Page 19 of The Devil Himself (The Devil You Know #1)

Eighteen

T hey all went their separate ways after breakfast, Julian to spread the word of his “upcoming engagement” to Hannah.

Luc to his clubs to make bets in the books and to chat up the idea that Daffyd and Arthur would be out of the marquess’s house, and fortune, once Julian was in it.

And Rys went to his club, his arm aching a bit, his temper uneven.

He truly wanted nothing more than to take a lazy day in bed with Luc, and he resented not being able to. Which was dangerous, was it not?

He did not live that sort of life. He was a man of business with a complex club to run and more interests to tend besides.

“Ah, he did decide to come to work today.” Harris met him at his office with a pot of strong coffee and a cup, smiling a decidedly wicked smile.

“Do not be more of an arse than you must be, Harris,” Rys grumbled.

“Awoke on the wrong side of the bed, did you?” Harris’s eyebrows went up in exaggerated sympathy. “I would have thought home life was lovely these days.”

“Stabbed when I tried to leave the house yesterday.” He had not told Harris that in the message he had sent stating he would not be into the club the previous day. Just in case the message went astray.

“What?” Now Harris scowled, immediately coming to his side. “What happened. Do I need to look at it?”

“No, no. Angelsey did, and it’s just a scratch. Annoying more than anything. But this is getting out of hand.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Run the club.” Rys sighed. “I have to deal with my damnable brothers. I need to catch them up at something I can prove. Something to get them jailed or transported.”

“And you’ve talked to the bankers? The ones who know how much money of your nephew’s your brothers must be spending?”

He made a face. “Right now, they’re mostly spending on credit.

That and telling everyone who will listen they will soon come into money.

” He tapped his fingers while he thought hard.

“Daffyd intends to force Hannah into marriage, I believe. He can just take her and run for the border. Or try to hold the children against her.” He grinned at Harris.

“We’ve put about the idea that Warrington intends to get there first.”

Harris broke out laughing. “Good God, man. You’ve put a target on his back.”

“I think he can take care of himself.”

He got a remembering sort of smile. “If anyone can, it is Julian.”

That was quite the statement for Harris. He had not realized his second in command knew Warrington so well. “At any rate, Hannah is at his aunt’s, just so you know in case something happens. I want them cared for.”

“Of course.” Harris sat across from his desk. “What of their creditors?”

“Deacon Collingsworth is the biggest one. He’s already offered to let me buy the vowels.” But did he want to hold Daffyd’s IOUs? Would it be necessary? “Arthur is far more fond of the copper hells and jewelry for his mistress.”

“Hmm.” Harris nodded. “Do we know the mistress’s name?”

“Yes.” He pulled out the sheets of foolscap he’d used to note down all the information. He handed them over to Harris.

“Has she been watched?”

“She has, but beyond saying Arthur has been talking about the money he’ll get, she’s said nothing to the men who questioned her.”

“I can get more than that.” Harris nodded, mouth set. “I need you back here all of the time, dammit. So we need to get this mess cleaned.”

“Good man. This is all coming to a head. Just be safe. I don’t need to be nursing you back to health and running the club among all the other nonsense.” Rys slapped his hand on the desk. “This is why I do not associate with my family.”

“They do seem to be more trouble than they warrant.” Harris rolled his eyes, but he was laughing.

They were trouble, indeed. Luc was the one who was worth all of his worry and fighting with his feelings.

“What of the club?” Rys said, needing to work. To have some normalcy.

Harris chuckled. “The usual. Lord Jameson’s son ran up a very large note two nights ago, which will be handy when it comes to pushing his vote in the House of Lords.”

“Ah good. Good man.” Contrary to what many thought of him, Rys did not often call in markers for favors.

But there were a few things he felt strongly enough about that when they came up for vote in the house, he wanted people on his side.

The rookeries deserved better than they got, as far as cleanliness and care for women and children, as well as education.

He’d seen what poverty did on a dearly personal level when his family had sent him away.

“What else?”

Harris began an account of the last week or so, and they settled in so that they could work.

The rest could wait while their plan was pushed into motion.

Luc lounged in the study at Rys’s townhome, reviewing his accounts. He’d just met with his man of affairs, who had caught him up on his business, and had brought him letters from his son.

He’d made sure his son was under heavy guard, just in case, though Damien didn’t truly know it. Still, it hardly hurt to check in and make sure.

Of course, he knew that at some point this, whatever it was, between he and Rys would most likely end, and he would wind up home alone once more, but right now, he was luxuriating in being here.

He wanted this thing between them to continue just as it was, although, if it did, they would have to find a way to split their time between his home, Rys’s townhome, and the club, he supposed.

Luc was just about to see what might be about for luncheon when a furious pounding set up at the front door.

He hadn’t even realized that Rys had a knocker on the front door at the moment; he didn’t think the man was open to guests, but Jarvis, the butler, glided serenely across the floor to open it as Luc watched from the doorway of the parlor.

“I want to see him now!” The shout came from Rys’s brother, Daffyd, who was red in the face, his cravat askew. And he was possibly drunk, although Luc wasn’t sure. It was more something he saw than something he smelled.

“I’m sorry, sir. Lord Rys is from home,” Jarvis drawled out.

“I went to his damnable club, and they said he was not there, so he must be here. I demand to see him immediately.”

Jarvis drew himself up, his back incredibly stiff, practically vibrating with disapproval. “I cannot help you. He is from home.”

Daffyd tried to push past Jarvis but was rebuffed easily, which was surprising considering how old the butler looked.

Daffyd did happen to see Luc standing there watching him, and he knew that he had a slight smile on his face, perhaps even a smirk because Daffyd was being ever so carefully handled by Rys’s butler.

“You! What have you done with Hannah?”

Luc raised an eyebrow, hoping that he allowed no other expression to show on his face. “I haven’t done anything with her. I don’t know what you’re talking about, Daffyd.”

“Yes, you do. You are in on this. You’ve always been exceptionally righteous.”

Now he allowed his lips to quirk as well. “In on what precisely?” He knew he was proper for the sake of his son, but righteous? Hardly.

“This whole ridiculous plot to marry her off to Warrington! I know it was your man of affairs who ruined the sale of the abbey as well.”

“It was. And how is Jules and Hannah ridiculous? She needs to remarry in order to keep her son’s inheritance safe, and Julian is a second son with no real title of his own.

It’s a courtesy title that his brother’s second son will no doubt take on when he dies.

So it’s a perfect match.” He kept his voice light and amused.

“If anyone is to marry Hannah, it will be me,” Daffyd snarled.

Now he took a few steps forward, his tone instructive. “Oh, I think that would be terribly unwise, Daffyd. We all know that you’re a danger to young Gareth.”

Daffyd’s already florid face went almost purple, and he looked as if he might have an apoplexy. “I would never harm that boy.”

“No? You’ve already spent a great deal of his money, and ever since he came under Rys’s protection, things have been happening.

I was shot outside of Rys’s club. Rys was stabbed right here on the street in front of his house.

Do you expect me to believe you know nothing about any of that? ” He crossed his arms, waiting.

Daffyd tried to push past Jarvis again and was again denied entry. He was practically foaming at the mouth. “What are you accusing me of? I would never actually hurt Gareth.”

“I see. So gambling his money at the club and allowing Arthur access to it to spend on his mistress and his horses… That’s not harming him?

And what is this plan you have in a sennight or so?

” Luc kept his tone even, albeit with a snide undertone to it.

He preferred not to be accused of fanning the flames here. At least not in any provable way.

“I’ll call you out for this,” Daffyd blustered.

“Well, my only reply to that can be that dueling is illegal, as you well know, but you must do as you feel. I would remind you, however, that while you may be a dab hand with a hunting rifle, I am exceptional with the brace of dueling pistols. I’ve never missed a target, even as a small boy.

” Daffyd had seen him at target practice more than once.

Daffyd narrowed his eyes and stabbed a finger in the air at him. “I will see you ruined for this.”

He allowed his eyes to narrow. “Do your damnedest, Daffyd, but remember that Rys is not a gentleman anymore, and he does not need to play by your rules. If I were you and Arthur, I would be very, very careful.”

“I will find her,” Daffyd snapped, then turned on his heel and strode down the stairs. “And then all of this will be for naught.” He slammed into his carriage and pounded on the roof, shouting for his driver to make haste.

Jarvis looked at him with wide eyes. “Do you think he’s going to do something to try to hurt Lord Rys again?”

“I think he’s going to apply himself to finding Hannah,” Luc murmured. “But I shall send a message off to Rys, nonetheless, and let him know that Daffyd has stopped by.”

He had a feeling that the brothers were getting incredibly desperate.

Whatever self-imposed timeline they had put on themselves was being sent askew by Rys, Luc, and Julian’s actions, and they were moving from rash, inopportune actions to truly erratic and frightening.

Which might work in their favor as long as they were prepared for every eventuality.

“That is probably wise, my lord. I will be happy to provide you with a lad to take the message to the club.”

“Good man. I will go dash off that note, and then perhaps I will go to my clubs to see what news.”

“Oh, please, my lord, I beg you to exercise caution. You’ve already been shot. I don’t want you to get hurt again, and I know that Lord Rys would be most put out should that happen.” Jarvis’s expression didn’t change, but his tone held great worry.

“Ah, well, knowing that warms the cockles of my heart, but I think perhaps we’re going to have to start acting more quickly. Those two brothers are going to be in a great deal of trouble in a very short order.”

“Yes, my lord. I understand. I’ll go get someone to run the note to the club.”

Luc dashed off a note to Rys explaining what had happened before he went upstairs to assume more appropriate attire.

As he descended the stairs once more, he heard yet another knocking on the door, although this sounded almost jaunty.

He would be willing to bet that it was Julian returning for whatever reason.

Jarvis exercised far more caution opening the door this time, cracking it and peering out before he opened it all the way. “Lord Warrington, are you here for luncheon as well?”

Julian beamed at Jarvis. “Would that I were. But, on the contrary, I’m here to take Fitz out to lunch at the club and then to his house so that he can find a serviceable evening kit to wear tonight.”

Luc raised an eyebrow. “Why is it that I will need my evening wear?”

“Because we’re going to a ball tonight,” Julian said with relentless cheer, slapping his gloves against his thigh.

“Good God. Why on earth would we do that?” Luc did not miss the social grind one bit, being the widower with a solitary but healthy heir, he had no reason to be out among the Ton, and he heartily approved of that fact.

“Because I was just at White’s, and there was a great deal of speculation about how I kidnapped Hannah and how Arthur was going to save her. Some of the remarks in the betting book were quite savage and rather disgusting.”

“Really. Arthur and not Daffyd?” Damnation, he didn’t want to sully Hannah’s reputation if that were possible, but at the same time, he needed her to be safe, and he knew that Rys wanted the same thing.

“Indeed. However, I also have the news that Arthur will be attending Lord Beechwood’s ball tonight. Something about a game of cards he intends to cheat through to try to gain some ready coin.”

“And how does that affect us?” Luc asked.

Julian’s eyes twinkled, and his grin widened. “Why, I intend to challenge him to a duel, of course, over Hannah’s honor.”

Luc sat back on his heels at that, head tilting as he pondered the implications.

He had just refused a duel from Daffyd, but Julian would have every right to challenge Arthur over Hannah’s honor.

If Arthur was the kind of coward he thought the man was, the challenge would be an easy way to get the fellow to flee to the continent to avoid it, thus leaving them with only one brother to deal with.

“Very well. Let us off to the club and then on to get my evening wear so I can see if I even have an invitation to the ball waiting for me.” His man of affairs never bothered to bring social invitations with his correspondence.

“Oh, my friend, there is nowhere that I couldn’t get you in, and you know it.” Julian clapped him on the back as Luc joined him fully in the foyer.

Jarvis rolled his eyes. “I assume this means I need to send another message to Lord Rys?”

“Looks like the footmen are going to be getting their fill of exercise today,” Luc agreed.

“I shall let him know where you are and what you are about.”

“Thank you. Obviously, we won’t be needing dinner tonight.” Luc winked, and he and Jules swept out to Julian’s carriage.

He might hate to go out and about, but this turn of events he wouldn’t miss for the world. Not with what Julian was planning.