“I have done no such thing.” He said it with a voice so weak, so full of guilt, no denial in the world could’ve convinced Winnifred of his innocence. “Why would you say such things?”
“Because your partner in crime has given you away. He has written a letter telling us that it was your idea. And also telling us that Leo and Rose are dead. Dead!” She screamed the last word at him, and his entire body twisted sideways as if she had slapped him. His horror was genuine, that she could easily see.
“Dead? You do not mean it. They did not kill them? Elton assured me no harm would come to them.”
Winnifred sneered. “So you admit it then. It was your idea?”
Her uncle shrunk away and rushed to the end of the hall. She followed him, full of concern that he might attempt to flee. Alas, he did not. He rushed past the dining room and into the kitchen, where the cook looked up from a pile of dough.
“Mrs. Walsh, leave us,” he commanded the woman. The cook dropped the ball of dough she had been shaping onto the countertop and then rushed outside, blinking in confusion at her master’s tone.
“The man is a liar!” Uncle Ezekiel declared.
“Please, do not attempt to defend yourself. You have already been caught out lying to both myself and Victoria. We already know that you owed an outstanding debt to Elton, you admitted it yourself. You admitted borrowing money from them. You have caught yourself in lie after lie. It will not be difficult to demand proof from this gang leader. Besides…” She smirked at him, knowing what she would say next was going to terrify her uncle beyond measure.
“Elton had a message for you in the letter. He said you would pay. Even though your plan fell apart and he did not receive the ransom money which would have covered your debt, he will receive what is his. One way or the other.”
As she predicted, her uncle swallowed, and his lips trembled with sheer terror.
“I do not have the money. He knows I do not have it.”
Winnifred glanced around her uncle’s modest home.
“You may be in the suds. You and Aunt Anna haven’t a sixpence to scratch with, but you have a great many pretty things in his home—pretty things paid for by my father. And by my brother. I predict one of these nights, Mr. Elton will likely come with his men and claim what is his. If not by way of a direct payment, then by a method of indirect compensation. That painting over there should be worth something. Or this golden decanter. Or the chandelier with all of it’s pretty dangling crystals and the expensive beeswax candles.”
Her uncle shook his head. “Never. He would never. And I would never allow him to… These things are mine. They belong to me. Nobody will take them from me. And you will not scare me with your faradiddles. Really, it is quite cruel of you to claim your brother was killed. Just to get me to confess to… What? That I know Elton?”
“I do not mean to trick you. I am telling you the truth. Here, read it for yourself.”
She threw the letter from Elton at her uncle, and he caught it clumsily, crumpling it as he did so. He squinted at the tiny handwriting as he took in the words, and when he was done, his mouth dropped open.
“He cannot mean it. This is not at all what… This is not… Leo? I cannot believe that this is true.”
Winnifred blinked at him. “Do you believe me now? You believe that Elton has killed my brother because of your actions?”
Her uncle glanced at her but said nothing.
Instead, he simply shook his head and furiously rubbed his temples. When he spoke again, it was with hesitation and confusion. “I cannot believe this… “
“It would behoove you to believe it, what is the reality with which we must now live. Victoria and I must come to terms with the fact that our brother is dead because of you. It was already difficult to accept this when we simply thought that you had brought this calamity down upon us due to your gambling habits. But now that it is written in black and white that the whole ordeal was your idea… I do not know how we should go on. As for you… I suppose all that is left is to wallow in your guilt and to wait for Elton to claim what is his.”
“Winnie, you must believe me, it was never my intention for anything so horrible to happen to Leo. All I wanted was a little money. He could’ve given that to me. But he wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t. And Elton wanted his money. Elton told me before that there would be dire consequences if I did not repay him. So, I had to. I had to come up with something.”
So now he admits it. Now that the proof is in his hand, black and white, he has no choice but to accept it. At least I’ve driven him that far. This is what I needed. His confession was spoken out loud and witnessed—almost.
“And what did you come up with? That he kidnapped my brother? And Lady Rose? Uncle Ezekiel?”
Ezekiel shook his head.
“I had nothing to do with Lady Rose. I told Elton that my nephew was involved in a profitable business and was rather flush. I offered to split the money with him if he could manage to snatch Leo. He was amenable to my suggestion that we extract money from you, by way of the business. He would’ve taken enough to pay my debt, and I would’ve received a small profit. Only thirty percent. But it was with the understanding that no harm would come to Leo.”
Winnifred crossed her arms. “Then how did Lady Rose get caught up in all of it?”
He shrugged. “To find a good time to snatch up your brother, Elton had me draw up a schedule of how he usually spends his time. He used the schedule to send two of his men to conduct surveillance. In the process of surveillance, they uncovered a little secret relationship with Lady Rose. Something I did not even know about. They then decided blackmail was the better method to get money.”
The older man walked through the kitchen and stopped at the window. He glanced outside, and the clicking of horses’ hooves drifted through the open window.
“Elton decided that it would be easier to extract the money from Leo by way of blackmailing. His plan was simple. He sent a letter to both Lady Rose and Leo. He did not state any amount, just a meeting place. He wanted them both to present themselves there. He was going to confront them with their secret relationship and tell them that he had enough evidence to make public their affair. The plan was to keep Lady Rose in their custody while Leo retrieved the money. However, when Leo realized that Lady Rose was in danger, evidently he fought with Elton. It was just decided that the original plan, the kidnapping, was the best way forward after all. Elton held both of them captive in St. Giles.”
