Page 16 of The Cutthroat Countess

“None of that can be substantiated,” Gray insisted. “Most of those people are long dead. Besides, it’s all utter drivel. I demand you release me. You have no authority to apprehend me.”

“Maybe we won’t take you in,” Elliot said in a musing tone. “Maybe we’ll save His Majesty the cost of housing and prosecuting and executing you.” A nasty grin spread across his face as he turned to Jo. “What do you think, my dear?”

“Sounds like an excellent idea to me,” Jo said.

Gray sputtered and turned to Staunton. “You’re a duke, for God’s sake! Are you just going to stand by and let these two lunatics behave like vigilantes?”

Sin ignored him and crossed the room to Jo, holding out his hand. “I thought you might want these.”

Jo gasped. “My knives. I’d thought I’d lost them. Wherever did you find them?”

“One of Sir Stanley’s men had them.” Sin chuckled. “I’ve had them thrown at my head far too often not to recognize them as belonging to you, Jo.”

She slid four of the blades into their various sheathes but kept out the two longest knives, spinning them in her palms, almost laughably relieved to have them back in her possession.

“Thank you.” Jo sheathed the knife in her left hand and then closed the distance between herself and Sir Stanley. She flicked the tip at his face, the razor-sharp steel leaving a cut so thin that the beads of blood that appeared were mere specks.

Gray yelped, although Jo knew he would hardly have felt the cut.

“That’s for slapping me,” she said.

Sir Stanley cringed against the man who was restraining him, his eyes darting between the duke and Elliot. “Good God! You’re not going to allow her to—”

A familiar, beloved kaa! kaa! came from out in the corridor, and a liveried servant entered the room holding a flapping, squawking raven at arm’s length.

“Angus!” Jo sheathed her knife, pushed past Gray, and grabbed her bird, hugging him so tightly he squawked, “Elliot!”

Jo laughed. “That’s right—you know which side your bread is buttered on, don’t you, lad?” She released the raven, who scrambled onto her shoulder and then she turned to the man who’d rescued not only her, but her beloved pet. “Thank you,” she said, quietly.

Elliot smiled, his love for her shining in his dark blue gaze. “It was my privilege, Jo.”

She blinked rapidly and quickly turned away before she started blubbering. Instead, she faced her erstwhile tormentor, her knife seeming to have a mind of its own as it leapt from its sheath into her palm.

Sir Stanley’s pale blue eyes flickered from the blade to her face. He sneered. “You might as well kill me now, because nothing in those books will hold up in a court of law.”

“Perhaps you are correct,” she agreed, an unpleasant smile curving her lips as she dragged the tip of the blade lightly down his jaw.

Jo saw calculation in Gray’s eyes and knew it wasn’t death he feared the most, but the exposure of his treachery and the public shame.

“But then, perhaps you are wrong.” She slid her blade back into her breeches and took a step back. “I’m not going to kill you, Sir Stanley. I suspect it will be much more painful for you to go on living.”

Chapter 26

Having the Duke of Staunton in the house meant that the local magistrate couldn’t get there quickly enough. The man was also eager to do anything that Sin asked and speedily took Sir Stanley and his henchmen into custody.

“One of the perks of being a duke,” Elliot teased a few hours later, as the three of them stood outside and watched the cavalcade of constables and prisoners rumble away down the pitted drive.

As they walked to the house which had been Jo’s prison only a few hours before, she said to the duke, “Thank you for sending your man Justin with Sir Stanley. It would be a shame if the old crook managed to take his life and cheat justice.”

Sin nodded. “I agree with you when it comes to Sir Stanley requiring close observation. He will not want to face the shame of exposure and will need close watching.”

It had taken almost four hours to explain who everyone was and why they were there and to give all the relevant statements to the magistrate. They could have waited for that last part, but Jo had been insistent that the story of Gray’s treachery be heard by as many witnesses as possible, just in case he somehow did find a way to take his life.

As a result of all their work, the day was rapidly dwindling. “I take it the two of you will ride back with me?” Sin asked as he dropped into a chair in the small sitting room they’d moved to after Gray had been seized. The house was actually quite nice, although the furnishings were on the sparse side.

Jo groaned, and Elliot turned to her. “What is it?”

“I’m not up to facing Edi and Richard right now.”