“Have you considered what would happen if your father is convicted of a crime?” he flicked a careful look to his office door, but it seemed no one lurked close enough to listen. “If he is guilty, he’ll be thrown in prison. Are you ready to facilitate that?”
Prudence had felt the weight of that since the moment he’d informed her of his suspicions toward her family. “My father is in a position of power, and I’d not have him exploit that at the expense of the health of the people he’s sworn to protect. These documents have the ability to exonerate him just as easily as condemn him. I’m ready to facilitate you finding the truth, as soon as possible.”
She’d the suspicion his silence was more intense than contemplative as he considered the briefcase for a protracted moment before spearing her with a look so full of possible meaning, her heart leapt from her stomach to her throat.
“If he is guilty…” she preempted his response. “Might you have mercy on him for the sake of my sisters?”
His lips compressed into a tight line. “The law is justice, and justice doesn’t often reside with mercy.”
“Yes, but…you have made yourself more than the law, have you not? You conduct half your life in darkness.”
Again, he checked the open door, his jaw tightening as he tilted his head in a warning gesture. “Let’s not discuss that here.”
“I’m not asking you to overlook a crime,” she said with a furtive lean toward him. “Only to allow my sisters and my mother to retain their money and property should he be sent away.” She pressed her hands together in a supplicant gesture. “I’m asking you to show them the mercy you’ve shown me.”
“You’re different,” he said with a terse annunciation.
“Why?”
“You know why.” He shoved back from the desk and stood. “Besides, that sort of decision would be up to a judge.” Pacing the length of the window behind him he glared at the briefcase. “I didn’t know you were going to your father’s house today. You shouldn’t have procured this, it’s too dangerous. What if you’d been caught?”
“No one else was home.” She wrinkled her nose. “My father isn’t the most scrupulous of men, but he wouldn’t hurt me.”
“You don’t know what men will do when threatened,” he lectured. “And you can’t understand how you’ve complicated things. To procure evidence like this, I must go through the proper channels. If anything is to hold up in court then—”
She stood also, his reaction to her gesture crushing any exuberance she’d felt. “You forget I’ve been a Commissioner’s daughter for as long as I can remember. Why do you think I didn’t bring you the original copies? Surely you could come up with a reason for a warrant, and then procure the real thing.”
At that, he froze, regarding her as if he’d never seen her before. “Yes. I suppose I could.” His gaze warmed to something that looked like admiration as he drifted around his desk. “Forgive me…” He paused, suddenly distracted as his notice drifted over her, lingering at the swells of her breasts hugged by her fine high-necked gown, the curves of her hips accentuated by gathers of silk.
She’d dressed for him. To please him. And she found a giddy satisfaction that her endeavor had been successful.
“You didn’t have to bring them all this way,” he said in a voice roughened with a darker, more primitive emotion. “This isn’t an agreeable atmosphere for you. You could have given it to me at home.”
She shrugged and looked around curiously. “I wasn’t worried about being recognized, as I’ve never been here before, and I was already in town at the doctor’s so—”
“The doctor?” He tensed. “Are you all right? Is the child—did something happen? You sit and rest.” He grasped her shoulders and pressed her back into the chair before striding to the doorframe. “Dunleavy, get my wife something to drink, and if it’s that swill that passes for tea on the sideboard, I’ll demote you.”
Prudence twisted in her chair in time to see the lumbering man with the red mustache pop his head around the doorjamb to gape at her. “That was…I mean…you’ve a wife?”
One look at the wrath on his boss’s face, and the big man scampered away, reminding her of a dog needing to find purchase on a smooth marble floor.
Prudence stood again. “Nothing is amiss. I had an appointment with Lady Northwalk’s doctor and midwife, that’s all.”