“Not quite,” Duncan said wryly. “The criminal in question was my cousin, the Viscount of Midford. You did the same thing to him as you are now trying to do to Lord Woodsford. You waited until he was in debt and desperate, and then you did what you could to bully him into illegal activity. He told us everything.”
For the first time, Crowle seemed to have no response. He looked from Duncan to Henry and back again, as though hoping that one of them would tell him this was a joke.
“Your machinations worked on my cousin, because he’s a weak sort of man,” Duncan said. “He was easily persuaded to do what you asked him to do. It posed no particular moral quandary for him. But when we spoke to him about it, he acknowledged that he had made the wrong choices. He wanted to make amends. And so he told us the truth—not that he had been a victim, but that you had steered him in the direction that led to his fall from grace.”
“He made his own choices,” Crowle said.
“Yes, he did,” Duncan said. “But when you spoke to Lord Woodsford today, you showed just how far you are willing to go to bring someone under your control, to make sure they continue paying you forever. Lady Valeria is my beloved cousin, and you threatened her with harm if Lord Woodsford didn’t comply with your wishes. I did not misunderstand.”
Crowle was pale. He said nothing.
“Lord Woodsford is an upstanding gentleman,” Duncan said. “He will never turn to lawlessness. You should have taken the time to understand him better before you attempted this scheme. You should have known that he would find another way, that this would never work on him.”
The door to the sitting room opened and Thomas came back inside. “The constables are on their way,” he said. “I’ve sent one of the footmen to bring them back.”
“Now, really,” Crowle said, beginning to look deeply uncomfortable. “There’s no need for constables. No laws have actually been broken! What if we just forget the whole thing ever happened?”
“Now you want to forget it?” Thomas said. “I don’t think so. You tried to keep me from seeing the lady I love. We’re not going to forget that this ever happened just because you’re suddenly frightened by a threat to yourself!”
“And your debt wouldn’t be erased,” Duncan said. “Don’t forget that part. He would still have to collect money from you.”
“Very true,” Thomas said.
“We could forget about that, too,” Crowle said.
“No, we couldn’t,” Thomas said. “It isn’tyouI owe money to, Mr. Crowle. I would still need to repay my debts, which would mean that you will still be sent to collect from me.”
“But the constables—” Crowle’s face was white. He seemed unable to finish his sentence.
“They’re not going to like this,” Duncan said. “They won’t take kindly to the idea that you’ve been perpetuating criminal activity throughout Society. They’ll definitely want to remove you from the streets. I’d say there’s every possibility a man might be hanged for something like what you’ve done. Not just committing crimes, but going so far as to create new criminals—it’s very problematic.”
“No—no, wait,” Crowle said. He was sweating and stammering now, and Duncan could see the desperation on his face. “Listen. You have to listen. We can work this out between us. I’ll never do this kind of thing again. I’ll leave you in peace, Lord Woodsford.”
“But how can we believe that?” Thomas said. “Why should I think that you would change your ways at all? That you wouldn’t just go back to doing the very same thing?”
“I didn’t want to pursue you for the collection of your debt,” Crowle said. “It wasn’t my idea to come after you so fiercely.”
“Oh no?” Duncan asked. “Whose idea was it?”
“I don’t know,” Crowle admitted. “All I know is that I received a message indicating that it might be time to collect this debt. Ididneed the money, so I decided to go along with the suggestion. But it didn’t come from the people your father owed money to, Lord Woodsford. They were not the ones who insisted that we resolve this matter now.”
“I didn’t think they were,” Thomas said. “That never made sense to me. But if it wasn’t them, who sent you? Why did you choose now, of all times, to come in pursuit of me?”
Crowle hesitated.
“You may as well tell him,” Duncan said. “Telling us everything we want to know is the only chance you have now.”
“The fact of the matter is that I don’t know the answer,” Crowle said. “I told you, I received a message. The note was anonymous.”
“Well, what did it say?” Thomas pressed.
“It said that you intended to marry soon, and that if you were going to do something like that, you must obviously have money to spare,” Crowle said. “It encouraged me to seize the opportunity to collect on your debts, because you shouldn’t be allowed to put your money toward other things while you still owed. You must admit, whoever wrote it had a point.”
“But why did they care?” Duncan asked. “Who would bother to involve themselves in your affairs like that, Thomas?”
“It must have been Lord Milton,” Henry spoke up.
Thomas’ jaw dropped. “Do you think so?”
