“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Crowle said.
“Enlighten me, then,” Duncan said. “Because I’m sure the constables will agree that it looks suspicious. You really never received communication like that in the past?”
“Mr. Crowle,” Thomas said. “If you got other notes like that one, it will probably be to your benefit to let us know. It’s beginning to look as though Lord Harlston had his hands in much more than we ever dreamed he did.” He closed his eyes for a moment, still unable to believe that his longtime friend could have done such terrible things.
“Lord Woodsford is right,” Duncan said. “Tell us, Crowle—has he been in contact with you previously?”
Crowle nodded slowly, as if uncertain he was doing the smartest thing by telling the truth. “Yes,” he said. “At least, I believe so. I did receive another note. The handwriting was the same.”
“And was it also about me?” Thomas asked, assuming that he knew the answer.
“No,” Crowle said. “It had nothing to do with you.”
Duncan’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that true?”
“It was about a gentleman I didn’t know at all,” Crowle said. “You mentioned him a few moments ago. The Viscount of Midford.”
Duncan, it seemed, was struck dumb.
Thomas marshaled his wits. “You mean to tell me that Lord Harlston wrote you about the Viscount of Midford?”
“Well, as I say, I don’t know that it was him,” Crowle said. “He didn’t sign the note that time either. But itwasthe same handwriting. After I got over the surprise of receiving a second anonymous note, I remembered having gotten the first, and I pulled it out and compared the two. They seemed to me to have been written by the same hand.”
“But why on earth would Henry have wanted to set a debt collector on Richard?” Duncan wondered aloud. “That doesn’t make any sense at all.” He turned to Crowle. “You say you had never heard of Lord Midford?”
“I only collect debts from people who live near here,” Crowle said. “This Lord Midford was outside my range. I would never have known his name if it hadn’t been for the note I received, telling me that if I managed to get him to pay the money he owed, there were people who would be very grateful and reward me handsomely.”
“And what kind of reward did you receive?”
“A much larger percentage of the total sum than I usually keep.” Crowle named the figure. Thomas didn’t know quite what to make of it—he didn’t know what was typical in these situations.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Duncan said to Thomas. “Why would Henry have done these things?”
But the picture was starting to come together for Thomas, and he didn’t like what he was seeing very much at all.
“I don’t think this was ever about me,” he said quietly.
“What?” Duncan said. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it. We thought Lord Milton was behind it all at first. Why did we think that?”
“Because he despised Valeria so much,” Duncan said. “But what point are you making?”
“Don’t you see? Lady Valeria is the common element. By attacking her brother, and then coming after me—it’sherlife Henry hoped to tamper with. Not mine, and not Richard’s. Hers.”
“But Henry doesn’t hate Valeria,” Duncan said.
“No, he doesn’t,” Thomas agreed. “He admires her.”
Duncan stared, his eyes widening, and Thomas could see that he was beginning to understand.
“He was jealous when I began to court Lady Valeria,” Thomas said. “His jealousy was apparent, though he did his best to hide it. He tried to pretend he was happy for me. Maybe he evenwishedhe was happy for me. But he couldn’t keep his true feelings disguised forever. He wanted me out of the picture so that he could claim her for his own.”
“But then, why go after Richard?” Duncan asked.
“I can think of a few reasons,” Thomas said. “Perhaps he wanted her to come and live here, with your family.”
“Could he really have predicted that such a thing would happen?”
