Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

" N ot only were they murdered, but I have the correspondence to prove it."

A ringing silence followed these words.

Moments before, all Phineas had been able to think about was his concern for his wife. Seeing her cry at her mother's story had filled him with sadness and anger on her behalf. It had made him want to leap to her rescue. Now, he couldn't think at all. A white-hot, searing pain was filling his chest, as if he had been stabbed in the heart.

From somewhere far away, he thought he heard his name. He thought it might be his mother, calling out to him. Then he blinked and realized it was Iris.

He had stood up. His whole body was rigid, frozen. Iris was staring up at him, concern etched on her face, calling his name.

"Phineas, can you hear me?" she called. "Are you all right?"

He tore his gaze away from his wife to stare at her mother. The Viscountess was watching him carefully. She should have looked frightened, considering the level of anger that was now pulsating through him. He wanted to flip over the table and send all their dishes scattering across the floor. The strength of this hatred and violence scared him, and he tried to take a deep breath before speaking.

"How long have you known this?" he demanded. His voice thundered through the room, shaking the teacups in their saucers.

Lady Carfield remained calm. "I've known since shortly after I signed the forged bill of sale. There is a safe behind the portrait in Lord Carfield's study. After weeks of searching the house, I finally found the key, and inside the safe, I discovered a letter between him and the man he'd hired to kill your parents. The moment I read it, I knew I had to leave him."

" Leave him? " Phineas stared at her incredulously. "You should have gone to the authorities and had him arrested!"

"I know," Lady Carfield said, "but you have to understand. My husband is and was a very powerful man. He pays off men in the Bow Street Runners. I didn't know where to turn, or who was safe to tell. And I was so scared that he would hurt my daughters. I felt trapped and powerless."

Phineas was shaking his head. He didn't care about this woman's excuses. His parents had been murdered. The searing hot pain throbbed in his chest, and he clenched his fists to keep from crying out. After all these years, he never thought that his parents' deaths could cause him any more pain than they already had. But here was evidence that he could feel even worse than he ever thought possible.

"I was the one who was trapped and powerless!" he shouted. "I was fifteen, and Carfield was stealing my family's ancestral land! I was all alone in the world, without family, because your husband had murdered them."

Phineas knew he was being unreasonable, but he couldn't stop. He was so angry that he wanted to burn down the world.

"I know," Lady Carfield said, truly meaning it. "But the murder was the one thing I had over my husband. He didn't know I knew, but I could use it against him if he ever tried to hurt the girls. If I told people but no one believed me, I'd lose my one chance to protect my daughters."

"I can't hear this anymore," Phineas snapped, turning and striding to the door. "I'm leaving."

In the doorway, he paused and turned back. "Do you have the letter in your possession?"

Lady Carfield nodded.

"Good. Then give it to Iris, and she will make sure it is locked in my study. And Lady Carfield…"

She swallowed. "Yes?"

"You should have found a way to tell me this before now. I deserved to know the truth, and I could have helped you, protected you. But now… I only despise you."

And without even looking at Iris, Phineas stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Good God, man, what happened to you?"

Phineas looked up to see James standing over him. His old friend's brow was furrowed in concern, and his eyes were probing.

It was such an unusual expression for James that Phineas almost didn't recognize him. James was usually so determined to be cheerful that he never let anything bother him. But now, he looked more worried than Phineas had seen him in a long time.

Grunting, Phineas motioned for his friend to join him. He was at his club, where he'd been all morning and afternoon, sitting in one of his favorite wingback chairs in a dark corner, drinking heavily and smoking cigar after cigar. It was the kind of behavior he hadn't exhibited since his parents died—since his parents were murdered , he had to remind himself—and he wasn't altogether unsurprised that James seemed so shocked.

"What, no jokes?" Phineas snarled as James continued to stare at him with a mix of pity and alarm. "No quip about how my marriage has turned sour so soon, or how my wife has driven me out of my home with her incessant nagging?"

"I would never speak about Her Grace so ungenerously," James said gently. "She has been nothing but the most gracious hostess to me, and I have seen the way you two look at each other. You have something special, and I wouldn't mock that."

Phineas didn't reply. He twirled his cigar in his fingers and stared off into the distance. He didn't want to think about anything right now, and certainly not the ‘something special' between himself and his wife. The anger and pain that the revelation about his parents had brought him was so all-consuming that he was afraid to think too much about Iris, in case it tainted her by association.

"Phineas," James called.

Phineas looked back at his friend. James rarely called him by his Christian name. Usually, he referred to him as Eavestone, or mockingly as Your Grace . It must mean something serious if James was calling him Phineas.

"What?" Phineas grunted.

James sat down on the chair opposite him and looked at him pensively. "Tell me what's wrong. Did you and Her Grace have a fight?"

"No."

"Is it Carfield, then? Did he try to harm his daughters again?"

"No." Phineas snorted. "He wouldn't dare."

James frowned. "Then what is it, old friend?"

"I don't want to get into it," Phineas snapped.

He knew he was being rude and hurtful, but everything felt so twisted up inside of him that it was hard to care.

James sighed, stretched, motioned for the waiter to bring brandy, and then looked at Phineas with the most serious expression he had ever displayed.

"I understand you don't want to talk about whatever's wrong," he began. "I know you're a private person who holds his cards close to his chest. But if you push me away, someone who has known you your whole life, then what is to stop you from pushing Iris away next? And I know you love her, Phineas. Don't try to deny it. But if you stay on this path, the one of vengeance, silence, and resentment, then you will lose her. You do understand that, right?"

Phineas fidgeted. He knew James was right, but he didn't know how to untangle all the spiteful feelings inside of him.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he retorted. "Iris's mother came to see us. And she told us…"

He wasn't sure if he could get the words out. James had been there for him after everything that had happened to his parents. He'd seen him in his darkest place. And now, for the wound to be reopened… Part of Phineas feared James wouldn't stick around for this. It was just so heavy and dark.

"She said that my parents weren't killed in a robbery gone bad," Phineas finally choked out, not looking at his friend. "She said that Carfield had them murdered so he could take their land."

James's reaction was swift and earnest. His mouth fell open, then his face flushed with anger, and his hands clenched into fists.

"What?! Phineas, I can hardly even believe it! We should call the Bow Street Runners, have him arrested at once!"

"Keep your voice down," Phineas hissed, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. "We're talking about a member of the peerage. It will be difficult to bring him down, and we will need evidence. We will need to be strategic."

"But you are going to bring him down, aren't you?" James asked.

"Of course. Lady Carfield says she has proof of the plot."

"I am incensed," James said, and he really looked it.

It gave Phineas some relief to see his friend so angry on his behalf. It helped to know he wasn't alone in this feeling.

"That man is pure evil! And for Lady Carfield to know all these years but not tell you. It's unconscionable."

"She wanted something to hold over her husband, in case he tried to harm their daughters," Phineas explained, unsure why he was defending the Viscountess.

James snorted. "And yet she didn't come forward with it after Iris married you."

"I have never harmed Iris!" Phineas said indignantly.

James chuckled. "I know that. But your reputation isn't exactly spotless." He grew more somber. "How is this news affecting your relationship with your wife? I know you care for her, but now to find out her father murdered your parents… and her mother kept it from you all these years? I can imagine it is disrupting your marital bliss."

"I'm trying not to let it affect how I feel," Phineas said slowly. "Iris means everything to me. I don't blame her for her father's actions, and I know she despises him as much as I do. Her mother… well, I suppose she'll be staying with us now from time to time, and I'll just have to get used to her presence."

James shook his head. "That's very generous of you."

"I'm trying to think what my mother would have done," Phineas admitted. "Would she have kept that information secret in order to protect me? I think she might have. And I understand that Lady Carfield was scared and didn't know what to do. But…"

"I know," James said. "I would find it hard to forgive her as well."

Phineas sighed. Truthfully, it felt better to open up to his friend. For the first time since Lady Carfield's confession this morning, the searing pain in his chest had eased a little.

"I'd do anything for Iris," he murmured. "Even forgive her mother."

James was about to reply when a manservant arrived with a letter. "For you, Your Grace," he announced, holding out the silver tray.

Phineas took the letter. It was from Iris, and he felt as if his heart stopped and restarted at the sight of her name.

He ripped open the letter and stared down at the words. Then, in a moment, he was on his feet.

"Tell my man to prepare my horse at once," he shouted at the manservant. "I need to return to Eavestone House without delay."

"What is it?" James asked, aghast. "What's happened?"

Phineas crumpled the letter in his hand, his heart beating wildly in his chest. "I have been robbed."

The house had been ransacked. It was the first thing Iris had noticed when she'd returned home from her outing with her mother. There were papers littering the hall, where they had been scattered as the thieves left Phineas's study, the door to which had been knocked off its hinges.

The parlor was a mess as well. Tables and chairs had been overturned, books had been thrown off the bookshelves, and even the drapes had been pulled down. It was clear from even a cursory glance that whoever had broken into Eavestone House hadn't just been there to steal valuables—they'd been looking for something specific.

The timing of the robbery couldn't have been more perfect as well. Iris and her mother had been out visiting Violet and Rosalie, as it was important to Iris that her sisters reconnect with their mother. Because both Iris and Lady Carfield had been banned from Carfield House, they had met at a teahouse Iris used to frequent, then walked along the Serpentine. It had been an emotional reunion, with tears, recriminations, and also hugs, and Iris had been feeling warm and tender when she and her mother had arrived back home.

The shock of finding the house torn apart had been almost too much to bear.

"They came in just ten minutes after you and Lady Carfield left," a terrified Anna had whispered after Iris finally persuaded her to come out of the broom cupboard, where she and the other maids had been hiding. "It was like they knew you had left. And they just started pulling apart everything. We were able to hide, but Mr. Malloy got the worst of it."

Iris had found the butler in the dining room, bludgeoned over the head. He was unconscious, but as soon as the doctor arrived, he was revived.

It was only after Iris had started searching Phineas's study that she realized what exactly was missing.

"They took the evidence you had of Father's guilt," she whispered to her mother as they brought Anna some smelling salts and a large cup of sherry. "You put it in the study after he left, to keep it safe. Now it's gone. Along with the forged document."

Her mother's eyes were wide with horror. "But how could they have known it was in there?"

"I don't know. Maybe they guessed you'd brought it to Phineas when you came here last night. Or they suspected he had something in his study they could use…"

Iris wasn't sure. She didn't have any answers. All she knew was that after she and her mother had searched the study, the correspondence between Lord Carfield and the man he'd hired to kill Phineas' parents was gone.

Iris penned a quick note to Phineas, which she had delivered to his club, where she assumed he had gone after storming out that morning. She also called the Constable, and once he arrived, she tried to answer all of his questions as honestly as possible, although it wasn't possible to tell him everything.

For example, she couldn't mention that she suspected her father of orchestrating the theft. It might not be safe to admit this to the Constable. After all, he could be one of the many Bow Street Runners who was reportedly on her father's payroll.

The Constable was just asking if he could interview the maids when Phineas burst in through the front door of the townhouse, followed closely by James. Her husband cut an impressive figure, his cloak billowing behind him and his eyes flashing. And for the first time since meeting him, Iris understood why people said her husband was the most dangerous man in England.

Phineas looked as if he were capable of taking down a single army by himself. His jaw was set, his eyes were bulging from his head, and there was a cold fury radiating from him that chilled Iris to her very bones. She was sure that her mother and the Constable could feel it as well. Her mother took a step back as Phineas came into the hall, and the Constable shrank slightly.

Iris, on the other hand, felt a surge of relief. Her husband had arrived, and now everything would be all right. If anyone could figure out how to fix what had happened, it was Phineas.