We were the same.
I could barely catch my breath. “Why did you not rob me then? You could have had my horse and my purse.”
“The horse could have been traced back to me. Besides, I had already been stealing from you, and I could not have you find out.”
I stilled. “The failed investments.”
He nodded. “One or two were real, but for the most part, I never invested the money. I changed the bank routes and pocketed the funds.”
My arms felt limp at my sides. “Mercy, Briggs. What kind of debts do you have?”
His pale skin turned a shade of green. “You have no idea.”
“I think I can imagine,” I muttered. “So, you had to kill me.”
“I changed your will. You were to leave me a small inheritance.”
I moaned, my hand coming up to my mouth. How had I let myself be so deceived? How could I ever trust myself to judge another man again? “Why didn’t you try to kill me again when I returned?”
“I am not a murderer,” he said. “I tried to be, but that night in the alley, I stopped those men before they finished you off. It’s true, I hoped you would die of your wounds, but I washed my hands of your fate.”
“And when I returned?”
He lowered his gaze. “It was easier to want to do away with you when you were selfish and conceited. When you returned, you were vastly changed. You wanted to be my friend.” He said the last like it was the worst circumstance imaginable.
I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat. “I did.”
He shook his head. “Do you know how that tortured me? Instead of wanting to eliminate you, my guilt destroyed me. First, you overpaid me. Then you gifted me money. Have tea, you said. Be careful of the storm, you said. I trust you, you said.” His face screwed up in visible pain. Then he lowered his head to the floor. “I cannot face my wife and children. The guilt is killing me, anyway, my lord. I beg you. Finish it, and put me out of my misery.”
I shook my head. For months, I had waited for another attack. I had startled over shadows and held a knife to an innocent woman’s throat. Never in a million years had I expected this scene before me. “Are you still stealing from me?”
He did not raise his head and spoke into the carpet. “No, your lordship. I set the will back to rights too. The last investment was my way of refilling your coffers. It failed in its own right. It was my last hope for redemption. Forgive me. I wish I could go back and change everything. I despise myself for what I have done.
“Is this why my detective never found you? Did you ever even pay the man?”
He ducked his head. “Only to oversee specific tasks I approved.”
I swallowed my disgust. “And the clues around the estate? The cold fire the guards found? The camp?”
“Meant to distract you. I cannot be sorrier.”
I breathed out slowly. What was I to do? Estelle was gone, and now Briggs had betrayed me. And I was an even greater fool than I was yesterday. I stalked the perimeter of my office, my hand massaging my brows. My loathing for gambling multiplied. What sort of ruthless obsession with winning and money led a man to steal and to take another man’s life? I pulled up short.
That same ruthless obsession had had a choke hold on me not that long ago. But even at my lowest, I never would have stooped to that level.
I marched to Briggs’s side. “Get up, Briggs,” I growled.
“My lord?” His head lifted a fraction.
Choices had consequences, as I well knew. “Briggs, you are dismissed from my employment, effective immediately.”
He gave a grave nod.
“As for your trial,” I began, but something in his eye made me hesitate. Again, I saw a glimpse of myself in him—friendless, tortured, and empty inside. My bluster waned. A thousand times I had wondered if it would have been better for me to die so some other good-hearted man could have lived instead.
Why me? Why had I been granted a second chance? Maybe it was because of the cottage hospital. Maybe it was because my family did not need two men in their lives to mourn. Or perhaps . . . it was to prove to myself my own worth.
The light from the window splayed across Briggs’s face, and I was reminded of all the potential I had seen in him since we’d met—as a businessman, as a father, as a friend. Instead of seeing the man who had betrayed me, I saw his worth.
