The Sugared Game - K.J. Charles Page 0,26

which is unforgivable. Her parents treat her as a child to be rebuked or indulged. I don’t do that.”

“Yes, but—”

“I’d say trust me, but you’d make a rude remark. Trust Phoebe, because she has a genius for people. And, to be honest, my options are limited. We’re on a tight deadline here, with Mrs. Appleby due to return from her travels on Sunday week. I need to know what’s going on before she’s back in the country.”

That was what he was here for, Will reminded himself. “Is there anything going on beyond a bit of customs evasion?”

“That remains to be seen. But she’s a Foreign Office wife: she should know a great deal better than to play the fool like this. You probably shouldn’t have promised Beaumont we’d get her off scot free.”

“That was his condition for talking. I wasn’t going to watch you leave him twisting in the wind. And that reminds me. How did you know he was being blackmailed?”

“I didn’t.”

“You bloody did. You knew there was something up: you all but told him you knew what was going on. How?”

“More fool him for believing a stranger’s meaningful statements,” Kim said. “It’s an old technique: tell someone you know what they did and watch the blush of their guilty conscience. You’ve heard that old story? Someone sends a telegram as a prank to White’s with no name, saying Fly, all is discovered, and six of the members leave the country?”

“So if I say to you that I know you’re lying to me right now, you’ll admit it?” Will countered.

“Sadly, one must have a conscience at all in order to have a guilty one. Which I suppose is a point in Beaumont’s favour.”

“You didn’t like him. You didn’t like him from the moment he walked in. Why not?”

“Good God, you’re like a dog with a bone,” Kim said. “All right. I didn’t know what was up with Beaumont, but I knew there was something because when my colleague Leinster fell under that train, he had a High-Low matchbook in his pocket. And across the matchbook he had written Beaumont’s name.”

“What? Why the blazes didn’t you say so before?”

“Because when I went to look into the man, I discovered you dining with him. And once you told me your connection to him, I wanted you to continue approaching him as a friend.”

“Which I did! I persuaded him to trust you; I gave him my word. Jesus, Kim! What the bloody hell are you playing at?”

“Let me spell something out,” Kim said. “Leinster had Beaumont’s name. He asked questions of Beaumont’s mistress. She took his card to Mrs. Skyrme and said, This man is investigating our smuggling, and Mrs. Skyrme said she would look after it. And now Leinster is dead.”

That stopped Will’s building anger in its tracks. “Oh,” he said. “Oh, shit.”

“Quite.”

“It’s not just customs evasion, then.”

“No. I have some idea what it might be, but it’s only an idea thus far. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but subterfuge isn’t your strong suit. Could you have lied to his face, knowing this? Or even looked him in the eye as you did before?”

That was a fair point as far as it went. He wasn’t much of a liar, and people rarely had trouble telling when he disliked them. He wouldn’t have spoken to Beaumont the same way. “No. And I see why you wanted to reel him in. But I still don’t like being used.”

“I know,” Kim said.

That was all. He didn’t apologise, because they both knew there wasn’t much value to an apology for a thing you’d done entirely on purpose.

“I don’t like it,” Will said again. “You can trust me, or you can leave me out of it, but don’t use me again, Kim. I’m not your tool.”

“No.” Was that shame on Kim’s face? Hard to say; it wasn’t an expression Will had seen often. “You aren’t. I do know that.”

“Try to keep it in mind,” Will recommended. “But, look, Beaumont can’t be involved, surely? He told you all that stuff easily enough.”

“Agreed; it does seem unlikely. Leinster was something of a misogynist and it’s quite possible he assumed Mrs. Appleby’s lover must be directing her actions. I’ll try to find out. But Will, promise or not, if Mrs. Appleby knew what she was doing when she handed Leinster over to Skyrme, I will see her hang.”

He sounded like he meant it, and Will couldn’t blame him. “If she knew,” was the best he could say.