To Seduce a Sinner (Legend of the Four Soldiers #2)(6)
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

Thornton grinned and winked, the facial expression like a strange tic he couldn’t control. “You must think me a fool.”

“Not at all.” Jasper eyed the man’s threadbare clothes. He dipped his hand in his pocket and came up with a half crown. “I think you a rapist, a liar, and a murderer many times over, but a fool? Not at all. You wrong me, Dick.”

Thornton licked his lips, watching as Jasper flipped the coin between his fingers. “Then why are you here?”

“Oh.” Jasper tilted his head and gazed rather absently at the stained stone ceiling. “I was just remembering when we caught you, Sam Hartley and I, at Princess Wharf. Terribly rainy day. Do you remember?”

“ ’Course I remember.”

“Then you may recollect that you claimed not to be the traitor.”

A crafty gleam entered Thornton’s eyes. “There’s no claim about it. I’m not the traitor.”

“Really?” Jasper dropped his gaze from the ceiling to stare Thornton in the eye. “Well, you see that’s just it. I think you’re lying.”

“If I lie, then I’ll die for my sins.”

“You’ll die anyway, and in less than a month. The law says that convicted men must be hanged within two days of their sentencing. They’re rather strict about it, I’m afraid, Dick.”

“That’s if I’m convicted at trial.”

“Oh, you will be,” Jasper said gently. “Never fear.”

Thornton looked sullen. “Then why should I tell you anything?”

Jasper shrugged. “You still have a few weeks left of life. Why not spend it with a full belly and clean clothes?”

“I’ll tell you somethin’ for a clean coat,” one of the men playing cards muttered.

Jasper ignored him. “Well, Dick?”

The red-haired man stared at him, his face blank. He winked and suddenly thrust his face at the bars. “You want to know who betrayed us to the%" yed us French and their scalping friends? You want to know who painted the earth with blood, there by that damned falls? Look at the men who were captured with you. That’s where you’ll find the traitor.”

Jasper jerked his head back as if a snake had struck. “Nonsense.”

Thornton stared a moment more and then began laughing, high, staccato barks.

“Shaddup!” a male voice from another cell yelled.

Thornton continued the odd sound, but the entire time his eyes were wide and fixed maliciously on Jasper’s face. Jasper stared stonily back. Lies or insinuated half-truths, he’d not get any more from Dick Thornton. Today or ever. He held Thornton’s gaze and deliberately dropped the coin to the floor. It rolled to the center of the passage—well out of reach of the prison cell. Thornton stopped laughing, but Jasper had already turned and was walking out of that hell-damned cellar.

Chapter Two

Presently, Jack came upon an old man, sitting by the side of the road. The old man’s clothes were rags, his feet were bare, and he sat as if the whole world rested upon his shoulders.

“Oh, kind sir,” the beggar cried. “Have you a crust of bread to spare?”

“I have more than that, Father,” Jack replied.

He stopped and opened his pack and drew out half a meat pie, carefully wrapped in a kerchief. This he shared with the old man, and with a tin cup of water from a nearby stream, it made a very fine meal indeed. . . .

—from LAUGHING JACK

That night, Melisande sat at dinner and contemplated a meal of boiled beef, boiled carrots, and boiled peas. It was her brother Harold’s favorite meal, in fact. She was on one side of a long, dark wood dining table. At the head of the table was Harold and at the foot was his wife, Gertrude. The room was dim and shadowy, lit only by a handful of candles. They could well afford beeswax candles, of course, but Gertrude was a frugal housekeeper and did not believe in wasting candle wax—a philosophy that Harold heartily approved of. Actually, Melisande had often thought that Harold and Gertrude were the epitome of the perfectly matched husband and wife: they had the same tastes and views and were both a trifle boring.

She looked down at her grayish portion of boiled beef and considered how she was to tell her brother and his wife of her understanding with Lord Vale. Carefully she cut off a small piece of beef. She picked it up in her fingers and held the bite down by her skirts. Under the table, she felt a cold little nose against her hand, and then the beef was gone.

“I am so sorry to have missed Mary Templeton’s wedding,” Gertrude commented from the foot of the table. Her smooth, wide brow was marred by a single indent between her eyebrows. “Or rather, her not wedding, for I am sure that her mother, Mrs. Templeton, would="4„ have appreciated my presence there. I am told by many people, many people, that I am a comfort and a relief to those whose fortunes are in decline, and Mrs. Templeton’s fortunes are quite in decline at the moment, are they not? One might even say Mrs. Templeton’s fortunes are abysmal.”

She paused to take a tiny bite of boiled carrot and looked to her husband for his concurrence.

Harold shook his head. He had their father’s heavy jowls and thinning light brown hair, covered now with a gray wig. “That gel ought to be put on bread and water until she comes to her senses. Throwing over a viscount. Foolish, is what it is. Foolish!”

Gertrude nodded. “I think she must be insane.”

Harold perked up at this. He was always morbidly interested in disease. “Does lunacy run in the family?”

Melisande felt a nudge against her leg. She looked down to see a small black nose poking out from beneath the table edge. She cut off another piece of beef and held it under the table. Both nose and beef disappeared.

“I do not know if there is lunacy in that family, but I would not be surprised,” Gertrude replied. “No, not surprised at all. Of course, there is no lunacy on our side of the family, but the Templetons cannot say the same, I’m afraid.”

Melisande used the tines of her fork to scoot the peas to the edge of her plate, feeling rather sorry for Mary. Mary had only followed her heart, after all. She felt a paw against her knee, but this time she ignored it. “I believe that Mary Templeton is in love with the curate.”

Gertrude’s eyes widened like boiled gooseberries. “I don’t think that pertains.” She appealed to her husband. “Do you think that pertains, Mr. Fleming?”

“No, it does not pertain at all,” Harold replied predictably. “The chit had a satisfactory match, and she threw it away on a curate.” He chewed meditatively for a moment. “Vale is well rid of her, in my opinion. Might’ve brought a bad strain of insanity into his bloodline. Not good. Not good at all. Better for him to find a wife elsewhere.”