A Wicked Conceit (Lady Darby Mysteries #9) - Anna Lee Huber Page 0,136

and they would have to send a search party in after us.”

“What of McQueen’s men?” Alana glanced up from Emma’s face to ask. “Were they arrested?”

“Not that we’ve been made aware of,” Gage said.

Though I was thinking of Bonnie Brock’s pledge to handle the matter, despite my insistence that he leave it to the police. He and Maggie had paid us one more visit the evening prior, conferring with us in the morning room as before. Gage had been somewhat hesitant to allow them to see Emma, but I’d reminded him we probably owed Bonnie Brock our lives and hers. Particularly as he’d risked his own life and freedom by working in full view of Sergeant Maclean and his men. Had he not slipped away the moment after he’d deposited me in our carriage, I had no doubt he would have been apprehended.

In any case, Bonnie Brock had been rather subdued during our conversation, and somewhat cowed by the baby. Maggie had been doting, her eyes lighting with a delight that I had never seen reflected there. It even brought a smile to her brother’s mouth. Whatever his feelings the night her betrayal had been revealed, he seemed to have forgiven her, and I could only hope that if she was still enamored of Mr. Heron, he might give the young man a chance to prove himself worthy.

“So Mr. Lennox is Bonnie Brock Kincaid’s half brother?” Alana remarked.

I noticed Henry and Gage exchanging a glance, perhaps thinking of their own kinship. “Yes, the late Alexander Lennox of Badenoch was their father.” A fact Bonnie Brock had confirmed, however begrudgingly. Though he still wouldn’t tell me how he’d gotten hold of the Kincaid seal. “Badenoch squandered away his wealth, leaving his legitimate son with a pittance for his inheritance. As best we can work out, when Badenoch the younger realized how much wealth and influence his bastard half brother, the infamous criminal Bonnie Brock, had amassed for himself, he grew angry and jealous. He became convinced that Bonnie Brock had somehow stolen his inheritance and became determined to see him not only executed but disgraced.”

“But why include those accusations against you?”

“Partly for titillation, I imagine,” Gage replied, draping his arm over the back of the chair behind me. “And partly because his friend, Lord Kirkcowan, had vented his spleen about us. Kiera, in particular.” Because of my interference with his wife, and my role in helping her save her jewels. “But unfortunately that also opened him up to Kirkcowan’s blackmail and made the baron another loose end he had to tie up.”

“Because he knew too much? Like Rookwood?” Charlotte verified.

“Yes.”

Emma made a small sighing gurgle sound, raising her fist, and then settled back into sleep in Alana’s arms. At the sight of her contented slumbering, I relaxed back in my chair again as Gage brushed his thumb over my collarbone in reassurance. Five days following our ordeal, and none of us had yet shown symptoms of contracting the cholera morbus from our time in the squalid vaults, but I was still vigilant, alert for the signs.

It certainly didn’t help that the newspapers were filled with reports of the deadly infection’s spread elsewhere. In a little over two weeks, cholera had already claimed the lives of more than thirteen thousand people in Paris, and the numbers of victims continued to increase. Meanwhile, the outbreak in Glasgow was now expected to be far worse than Edinburgh’s. And despite the cessation of the printing of Lennox’s sequel, there were continued suspicions regarding the bodies of cholera victims, and whether the surgeons and physicians were colluding to cause more death. Only time would tell whether these rumblings grew louder or reason prevailed.

There was a rap at the door followed by Jeffers’s entry. “This just arrived for you, my lady,” he said, handing me a small box.

“Thank you,” I replied as he departed, but not before he passed a fond glance over our sleeping Emma.

“From Trevor?” Alana guessed.

“I don’t think so. Our brother sent me his best wishes two days ago.” I lifted the lid of the box and then stilled in astonishment. Inside was nestled my mother’s amethyst pendant.

Gage sat forward in equal disbelief, for I’d confided in him how McQueen’s men had taken it from me. I lifted the necklace from the box to examine it, noticing a small card underneath marked solely with the letters BB.

I supposed that answered the question whether McQueen’s men had been punished. I shied away from pondering precisely