“I think so. I have some dances to enjoy, and Miss Bosworth is here also, so I am more than contented!”
Lord Falconer chuckled, though his eyes did not light up in their usual way.
“Very good. I shall let you return to her, then. If I do not see you again this evening, do let me know how things progress between yourself and Miss Bosworth.” His eyebrows wiggled as he grinned, reminding Henry of just how good a friend Lord Falconer had been to him for so many years. “I can see that you are eager to further your acquaintance so, if anything significant should take place, then…?”
“Then I will inform you just as soon as I can, of course.”
Unable to keep himself from smiling, Henry waved Lord Falconer away and then turned around himself, letting the smile slip from his face. Was his friend truly so good an actor as to beable to do such a thing as this? Had he truly been able to pretend for so long? Closing his eyes, Henry rubbed one hand over his face and then took a breath. He had to put such questions to one side and focus on regaining his father’s talisman ring – and that meant following Lord Falconer from a distance. Turning back, he began to search for his friend, only to see him a short distance away, talking to none other than Lady Judith.
His heart shattered.
There had been within him the faint hope that what Mr. Brackwell had said about Lord Falconer was wrong, that his friend wouldnotprove to be the thief, but now, seeing how Lord Falconer spoke in earnest to Lady Judith, his head lowering and his lips moving rapidly, Henry was sure that he had all of the proof that he needed. When his friend gestured towards the door, with Lady Judith nodding, one lip caught between her teeth, Henry followed Lord Falconer with his eyes as he stepped away.
It did not take him long to make his way out of the room and Henry followed close behind, dread in every step.
The time to end this was at the threshold – but how much would come tumbling down with it?
“The next timeyou decide to step into someone’s house without invitation, I would appreciate it if you would choose not to injure their butler.” Lord Falconer whipped around, his eyes wide and staring as Henry walked into the study, three footmen behind him barring the door. “I did not want to believe that you were the one who was involved in trying to take the ring from me,” Henry continued, quietly. “But it seems as though Miss Bosworth is correct after all, andIam the one who has been a fool.”
“I… I…”
There was nothing else for Lord Falconer to say. He had been found standing in Henry’s study, a place he had not been invited into, with his hand at the drawer where Henry had told him that he kept the talisman ring.
“I do not understand.” Henry’s throat began to ache, his hands curling into fists as he glared at his friend, dampening down his anger as best he could. “Why would you do such a thing? Why would you try to steal from me?”
Lord Falconer swallowed, then stepped back from the desk, his hands lifted as though to show that he had done nothing wrong.
“I – I did not.”
“You did. You and Lady Judith are, together, seeking the talisman ring of my father. Why would you take it?”
“She… she asked me to.” Lord Falconer closed his eyes. “Lady Judith knows that I wish to marry her, but we cannot wed because I do not have a sufficient fortune.”
“A sufficient fortune?” Henry repeated, not moving an inch from where he stood. “What are you talking about? You have an excellent fortune.”
“Not enough to satisfy Lord Eltringham.” Lord Falconer’s jaw jutted forward. “And I may have been a little less economical than I ought to have been of late.”
“And so, you thought that you would take my ring for its monetary value?” Confused, Henry threw out his hands. “You know that it is worth very little!”
When Lord Falconer shook his head and then dropped it to his chest, Henry realized that there was more to the ring than he had first thought.
“You want it for the crest?” Speaking slowly, his eyes widened when his friend nodded. “You wish to use my ring to steal some of my wealth for your own gains?”
Lord Falconer threw his head back and groaned… and that was answer enough. Henry felt himself crumple inside, his heart heavy as he realized that the person whom he had called a friend for so many years was not his true friend at all. He was a man willing to do whatever he had to, to gain whathewanted. This was a man willing to steal, to injure, and to lie, so that he might find satisfaction in life, regardless of the detriment it might cause others. This was no gentleman, no kindhearted, friendly sort, as Henry had long believed. Instead, this was a man of whom Henry knew nothing. Dark-hearted, selfish, and entirely without consideration, he was a gentleman who thought only of himself.
“Lady Judith has anexcellentdowry,” Lord Falconer said, as though somehow that might excuse him for what he had done. “I must have it. It is the only way that I can pull myself from my current difficulties.”
Henry closed his eyes. Every word made the pain – and his anger – grow.
“Why would you even let meconsiderher if you were already courting?”
Lord Falconer shrugged.
“It is not as though I care for her, Yarmouth. Surely you can see that! Why would I care for a young lady such as her, whose character I find so disagreeable?”
The anger that had been slowly building in Henry’s chest now blew into a great furnace, and he gritted his teeth together as Lord Falconer continued, waving a hand in Henry’s direction as though all that he had said, all that he had done, was nothing more than a trifle.
“She is a means to an end,” he continued, blithely. “I wanted to keep our arrangement as quiet as I could, until I made certain that my fortune was at the required standard for Lady Judith’s father. Lady Judith agreed with me that we ought to do that.Thereafter, once I had her dowry – and whatever she is given each year by her father – I would, of course, have returned what I had borrowed to you. It all came about very quickly.”
