Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle (164 page)

Scott

reality, your aunt and uncle are in as much danger as you are, although it's a danger of a different sort.'

'Oswalt can't marry them.' There was a touch of acid to her tone. Paine had let her read the letter from but he was still trying to protect her by in vagaries. He knew more of the puzzle than he let on.

Paine stood up and began pacing, making his familiar gesture of riffling through his hair as he spoke his thoughts out loud. She would have found it endearing if she hadn't been so annoyed with him. This was her plan, her choices. How dare he exclude her?

'Here's the story we know so far,' Paine began.

'Oswalt makes a habit of ruining noblemen. Usually-in fact, always-it's ruination of a financial sort. He likes the challenge of the chase. That's what makes the situation with your uncle so difficult. There's no money to speak of, except for this potential cargo, and there's no challenge-the two things Oswalt traditionally thrives on. Bottom line, Oswalt is not after your uncle's money.'

'But the cargo is valuable,' Julia cut in. 'Uncle says it will cover our debts.'

'Certainly that's true.' Paine gestured to the letter Julia held. 'Flaherty

that the indigo and cotton

carried on the ship will be valuable to your uncle.

However, Oswalt is a merchant. He has a fleet of his own ships at his disposal. He doesn't need to go after your uncle's cargo. He could have one just like it with less risk and more efficiency.'

'Then why ?' Julia furrowed her brow. Admittedly, her sheltered experiences with the world provided little

184

Notorious Rake, Innocent Lady

for her to draw on in terms of options. 'If he doesn't need money, what does he need that my uncle has?'

'That's the question we are trying to answer,' Peyton put in, reaching for another sandwich from the tea tray.

'Can you think of anything your uncle might be dabbling in? Investments? Agriculture?'

Julia shook her head. Nothing came to mind. 'I can't think of anything he's mentioned over dinner.

Most of our dinner conversation is about his Parliament work.'

'Could that be it?' Paine asked slowly.

'I see what you're thinking,'

spoke up in ex-

citement. 'Perhaps Oswalt wants a voting politician in his pocket. If he financially bails out Julia's uncle, the viscount will feel beholden to him.'

'That wouldn't last long,' Peyton mused cynically.

'That's a fairly terminal exchange of goods and services.'

'Not if Oswalt married the viscount's niece. Then he'd be in the family and the expectation could go on indefinitely,' Paine pointed out.

'And cure his pox at the same time,'

added flip-

pantly from his corner, forgetting his present company.

Julia sucked in a quick breath. 'Pox?'

'Crispin!' Paine shot his brother a quelling look.

shrugged, unapologetic. 'Everyone knows.'

'I didn't know!' Julia cried in a choked voice. 'Did my uncle know?' she whispered, unable to keep the horror from her face. The more she knew about the backdrop against which her wedding contract had been negotiated, the darker it became.

Scott

185

Paine shook his head and reached briefly for her hand in a comforting gesture. 'I don't know.'

'Sorry,'

muttered into his teacup.

'Let's focus on one issue at a time.' Paine resumed his pacing. 'Perhaps Oswalt is playing for the right to pull the puppet strings in Parliament. Are there other ideas? What else does the viscount have that Oswalt would want?'

'Land? An estate?' Peyton suggested.

It was Julia's turn to respond. 'My uncle's estate isn't nearly half as big as

Hall. It's hard to believe

anyone would go to so much trouble for a small manor when there are larger prizes out there. Besides, Oswalt couldn't get the estate anyway. It's not for sale. It's entailed. Surely a master planner like Oswalt would know that .'

'That's it,' Paine pronounced, hardly needing a moment to think. 'He's after the title.'

'Paine, that's an enormous leap of logic,' Peyton cautioned.

'I don't see how he could get it.' Julia agreed. 'Titles are bestowed by the Crown and my uncle has an heir.

Why, Oswalt isn't even related.'

hand flew to her

mouth. 'Yet. Marriage to me would change that.

Children of ours might inherit if Gray or the others don't

But it seems unlikely that all three of them wouldn't produce a single son between them.'

Paine shrugged. 'There are other more direct ways to get a title than staking it all on a roll of the genealog-ical dice. Oswalt could be made a knight,' he put in.

186

Notorious Rake, Innocent Lady

'Perhaps the king would knight him as a favour for saving a peer financially, especially if he was already married to that peer's niece. The king might even see that Oswalt is named the trustee for the estate since it's his money propping it up and he would have a connection by marriage.

have Flaherty dig around and see if Oswalt's put a petition in motion to that end. Additionally, perhaps Oswalt can argue years of economic servitude to the Crown. There's no contesting that he's made money for the empire.' Paine's eyes assessed her face and she felt herself smile in spite of herself.

She felt better until

said, 'There's always

murder, too. He could simply

Julia and then

to have the three brothers encounter untimely demises.'

Paine and Peyton shot him quelling looks, but the damage was already done. Julia blanched at the blunt assessment. It was what she'd been thinking. Was Oswalt capable of seeing three young men dead? What of tortured soul could wilfully engineer such atrocity? Julia shivered at the thought.

'None the less, all this speculation assumes the ship comes back,' Paine continued, trying to gloss over Crispin's blunt assessment. 'Need I point out that Oswalt's job is much easier if the ship doesn't return? Without the cargo, the viscount owes creditors
and
Oswalt.'

'Gray's ship will come back. He's never failed,' Julia said with grim conviction.'

'Ship or not, the most important issue now is what