If Lady Inglis has found a satisfying friendship-with-benefits relationship, I’m glad of it, for her sake. Although, given that it seems to have been going on for years, this might be the relationship that ended hers with Gray.
But I’m not thinking of that, so I’m not speculating on it. Nor am I glancing his way to gauge his reaction.
“You sent this friend letters of an intimate nature,” I say. “And you are being blackmailed with them but not by him.”
“They were stolen,” she says. “He did not even realize they were missing until I received the threat. I contacted him immediately. He checked the locked box where he keeps them and found it empty.”
“You received a threat. A letter?”
“Yes. I still have it, and I will show it to you after lunch. In short, the sender threatens to print my letters unless I pay. They included one letter as proof that they have them, which also told me who I’d written it for. I immediately checked with Lord— my friend, in case that was the only one missing, which would mitigate the threat. It was not.”
“The blackmailer is threatening to print the letters... where?”
Another flush. “They are threatening topublishthe letters. There is— That is to say, I haveheardthere is a taste for such things. The letters would be sold to a publisher of ill repute. That person would then print and sell them in a chapbook.”
“I understand you would not want them published under any circumstances, but are the letters clearly identifiable as having been written by you?”
“No, but the blackmailer knows I am the writer—and that my friend is the recipient—and this person intends to reveal that.”
I eat a few pieces of potato as I think. Then I say, “If we take the case, I will need to see the letter. Also, while I understand your desire for discretion, we will need to speak to your friend. Since he is also under threat—and he lost the letters in the first place—he will understand.”
Lady Inglis sips from her wineglass. “Is that necessary?”
It’s Gray who answers, “It is. As Miss Mitchell said, he lost the letters. They were taken from his home, I presume.”
“Yes, but?—”
“That makes this a theft, which we cannot investigate if we cannot see the scene and speak to the person who possessed the missing goods.” He looks at her. “As I already know who we speak of, I do not see why you would shelter him.” Gray pauses. “Unless he has asked to be sheltered.”
“He has not,” she says. “He is most distressed by this. I simply did not wish to involve him.”
“He’s already involved,” I say. “He’s also responsible. He chose to keep the letters, and his security was lacking. If you ask me, he’s the one who should be paying the blackmailer.”
“He has offered,” Lady Inglis says. “I would not hear of it.”
“Why not?”
She stares at me as if I’ve asked her to read the letters aloud. Yep, good thing I led with the warning about being blunt.
I continue, “This is entirely his fault. He should pay.”
“I would agree,” Gray says. “He chose to keep the letters and store them in an unsafe location, and yet the one who is truly under threat is you. Yes, the blackmailer might say they will also reveal his name, but you are the one they expect to pay because you are the one who will suffer.”
“They are still threatening him,” Lady Inglis says.
“With what?” I say. “Telling the world that he’s getting?—”
Gray coughs, as if knowing whatever I was about to say was both improper and probably not a term currently in use.
“That he has a lover,” I say. “A lover whom he inspires to write... er, letters of an erotic nature. That’s not a threat. That’s advertising.”
Gray chokes on what might be a laugh. Lady Inglis stares, and then she lets loose a low chuckle.
“I take your meaning,” she says. “I can assure you that my friend does not require advertising, but the point is that, as you said, I will suffer, and he will not. That is the way of the world.”
“Yes, and highly unfair, but that’s nothing we can rectify. So why not let him pay?”
She taps her fingers on the tablecloth, and it seems as if she isn’t going to answer. Then she blurts, “Because it would put me in his debt.” She pulls back, adding, “He is not the sort of person to use that to his advantage. We truly are friends. But in my experience, no matter how much a woman trusts a man, it is unwise to let him come to her rescue, particularly in matters of honor. If the blackmailer went to him, I would let him pay it. As I am the target, I wish to resolve this myself.”
