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“There’s is something wrong about this whole situation.” He pressed a finger to his abdomen. “I can feel it in my gut.”
“Are you certain it is not because you are now penniless?”
“I’m not damn well penniless. I do not know how that rumor started,” he muttered.
“It must have been upsetting to be cut from the will,” she said so softly and sympathetically that he almost wished to agree with her just so she could rub a soothing hand over his shoulders or perhaps press a little kiss to his cheek.
Blake scowled. What had happened to him? Was this what maturity looked like? Wishing for soft touches and little kisses? Dear Lord, he was practically readying himself for the grave.
“I was not upset,” he snapped. “I did not—do not need the money. However, I know my aunt did not intend for it all to go to one man, most especially one none of us even knew of.”
“It must have been a shock.”
“It was, but that’s beside the point.” He scowled. He hadn’t anticipated having to persuade her that his instincts were right about Foster. He knew it, deep within his soul. “There is something untoward about him. I have had a private investigator look into him and it seems he is known to consort with the owners of that gaming hell. That’s why I was there.”
“I see.” She pursed her lips. “He would not be the first man to spend time in a gaming hell nor the last.”
“Well, he met with them recently. He appears to be closely acquainted with the men there and it strikes me as odd. He is so keen to be accepted into society—why spend time with such men?”
“He owed them money perhaps?”
“And he will be meeting them again next week.”
“How do you know all this?”
“A woman told me.”
Her posture tightened. “A woman of a certain sort perhaps?”
“She was right about the first meeting,” he pointed out.
“And I presume you paid her for this information?”
“Naturally.”
“So she could simply be lying to you to gain your coin.”
“I am not so easily lied to.”
She snorted. “Put an attractive woman in front of a man and their wits are usually addled to blancmange.”
“My wits are entirely stable, believe me.”
“I am simply saying, she might be trying to make something out of nothing.” She shrugged. “You would not be the only one who has paid for false information.”
She said this as though she had knowledge of the same sort of exchange he’d partaken in with the whore, but he could not fathom how a woman like Demeter would be involved in any such situation. No, he was seeing too much into this. He had to concentrate.
“I witnessed the meeting. No money exchanged hands so I cannot see that it was him paying back his debts. Nor did they threaten him.” He shook his head. Following his cousin to the meeting place by the docks had been frustrating to say the least. He’d been unable to hear anything said or figure anything out from what he’d witnessed.
“I’m still not certain what you want with me.”
“I want you to come to the next meeting with me and read his lips.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “Read his lips?”
“My instincts say he is up to something and I want to know what.”
“Could you not just ask him?” She cocked her head. “In my experience, most people do not really wish to keep secrets. Perhaps he is in some sort of trouble and could do with a friendly ear.”
