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“Then I advise you to go see her.”
Thomas squinted wearily at the grandfather clock by the door of his study. “At this hour?”
“Of course not at this hour, you supercilious fool. Tomorrow. First thing.”
Thomas sighed. “All right. I shall take care of it on the morrow. In the meantime, though, Lily, I need your help.”
26
“You can’t possibly think Viscount Polk is involved in any way in Papa’s death,” Lily said after Thomas filled her in.
“If I hadn’t found his journal entries, Lily, nor found Polk and Jonathan hanging around my study, I would not be entertaining the thought.”
“But Viscount Polk told you point-blank earlier this evening that all the disputes had been handled.”
“But what disputes?” Thomas rubbed his forehead, attempting to ease the throbbing. “Papa would have told me. I had my hands in all of the estate’s business. I was well prepared to?—”
“Thomas, this all happened shortly before Papa’s death. You’d just returned from the continent. Perhaps he hadn’t had a chance to bring you into it.”
“Don’t go any further, Lily. I feel guilty enough as it is. I should have seen this coming.”
“There’s no way you could have seen it coming. Cut yourself a little bit of slack, Thomas.”
“But this could be serious,” he said. “If there was some kind of border or water dispute… And then Papa ended up dead.…”
Lily shook her head. “What, did you think they were trying to take the estate? That’s ridiculous. You’re still here, Thomas. You’re the?—”
But then Lily gulped.
Clearly she’d just had the same thought he himself had.
He was the heir. But he had no heir of his own. What if his life was in danger next?
“None of this makes any sense,” Thomas said. “We’ve always had a good relationship with the Polks. At least I always thought we did.”
Lily nodded. “And Victor and Daniel have been friends for years. Decades, even.”
“I know.” Thomas paced around the study, his head feeling like someone was pounding nails into it. “Then there’s the other issue. Jonathan was with Polk when I found them skulking around the study…and the door was unlocked.”
Lily nodded. “Very true. How much do we even know about Uncle Pem and Jonathan? Just that they made money in gemstones in the Americas, and that Uncle Pem preceded Papa in death by a few months.” Lily’s eyes widened. “Now Jonathan is back, and the only thing standing in his way is…”
“Me,” Thomas said. “I’m the only thing standing in his way. If something happens to me, Jonathan is next in line to inherit the estate, become the next Earl of Ashford.”
“It would seem that is the case.”
Thomas scratched his chin. “But he has made it clear in no uncertain terms that he has no interest in the earldom, nor the responsibilities contained therewith.”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “I know you are not so naïve, Thomas, as to think that he might have just said that to you to misdirect you.”
Thomas rubbed at his forehead. “Damn it all. You could be right.”
“I think, brother, you’d better hope you put a babe in Tricia.”
“It’s doubtful, and even if I did, it may not be a boy.”
Lily stood and paced the study. “What I don’t understand is this. Why would the Polks…” She stopped and snapped her head back in Thomas’s direction. “Do you think they made some kind of deal with Jonathan? I could fetch Daniel. He knows much more about estate business than I do.”
Thomas shook his head quickly. “For the love of God, no. No one else needs to know about this. I shall approach the viscount again—along with Victor and Jonathan—on the morrow. I shall get to the bottom of this, Lily.”
