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“Huh.”
Das still didn’t look up. Joshua paced back to the fire, tossed on another log, enjoyed the shower of sparks, the leap of flames.
“Birmingham, then. Everything always makes sense in Birmingham. I haven’t enough to do in London.”
“This is not a good time to leave London, I’m afraid.”
“Don’t you tell me that I oughtn’t leave Mrs. DeWitt. She is perfectly capable of looking after herself, and she has no more need of me than I have of her, and quite frankly, we have coexisted perfectly well for the past two years and everything was highly satisfactory until she came along and disrupted everything.”
“A legal action has been brought against you. By Lord Bolderwood.”
Joshua glanced at the papers in Das’s hand. Das rose to his feet, lips pinched, unusually tense.
“This still about that stupid Baltic thing?”
“No, sir. Lord Bolderwood is suing you for criminal conversation.”
* * *
Das wasan articulate fellow and he expressed himself well and it was not a particularly complicated sentence, but it was one of those sentences where the words made sense individually but the meaning of the whole eluded his brain. Joshua ran it back in his mind to see if he understood.
Criminal conversation. Adultery. Still his brain rebelled. Yes, he was no innocent. Yes, there were four gentlemen in London who could make that charge, if they cared to, but they didn’t, because they had reached that stage of marriage where they allowed their wives to make a choice, and Joshua had made sure of that beforehand, because the forbidden held no lure for him, whereas efficiency and good planning did.
“Congress with Lord Bolderwood’s wife?” he finally said.
Das shifted uncomfortably. “That’s what makes the said ‘conversation’ criminal.”
“This is ludicrous. He’s suing me for sleeping with Lady Bolderwood?” Fair hair—Knowing smirk—Sly eyes—Unpleasant—Joyless. “I never touched the woman.”
“He is seeking damages of fifty thousand pounds for the, ah…” Das consulted the wording. “The, and I quote, ‘unauthorized use of his property’.”
“Insolent pup. I wouldn’t, quote, ‘use’ his, quote, ‘property’ even if I were, quote, ‘authorized’. Even if I werepaidfifty thousand.”
Bolderwood had been much too prominent in his life recently. Punching him in St. James over some nonsense about his wife. That wife flitting about like a gnat at Featherstone’s party. Isaac’s warning of impending revenge.
Ah.
“They’ve been planning this a while,” he said.
He paced, thinking properly now; Das, as always, the calm in his storm.
“This is…” He snapped his fingers, spun around, clapped his hands. “Yes, that’s what this is. He lost the money, needed more, desperate to get it, blamed me—How bad is his situation, did you find out?”
“Bad. Debts somewhere in the area of thirty thousand, including honor debts and moneylenders.”
“Awards in crim. con. cases have been getting higher. There was that case a couple of weeks ago.”
“That chap Evans was ordered to pay damages of twenty thousand to Lord Oliver over his affair with Lady Oliver.”
“Evans cannot afford that but I can. And I have a reputation. And I’m a wealthy upstart who doesn’t stay where he belongs, and the jury could take offense at that.”
The flowers on his desk eyed him accusingly. Only yesterday, Cassandra had rearranged them with those competent hands, while she spoke of pleasure and joy.
“This is disgusting,” he said. “Disgusting, despicable, and distasteful.”
“The court hearing is in two weeks.”
“That soon.” He paced again, thinking, calculating, disbelieving. “How does this idiot think he’s going to get away with it? A trial means presenting evidence, and there will be no evidence because it never bloody well happened.”
