on me because of my father’s criminal enterprises, and I cannot be sure they aren’t searching my mail. No, no, I would rather discuss this in person.”
“Then we could have met at my club,” Nathan suggested, annoyed despite himself. He didn’t like the idea of discussing the opium business at the home of Rosalie’s cousin. If there was any sort of scandal, it would then involve her entire family, and he couldn’t bear to cause her family any more pain than they’d already been through.
Not to mention that if Redfield had found them out and realized they actually had no intention of investing in his business, he didn’t want that to occur when Rosalie was present.
Better to insulate her from that confrontation, especially because I don’t know what Redfield is capable of. His father was certainly capable of the worst crimes. The son might be capable of harming Rosalie, too.
But they were here now, and he was going to use the situation to his advantage.
Which meant leading Redfield as far away from the house, and Rosalie, as was possible.
“I don’t want to discuss something so sensitive at White’s where anyone might overhear us,” Redfield grumbled. “Anyway, I’m not even sure I could get into White’s. They revoked my father’s membership, and my name still carries suspicion.”
Nathan almost snorted.With good reason. But he kept silent because he was still playing the part of the criminal partner.
At last, they were in the gardens, and the large trees just inside the hedged-in area provided cover for them. The darkness was complete; no one would see them.
“So, what was so urgent that you had to have me meet you here?” Nathan asked, folding his arms as he glowered at the Viscount.
Redfield, however, was still looking around nervously.
“Are you sure no one can hear us?” he whispered. “Maybe we should move further into the gardens?”
“You’re not very courageous for an opium dealer,” Nathan observed, but he sighed and let the Viscount lead him deeper into the garden until they were standing near a fountain that was bubbling gently.
Exasperated, Nathan turned to Redfield. “Nowcan we talk?”
Redfield turned to face him, and all at once, the scared, anxious look on his face slipped away, replaced by a cool, calm confidence. The change was so sudden and so unexpected that Nathan blinked and took a step back. A steely look had come into Redfield’s eyes, and fear suddenly snaked its way up Nathan’s spine.
Something is going on. Something I don’t understand.
“Yes, we can talk now,” Redfield said, and his voice had taken on a stronger, deeper quality. “We can talk about how the Beast of Carramere is every bit as wretched as the rumors say.”
“What?” Nathan was so taken aback that he didn’t manage anything more articulate and just gaped at the Viscount.
“You want to invest in the opium trade! You want to distribute an illegal and highly addictive drug that will sap what few coins the peasant folk have and leave them ruined and even more impoverished than they already are. I must say, when I first became aware that there were opium dealings going on in my land, I thought for sure it must have been my father’s work. But I was shocked when I realized that the place it must be coming from wasyourduchy. I knew that you were ruthless, but I didn’t expect the cousin of the Duke of Attorton to be so morally bankrupt that he would partake in theopiumtrade.”
“What are you talking about?” Nathan demanded. “You’rethe one running the opium trade! I was only offering to become an investor!”
Lord Redfield laughed, a cold, harsh sound. “Do you think you can still fool me? That I bought that little show you and your wife put on? I know that the men working on opium on my lands are already working for you. You only came to me to try and legitimize the business in my eyes and make a profit off of me. And why? Because my father was a criminal and a scoundrel, I must be one as well? If that’s what you thought, you were very much mistaken! I am going to right the wrongs my father perpetrated, and that begins with putting you away behind bars.”
