Page 91 of How to Tempt an Earl

“I would never tell them.”

“Ian says you know about his donations to the orphanages and the asylums.”

“I thought he donated to the Orphaned Children’s Relief Society because his mother was a member of the charity. Now I know the true reason.” As a child, Ian must have lived in fear of being sent away to one of those establishments.

“Did you know about the servants as well?”

Her head snapped up. “What of them?”

“Perhaps he hasn’t told you everything. Ask his housekeeper, Mrs. Smithson. She used to be one of our best croupiers.”

Of course! She’d thought the servants odd when she’d first arrived here. “Had they all been in difficult circumstances?”

“Many of them. It goes back to Ian’s past.”

“Why? What makes him do these things?”

“His past is what has forged him and made him the man he is today. Ian ended up as a bare-knuckle boxer. It wasn’t easy for him. He fought for years and spent more nights in pain than he did in comfort. He sees everything as black or white, never gray. But I know him better than anyone. He feels deeply and cares for you more than you believe.”

“He has a strange way of showing it. He is cold and indifferent toward me in the day. Only at night,” she said, blushing, “does he express emotion.”

“He’s afraid, you must see that now. He was rejected by his father and told he was worthless from the day of his birth. His mother was powerless to stop it and could not even prevent the betrothal to Madeline. Ian is afraid to love, but he is a man capable of great loyalty. The employees of the Raven can attest to this. Do not abandon him yet.”

“And the Raven Club?”

“You see the club as bad, but I’ve always seen it differently. The place gives you power to aid others. Do not let your father’s addictions turn a blind eye to all that it can do.”

After Brooks departed, Grace instructed Jenkins to summon Mrs. Smithson, and then hurried to the library.

She sat in the leather chair behind Ian’s desk and flipped through the ledgers until she came to the entries that had puzzled her when she’d first studied them. Initials. She’d thought they were for other charities, but now that she was looking at them, she realized they were initials of names.

Names of people he’d hired at the club.

A low knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. Mrs. Smithson swept inside. “You asked for me, my lady?”

“Were you employed at the Raven Club before coming here?” Grace asked without preamble.

“I was.”

“And all the other servants the earl hired?”

“All of the staff, but Jenkins.”

Of course, Grace recalled Ian saying the butler had come with the home. “Why?” Grace asked.

“We volunteered.”

“No. You misunderstand. Why would my husband hire from the club?”

“It’s what he does, my lady. He uses the Raven to rescue others. We were all in bad straits when Ian found us. My husband worked in the factory and when he died I found work in a local tavern, but it wasn’t enough to pay the rent. Lord Castleton found me and hired me to work the tables. I once overheard Brooks say that the Raven saved them both, and they decided to do the same for others.”

In some strange way, it made sense.

The club had offered refuge to many—employment, a way to make ends meet.

But how many had it destroyed?

Her own father? She had to acknowledge the likelihood that eventually he would have met the same fate. If not for Ian taking him under his watch at the Raven Club, perhaps things would have come to a head even sooner. Nothing she could have done would have stopped it. She knew it deep in her bones.