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“Well, bringing either her or my wife wasn’t exactly in my plans, but these women are stubborn.”
Jarvis nodded. “Thank you, Payne. You didn’t have to help me.”
Payne shook his head. “Nonsense.”
“And neither did you.” Jarvis turned to Gunning.
“That is true,” the thief-taker agreed.
Jarvis snorted. Fare enough. “What did you promise him? In return for my release.”
Gunning shifted in his seat. “To find the actual murderer of that woman during the Kensington masquerade.”
Jarvis frowned. “And how do you plan on doing that?”
Gunning cleared his throat. “I was hoping you would help me. Perhaps enlist Kensington’s help. Do you know why Hades took you instead of someone else?”
Jarvis raised a brow. “Didn’t he tell you?”
The thief-taker shrugged. “He told us the witnesses reported that you’d disappeared throughout half the ball and appeared back only when the body was discovered.”
“Witnesses?” Jarvis frowned.
“Yes, I do not know who he was alluding to.”
“And that’s all? Just me leaving for a while during a ball?” Jarvis’s anger rose.
It could have been anyone. Jarvis had left during the ball. And any person with a grudge against him could have pointed a finger. Only he had no idea who that someone might be.
“Yes. Or at least that’s all he told us. The evidence seemed pretty thin to me, too. To capture a peer based on such evidence is madness,” Gunning replied.
“Well, he seemed pretty mad,” Payne interjected.
“She must have been very important to him,” Olivia said.
Jarvis cleared his throat. “She was his sister.”
“Sister?” Gunning asked. “Are you certain? Because I’ve heard rumors.”
Jarvis shrugged. “That’s what he said.”
“Well, then I can definitely understand his desperation,” the thief-taker said. “Did he tell you anything else? Something to indicate why he took you?”
Jarvis lowered his gaze to the floor.Yes, the invitation to the ball with my name on it.“No,” he finally answered. “He did not.”
“Well, I have to find whoever did it, or I do not fancy what will happen to me.”
Jarvis nodded. “I shall help you. Any way I can.”
“Good. Because I am going to need it.”
Just then, the carriage stopped.
“Gunning, it’s your stop,” Payne said.
Gunning nodded, said his farewells, and exited the vehicle.
“Thank you for coming for me,” Jarvis told Payne once the carriage lurched into motion again.
