Page 85 of Duke in Darkness

CHAPTER 20

G abriel pushed his breakfast plate to one side, his stomach surely about to burst from the amount of food he had shoveled in. Coddled eggs, sliced rare beef, sautéed potatoes, kippers, toasted bread and butter…

He’d consumed enough to feed half a regiment. Yet he’d needed it after last night, when his need for Lili had been insatiable, and she had wrapped herself around him, pleading, urging him for more, not just showing him she cared with her body, but with sweet words of love that left him raw and so damned humbled.

It had meant the world.

Clearing his throat, Gabriel tried not to wince as every muscle in his body protested. Any great grandfather in England would have more dexterity than him this morning. “Are you free for an outing?”

Lili paused in refilling her cup of chocolate. “No plans that cannot be postponed. Where do you wish to go?

“I’m going to take those ledgers back…to Ormsby and Jacobs.”

“I don’t believe they should be in possession of anything,” she replied, her brow furrowing. “Even if the missing ledger did mysteriously reappear.”

Gabriel snorted. “Quite.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing at all, my dear,” he murmured, aware of the footmen stationed along the dining room wall. “I’m just full of admiration…for the care taken of it. Looked almost new.”

Her eyes widened, and she swiftly took a gulp of chocolate. “Indeed.”

“Indeed,” he echoed, his lips twitching.

A half hour later, they were settled in his carriage and on their way to the offices of Ormsby, Kane, and Vesper, the pile of various estate ledgers resting on the leather squab beside him.

“So,” said Lili, her eyes aglow with curiosity. “Tell me everything.”

It was fortunate that the streets were crowded and busy, so he had ample opportunity to show her the copied ledger, every clean, uncurled page. And confirm that the double entries they had both seen with their own eyes, no longer appeared.

“They’ve gone to rather elaborate lengths,” he finished, setting the ledger aside with an irritable sigh. “Makes me wonder how many of them…might be involved.”

“Charlatans,” said Lili with a dark frown. “Who do you think did the copying?”

Gabriel smiled. Clever woman. “I highly doubt Ormsby or Jacobs…would deign to spend hours and hours…on such a mundane task. I think it must have been a clerk. If we could discover which one…”

“We might find the original ledger. And have proof of fraud to take before the courts.”

“Precisely.”

His wife sat forward. “How will we find the clerk?”

“I think,” he said, sitting back against the soft leather squab, “It has to be the angel and devil approach. I’ll be the angel, of course.”

Lili giggled. “Oh, indeed, with your black hair and eyes, and pirate swarthy skin. Wearing a black jacket.”

“What do you suggest, then?”

“I will be the angel. All smiles and fluttering lashes, innocent questions and gasps of wonder as they regale me with exciting tales from the filing room. When I have seen similar penmanship on a desk…”

“I shall sweep in and pummel the clerk…until he reveals the location of the real ledger. What do you think? A good ten percent chance of success?”

She nodded solemnly. “Even as high as twelve. But I am an optimist by nature.”

At last the carriage came to a halt outside the offices, located near the Stock Exchange in Capel Court. It was a neat but nondescript building, narrow, three-stories of gray stone with sculpted columns at either side of the wide wooden doors. Scooping up the pile of ledgers in one arm, Gabriel exited the carriage and offered his other arm to Lili, and together they strolled across the footpath and into the building.

It was surprisingly quiet inside, with rows and rows of small, square desks, each decorated by heavy leather tomes, ledgers and other assorted documents. But there were only two clerks behind the long wooden counter separating the entrance way and office.