Page 64 of The Duchess and the Beast
“From who!?” He pressed down harder until the man’s face began to turn purple.
“Everybody!” he coughed and gagged. “You are a Duke! People talk – I was in that village down the road earlier—” He wheezed under the pressure on his neck. “It’s all the chat there. Please!”
Sebastian growled at the little man. He gave him a look that told him that if there was even a breath of lie in his sentence, he would not hesitate to rip out his larynx from his throat. Sebastian had a reputation, Justine was more than aware of said reputation, and it was moments like this one that reminded him of it.
“All right.” Suddenly, Sebastian released him. “I believe you.”
“Cristo!” Justine gasped as he slid off the table and collapsed onto the floor, hacking and coughing violently. He pounded on his chest, trying to catch his breath. “That the way you treat guests,hermano?”
“You are no guest,” Sebastian replied icily as he moved back around the table and retook his seat. “Not until your involvement in this ordeal is exonerated.”
“Still...” He coughed again; choking up phlegm and then swallowing it. “TheRoyal Butcherindeed.” He remained standing, half-turned as if he meant to flee.
“Please...” Sebastian offered the chair again.
Justine curled his nose. “You are not planning to attack me again, are you?”
“Not unless you give me a reason to.”
Justine chuckled coldly and took the seat. But he scraped it back a little from the escritoire, readying to jump and run if it came to it.
“So, my wife,” Sebastian started. “What did you hear?”
“Just that she was poisoned,” Justine said with a sneer. “Dreadful business. Half that village is speakin’ of it. They think it was you who did it, though.” He chortled. “From what just happened, however, I get the sense the rumors are quite unfounded.”
“What do you think?” he snarled.
Justine grinned. “Now, I think that you want me to find out who done it. Correct? That is why I’m here, no? Certainly isn’t so you can show off your winning hospitality.”
“You were always sharp,” Sebastian muttered wryly. “But only half right. I don’t want you to find out who did it. I want you to follow the man who I suspect is behind it. Follow him, gather evidence of his actions, and bring it to me. I'll… handle the rest.”
“You know who did it?” Justine raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
“I think I do.”
He chuckled. “And this man is still breathing? My, you really have reformed.”
It was only a theory. Had Sebastian been certain of the identity of Virtue's poisoner, the culprit would not still be drawing breath, as Justine had so bluntly put it. Months ago, such knowledge would have yielded the same outcome. Previously, Sebastian's notorious temper and impetuous nature might have led him to exact swift retribution without a thorough investigation.
Things were different now. His marriage to Virtue had changed him, calmed him, made him more willing to see reason where once he would scarcely have bothered with such a thing. It was funny what love could do to a man.
All that was to say that if he was proven correct... theRoyal Butchermight make a return, if only for a solitary evening. And, despite the gravity of such a return, he felt it might well be warranted.
“So, what is the name of this…miscreant?” Justine asked.
“Remember,” Sebastian instructed, his voice firm and authoritative. “You are to merely shadow him. You are not to engage him, approach him, or take any action without explicit direction—”
“Yes, yes, of course,” he waved Sebastian down. “Who do you think you are speaking to? I am a man of love, not war. Now, pray tell, who is the gentleman?”
Sebastian paused, the weight of his next words palpable in the dimly lit room. Once spoken, there could be no retractions. “Lord Prescott, my wife’s ex-betrothed.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Ishall be fine,” Virtue insisted in a gentle tone that belied her frailty. “You really needn’t worry.”
“I implored him to come and meet me here,” Sebastian explained. “But he was adamant that we meet halfway.”
“Which is only fair.”