The Sugared Game - K.J. Charles Page 0,71
though he is cruel, and he knows right from wrong very well: he just doesn’t care. It’s a game of chess to him. The only genuine emotion I have ever known him display is resentment.”
“Of what?”
“That he’s only a viscount, for a start.” Kim’s lips twisted. “There’s simply too many people in the world who have more than him. More important titles, more extensive lands, bigger houses. Happier marriages. Phoebe’s mother is profoundly unlikeable, but she knows bloody well there’s something wrong with her husband. She won’t be in the same room with him by choice, and she’s done her best to steer Phoebe away from him and get her married off. All she’s achieved is to drive her closer to the man, but it’s the thought that counts.”
“Phoebe said her mother didn’t want her to marry you—”
“But if she had to, to get on with it. She wants Phoebe away from Waring at any price, and she’s right to. Phoebe’s the only child, you know. Another resentment of Waring’s: he lost his son while other men still have theirs. Really, he is abused by Fate. It’s only reasonable he should take this course.” Kim whipped past a roundabout without slowing. “The engagement happened when I was already working for the Private Bureau. DS recruited me to cause trouble for Zodiac and I’d had my first direct tangle with them, which resulted in the previous Libra getting shoved off this mortal coil. I felt almost as if my existence might have a point. And then Phoebe got in trouble, and it seemed obvious to offer her my name, antiquated though that sounds. I really believed I was doing some good, making restitution. Look at me, the hero.”
“You don’t have to feel guilty about wanting to help.”
“But I can feel stupid for believing I could do so,” Kim said. “God knows what Waring thought was going on. He certainly encouraged the long engagement, which suited me very well. And he watched, and it must have dawned on him that I had no idea. DS hadn’t picked me because of my connection to Phoebe’s family, but simply because I was lost and potentially useful. I hadn’t proposed to Phoebe to get close to Waring, because I didn’t have a clue. God, he must have laughed.”
The Daimler was purring through Islington now, heading west. Kim kept talking, apparently desperate to get the words out.
“He used to ask me what I was up to, I think to amuse himself, and he tried to use Phoebe to spy on me. That was what gave me the first hint, in fact. He gravely underestimates her, since she’s female and talks nonsense, and she thought he was being odd and spoke to me about it. There were other things, too. A paper I saw at Christmas that he ought not have had; his name coming up on lists of people who’d bought or sold stocks for companies that took unexpected dips or jumps. Some things were literally staring me in the face. It was nothing that couldn’t have been coincidence, but there were enough straws in the wind that the thought came to my mind. And once it was there, I started to see more and more. I felt morally certain by the start of this year. But I still don’t have solid proof.”
“Can you not take this to your chief, this DS?”
“I hoped to find hard evidence that I could hand over along with my resignation,” Kim said. “I can’t give him a tissue of suspicions and coincidences and unsupported accusations. DS would tell me to go off and find out more, and what would I say? Sorry, that’s my future father-in-law, no can do?”
“Yes? Surely he’d put someone else on it?”
“No. He’d tell me I was perfectly placed to do the job, and he’d be absolutely right. Cornering Capricorn isn’t going to be done from a distance, which is what I’ve been trying to do. It’ll be up close and personal, and it will be nasty. And he is Phoebe’s father, and she will know what I’ve done.”
“She won’t side with him. Not when she knows what he’s done.”
“Of course not. She’ll turn her back on the parent who doesn’t constantly tell her she’s a painful disappointment without a second thought. I’m sure she’ll get over it very quickly.”
Will didn’t reply: the ugly sound in Kim’s voice didn’t brook answers. After a minute Kim said, “Sorry. It’s new to you. I’ve thought about very little