“Necessary?” Darcy snapped. “They might have killed her!”
Matlock sighed in disgust. “Stop it, Darcy. What would you have had me do? Tip our hand too soon? Frighten them into silence before we had enough to act?” He shook his head. “It is easy for you to be indignant now, but I have spent months—years—ingratiating myself to those two-faced diplomats for the crown, setting traps to catch them in a way that will destroy them for good. And you are standing here now, about to ruin all of it because you have allowed your emotions to overtake your judgment.”
Darcy’s breath was ragged. His emotions? His judgment? He forced his fists to unclench, his chest heaving with the effort to steady himself. “Then tell me, Uncle,” he said through gritted teeth, “are your traps working? Have you caught them? Have you ensured that this will not happen again?”
Matlock was silent.
Darcy laughed bitterly. “No? Then forgive me if I do not offer you my congratulations.”
“Enough,” Gardiner cut in, his own voice tight with emotion. “You may squabble about strategies all you like, but my niece is upstairs recovering from this nightmare. I want to know—what is being done now?”
Darcy turned back to his uncle, his anger still simmering. “Yes, Uncle. What is being done?”
Matlock exhaled sharply. “What is being done is what must be done. The election concludes in mere days.Thatis our priority.”
“Hang the election!” Darcy burst out. “Stanton can take the whole bloody thing!Thisismypriority.”
The room grew unnervingly still, the unspoken words lingering in the air between them. Then Richard and the earl exchanged a glance. Richard cleared his throat. “Darcy, we did not mean to tell you in quite this way, but...”
The earl cut in. “Stanton has close ties to the French smugglers.”
Darcy froze. “What?”
The earl nodded. “I have known for nearly a year. He has been a link—one of many, no doubt—between the 'diplomats' and the men hiding escaped prisoners all over the country. My men confirmed it, and I placed informants to watch him. The original plan was to ruin him politically—to build up enough evidence and then expose him at the precise moment that would make him untouchable in polite society.”
Richard crossed his arms. “But then something changed.”
Matlock nodded grimly. “Yes. Stanton caught wind of our interest in him. He severed certain ties, cleaned up his trail. It is not enough to prove his innocence—he is guilty, and we know it—but it is enough that I cannot expose him the way I intended. Not yet. Not unless we can tie him directly to the smuggling operation in a way that cannot be dismissed as circumstantial.”
Darcy inhaled sharply, his mind working. “And you thought… what? That I could remove him by winning the election? Nice and clean, eh?”
Matlock gave him a sharp look. “Youwillremove him by winning the election. At all costs, Darcy, hemustnot win the seat.”
Darcy turned away, bracing his hands against the desk. His shoulders rose and fell, frustration clawing at his ribs. He wanted to argue. To insist that there had to be another way.
But he already knew what his uncle would say.
Without control of the seat, they could not be sure Stanton would not wield influence in the future. If they let him remain, unchallenged, even now, it would be impossible to remove him later.
Darcy snorted and scrubbed his hands over his face. His rage had not dimmed, but reason forced itself over his emotions. Slowly, he turned back. “So be it,” he said flatly. “What is the next step?”
His uncle relaxed slightly. “There is a regular gathering of prominent gentlemen at Jonathan’s Coffee House on Wednesday mornings. You have most of the necessary votes, but not all. We need to secure the final support.”
“And I suppose you expect me to smile and be charming?”
“You need to ensure they are confident in their choice,” Matlock corrected. “You cannot appear as a man embroiled in scandal. We will let certain things be known after the election is won. Until then, this matter remains between us.”
Darcy’s jaw clenched, but he nodded once.
“Good,” Matlock said, his tone final. “Then you will be at Jonathan’s tomorrow morning.”
Darcy sighed. “Very well.”
Matlock studied him for a long moment. “And Darcy?”
Darcy looked up.
His uncle’s voice softened—just slightly. “Iwillsee to it that they pay for what they have done to Miss Bennet.”
