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Morland’s chin jerked in surprise "His first win? That would have been …"
"At Doncaster He was a three-year-old colt His jockey had been purposely holding hi the odds By Doncaster, they were twelve-to-one, and all bets were on--"
"Mariner," Ashworth finished "He’d been running strong all year I reeneral shock when he ran third"
"Not everyone was shocked There were ten members of the Jockey Club in on the plan I heard the it myself, at the coffeehouse where my mother worked I didn’t know their names at the time, but I remembered their voices Repeated theet Over the next few years, I learned their identities, and then … And then I blackmailed them, each and every one"
There was an awed silence in response to this Julian found hi it a bit Even he could hardly believe he’d possessed the stones to do it
Once he’d learned the identities of each conspirator, he’d posed as--well, as hiestures and written cards, he’d demanded a private audience with each man in turn In each interview, he’d handed over a block-lettered note It was the first missive he’d ever penned, each word collected separately over a span of weeks; the whole copied and recopied with painstaking care
Give one hundred guineas to the deaf-uineas and boy do not arrive by sunset, toht have shot him where he stood, and no one would ever have been the wiser There would be no one left to tell the newspapers the truth Even if Julian had gone to the scandal sheets himself, it was unlikely they would have believed his tale
But with histo lose So he played this bluff ten times in all, and in each instance it worked Alht to suspect him They saw that deaf errand boy from the coffeehouse, and they assumed him to be a si in his throat and a hundred guineas testing the seams of his pockets He could have asked for more money; he knew that now As a youth, he sireater suuineas, all told From it, he’d purchased new shoes and a proper suit of clothes And then he’d gone about building a fortune
Years later, when Osiris was retired to stud and Leo started the Stud Club … ah, the irony had been too sweet At last, he was one of the ten Not the boy scraping mud froh his teeth "And you think sonized you?"
Julian nodded "I’m sure of it"
"But I don’t follow," Ashworth said "It was just a horse race, and years ago now Why would they kill to protect that secret?"
"It wasn’t just a horse race," the duke said "Fortunes were gambled and lost Men were ruined If the plot were ever known, the conspirators would be permanently barred from not only the Jockey Club, but most of polite society"
"So they’d coed "I supposeelse," Julian said "This coffeehouse where I learned of this race-fixing scheentlemen came there every day to discuss their secrets Political secrets, business secrets, affaires of the heart If soht have overheard That’s why it’s impossible for me to identifyStone and Macleod are actually the men who killed Leo Shouldn’t we at least have Faraday identify them first?"
Julian leveled his pistol toward the riverbank, checking the sight "We leave Faraday out of this I’m not sure he can be trusted"
Chapter Twenty-three
"Today," Claudia vowed, "victory will be ing the backgammon board "Your play has seen moderate improvement"
"Moderate iroup of black markers into a precise line "Do you know the difference between ‘nearly winning’ and defeat, my dear?"
She shook her head
"There isn’t one"
Claudia pretended to pout "The dice, if you will"
Feigned petulance aside, Claudia liked Peter Faraday She liked hireat deal He’d been a most welcome addition to the household Aations, or each other Now she had a fellow invalid, a captive co room and scarcely able to move without a servant’s assistance They spenttoo They played backgaames, he read aloud from the newspaper whilst she worked on a baby quilt or simply rested her eyes Claudia didn’t care much about the content of the newspaper articles, but she enjoyed listening to his witty coeneral He had a very pleasant voice, Mr Faraday did, with a rich, soothing ti He was very handsome, in a way that recalled Mr Bellaentle
He asked her questions, about everything fronancy Not that Claudia was unused to being questioned, but it was a rare pleasure to have someone truly listen to her answers She’d told him all about Amelia and Spencer, and what she could remember of her late parents She’d even talked honestly of her foolish tryst with that horrid tutor in York, and Mr Faraday hadn’t been the least bit judgmental or cross Just interested She could talk to hiot on well, indeed
She rolled the dice and ly "Would you like to marry me?"
Poor man He’d spent a week at Morland House, and this was the first ti your pardon?" he finally said
"Did you not understandif you’d like toover a response, and she sipped at her glass of tepid le him time