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A harsh laugh “You know damned well I’m in dire financial straits The Bencrofts have lost countless fortunes thanks to your great-grandfather’s piracy We’ll continue to lose countless more”

“So you view the dia”

“Pay the stone, restoring it to where it belonged so I could at last set things right Oh, I could never obliterate the past, but I could grant my ancestors peace and e I would have succeeded I’d raised the in my search And then—this!” Morland snatched up a copy of the Ti it to the floor at Slayde’s feet

Slowly, Slayde’s gaze traveled to the open newspaper, glancing fro furiously at Morland’s te in his eyes

A deluge of stunned awareness struck, transfore to shock, to doubt and, ulti the truth

Drawing in a slow breath, Slayde assiiven, fit all the pieces together

“Morland,” he so that not only did you not pay Arence in the business world was an attempt to finance a search for the stone?”

“Are you suggesting you didn’t know that?”

“Hoould I?”

Morland’s srim “Oh, come now, Pembourne You told me yourself you’d delved into hly, I presu with my funds?”

“Transferring the with your solicitor and banker discussing them” Slayde’s eyes narrowed “Let’s put the results of my inquiries aside If what you claim is true, why didn’t you combatthis convenient detail? She and I both, on separate occasions, appeared on your doorstep, accusing you of orchestrating the plan to pilfer the dia to prove you weren’t involved”

“I have nothing to prove, not to you or that crazed wo invested in a search—the onset of which was a thorough investigation of your activities to ensure that you weren’t, in reality, harboring the diamond at Pembourne—it hardly seemed prudent to disclose ation Moreover, since I kneas innocent of all the allegations you and that insane Johnston girl were hurling at me, I never once doubted that, like your accusations, your claim to have relinquished the diamond was entirely fabricated Until I read that contemptible submission of yours Had I but known—” Morland leveled an icy stare at Slayde “I’d have thrashed you before I let you hand over that diareedy bastard has the stone, and it will take me months to track it down”

“You’re not lying” Slayde said the words aloud, almost as if he needed to hear them to believe they were true “Hell and da the truth” Additional i a shot at Courtney last week? The night ere in Somerset?”

“What?” Morland countered “Took a shot at…is that the atte to?” Furiously, he shook his head “The last I saw of that chit, she was tearing out ofback to Peain I never knew you and she went to Somerset And I damned well never tried to kill her” Morland’s hands balled into fists “Pembourne, not only are you a heartless thief, you’re also a lunatic For months after your parents died, you hammered me with accusations—that I was a murderer, that my father was a murderer Now, ten years later, you’ve decided to rekindle the ashes of those accusations—inspired by soa woive a damn about one way or the other Well, I have no intentions of allowing you to reopen old wounds or create new ones Your claims were demented and unfounded then; they’re demented and unfounded now So are those of that sea captain’s daughter The two of you can threaten me with exposure ’til the end of time Unless you’ve manufactured nonexistent evidence to incri to fear Not only didn’t I try to kill her, but, for the hundredth tilare “Don’tone of thehten my heart But the particular one I’d have in randfather I’d choke the location of the diauilt Unfortunately, he’s already dead Andthe rest of you would serve no purpose other than to vent m

y rage and condeate Frankly, you’re just not worth it”