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Sterling might choose not to interact with or join in the conversation of others, his closest friends being the exception. But what most people failed to observe about his silence was the watchfulness which allowed him to miss very little of what was going on about him.
As he had noted, that earlier today, Whitlow had been aware of Sterling’s uncharacteristic warmth toward Elizabeth, and immediately begun to scheme as to how that interest might be of benefit tohim.
James Stanley, previously the Duke of Plymouth’s valet, was now acting as aid to the five remaining Ruthless Dukes in their endeavors to find the man who had murdered Plymouth. Stanley had recently, under Sterling’s instruction, checked into the affairs, both personal and private, of both living adult members of the Marshall family.
Stanley had reported the earl was currently in funds, having received a large windfall the previous year. Stanley, in view of their suspicion that one of the five officers they wereinvestigating might have been paid to carry out the murder, was still looking into exactly where that money had originated.
But Sterling would hazard a guess that the earl’s obvious pleasure in his own interest in Elizabeth grew from the fact the older man saw a way in which he might receive another monetary windfall.
God knows their endeavors so far had shown the man seemed to enter into one bad investment after another.
Two years ago, Whitlow, like many other greedy men, had believed the false rumor that Napoleon was defeated and the Bourbons back in power in France. To that end, the earl had bought heavily into government securities on the ’Change. Only to have those prices sink within the day once news of the deception became public knowledge.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, a group of unscrupulous men had quietly bought up government securities at a low price before releasing the rumor of Napoleon’s defeat, allowing them to then sell their securities at a deceptively inflated price. As a result, many gentlemen, including the Earl of Whitlow, had lost thousands of pounds in a single day.
The men responsible, to their own shame and that of their families, had eventually been caught and prosecuted. But none of the money of the investors had been recovered. Including Whitlow’s.
The timing, almost a year ago, of when Stanley reported that the earl’s bank account had been in receipt of a large amount of money caused Sterling to speculate whether perhaps the father and son had acted together in regard to Plymouth’s murder.
In any case, the earl still enjoyed making questionable investments, ones that usually failed, so it was reasonable to think it would not be long before the earl was once again in need of funds.
Was it possible Whitlow was considering whoring out his son’s widow? No doubt with a view to requesting suitable remuneration from any gentleman seeking to share her bed.
It was disgusting behavior, if that should prove to be the case, but Sterling believed Whitlow was altogether a very unpleasant man.
Even with the knowledge of the other man’s possible scheming, and despite Sterling’s own inner warnings not to allow his attraction toward Elizabeth to blind him to his purpose here, he knew he had been thrumming with the anticipation of seeing Elizabeth again this evening from the moment they parted in the street earlier today.
He had tried to talk himself out of the inconvenient attraction on his ride to Bristol Manor.
Elizabeth Marshall was still in mourning for her husband, if only for two more months.
She was the daughter of an impoverished lord and daughter-in-law to one of the most despicable men in England.
And although she had been polite to him, Sterling hadn’t sensed that she was afflicted with the same burning lust for him as he felt for her.
More importantly, she was currently a part of Sterling’s investigations.
All of them very good reasons why he should not attempt to pursue his attraction toward her.
Unfortunately, his libido, fully roused and centered only upon this one woman, refused to listen to him. As did his rebellious cock, which had still been hard and throbbing inside his pantaloons when he arrived at Bristol Manor and was greeted by the waiting household staff.
Sterling kept only a skeleton household staff at the Manor, a full complement of servants being unnecessary when he usually only visited the estate once every couple of years. But, as he hadknown would be the case, what servants there were in residence had been organized by Rogers into bustling about for several hours in anticipation of Sterling’s arrival. To the extent a bath was immediately provided, and within half an hour of being informed the duke was expecting guests for dinner this evening, the cook had provided him with a suitable menu.
Not enough so that Sterling could provide Elizabeth with a taste of the delicious chocolate mousse he’d once eaten in France, but he believed she would enjoy the meringue served with fresh fruits he had requested instead just as much.
Sterling didn’t give a damn whether or not the earl enjoyed the food they ate at dinner. Indeed, if he could, Sterling would not have invited the earl to join them this evening at all, but instead enjoyed Elizabeth’s company to the exclusion of all others. Most especially that of her machinating father-in-law.
After hearing the man’s bullying of her, Sterling could only guess at the unpleasantness Elizabeth had been forced to endure from her father-in-law since her husband’s death ten months ago.
Although, from what Sterling remembered of Captain Lord Thomas Marshall, the other man had not been particularly forceful in nature at the best of times. Possibly the bravest thing the younger man had ever done was to elope with Elizabeth when she had been Miss Ames.
What Sterling now needed to know was if Marshall had been in possession of enough of that same courage a year ago, so as to make him responsible for Plymouth’s murder.
With such an aggressively domineering father, it was highly possible Marshall could have taken money to carry out the murder. Not necessarily as a way of recouping the money his father had lost through greed the previous year, but with the intention of using that money to set up a separate establishmentfor himself, his wife, and young son, far from the household of his unpleasant father.
Sterling now believed one of those two reasons to be a valid enough motive for Thomas Marshall to have carried out the despicable deed.
But with Marshall dead, he was going to need actual proof of the other man’s guilt before he could make that accusation. His father had certainly been in receipt of a large sum of money the previous year.
