Page 44 of The Duke and the Darkness

“So we ended their ability to harm anyone else. Horrender was a different matter, but he fled England before we could make him swing for what he’d done.” The familiar taste of acid formed in his mouth. “From that point on, Lucien and I dedicated ourselves to cleaning up after our fathers, to destroying the enterprise they’d built, and to hiding what we couldn’t destroy. We chopped up the businesses, destroyed records, and forged others to counter the ones we couldn’t destroy until we’d erased all traces of their illegal operations. Our fathers were both dead shortly after, and the last of the bad business was buried with them.”

He leaned forward, elbows on knees, and fixed his gaze on her through the shadows.

“You asked me why I would risk my family and all their love and happiness,” he reminded her. “Because it wasn’t enough to simply end their criminal enterprise. They’d ruined countless lives—including women and children—and restitution had to be made.Allthe restitution I could.”

He and Crewe had taken their own money to fund new lives for the innocents their fathers had hurt. Prostitutes were given new lives away from London. Low-level smugglers and thieves were given legitimate jobs. As for the children, those tore atDevlin’s heart the most, but he did what he could for them. Those who had family were reunited with their relatives, while orphans and foundlings were placed into domestic service or the navy if they were old enough and into kind homes for the youngest.

Most of all, Devlin had worked in secret to create Brechenhurst, a place of refuge for street children who had no safe place to spend their nights. He didn’t want them to fall prey to men like his father, so he used a large part of the money he’d inherited to found the place and keep it running. He’d named it after a mutilated mishmash of the German he’d learned while fighting with the Prussians.Brechen herz…broken heart.

Like his father’s crimes, it, too, had to remain secret.

“Why did my father risk everything?” Repeating her question, he settled back against the squabs, his gaze not leaving hers. “Because he was a cruel, selfish, heartless son of a bitch who wanted money and power at all costs, no matter whom he hurt to get it.”

For a long while she did nothing more than return his stare, her lips parted as she tried to fathom all he shared with her.

“And no one else knows?” she finally asked, her voice so soft it was nearly lost beneath the rumble of carriage wheels. “Not even your family?”

“No one but Crewe.” Not even Shay or Chase, both men who were as close as brothers to him. Not even Anthony Titus, the man in whom he’d confessed all his other secrets, who had left England for Spain during the final years of the wars and taken those secrets with him. “And now you.”

But she didn’t know all the gruesome details and never would.

“Then you need to tell them,” she urged, her voice suddenly bright with intensity. “You said that Horrender might havereturned. If their lives are in danger, then they need to be warned.”

“No.” He and Crewe would take this secret to their graves. He hoped Peyton would do the same. “Their lives would be destroyed, not ended.”

“Is that why you told me, then? Because my life is at an even greater risk than theirs?”

“No. I told you because you’re the same as Crewe and me. Part of the next generation who needs to atone for their fathers’ evils.”

She stiffened. “My father had nothing to do with this. Not like that.”

“He did.” He kept his attention on her hands, folded in her lap, to make certain she didn’t decide to reach for the gun in the cushion. “He was their third partner.”

She shook her head. “My father was a banker and accountant who—”

“Who knew exactly how to hide all their profits and make certain no money trails could ever be traced back to them. They couldn’t have built their business without his skills. That’s why Charles Chandler spent so much time with two dukes whom he would otherwise never have associated with.” He paused to make certain no pity was audible in his voice. “You know how society works. Bankers are middle-class. They work for a living, and high-ranking peers never sully themselves by associating with workers, even ones as successful as your father, and they would certainly never issue invitations to soirees at their homes to a banker’s family.”

She said nothing, simply continued to stare at him across the dark compartment as the shadows cast by the lamps swirled around them.

“You weren’t ignored by everyone the night of the musicale because you hadn’t yet been introduced to society,” he said asgently as possible, knowing how much the truth would hurt. “You were ignored because you were the daughter of a banker.”

Her eyes glistened in the darkness.

“The Dukes of Crewe and Dartmoor used your father the same way that lots of bankers were used during the early years of the wars, to help with smuggling and fencing goods. Lots of men did the same. High-powered and important men, and not just for illegal cognac either but for basic food stuffs, many of which were sold to the working classes. That’s how the three of them started. But when they brought in Horrender to oversee the day-to-day operations, their business became more than just smuggling. Horrender made their enterprise far-reaching across England and into France, which was why you were able to access the money your father hid there.” He faintly shook his head. “All those businesses and bank accounts, all that property purchased under false names and identities—how did you think it all got there if not through criminal means, in a country embroiled in war for the past two decades?”

“My father wasnota criminal.” But her voice lacked conviction.

He wisely knew not to argue with her. Not yet. Instead, he kept his face calm and his voice steady, and continued, “The night you were attacked, the carriage was purposefully ambushed by men lying in wait. Your father had threatened to speak out against Dartmoor and Crewe—they had finally done more than he could stomach—if they didn’t curtail their enterprise. The two dukes wanted to silence your father, but Horrender decided to use the attack as a message, to show everyone who dealt with him the lengths he would go to if anyone dared cross him. That’s how you and your mother were caught up in it.”

“My father wouldn’t have had anything to do with men like Horrender. He wouldn’t have entered any kind of business arrangement like that.”

Devlin had lost the argument before it had even begun. She’d believed him a villain for so long that she would never believe him about this.

So he would have to show her.

He pounded his fist against the ceiling to signal to the driver to stop. When the carriage slowed, he opened the door and stood up in the doorway to give new directions to the coachman, then dropped back into the seat across from her. He closed the door as the carriage started forward again, but instead of rolling on toward her townhouse, it turned toward the city.

“Where are we going?” she asked.