Page 77 of Secrets of the Heart

“Nor have I,” Rachel added.

“And the only ones who knew besides Rachel, Anthony Birkshaw and me were Rachel’s parents, and I am sure they would not have let the story loose.”

“I have never heard a word about it,” agreed Perry, frowning in a puzzled way. “So how—”

“I mispoke when I said no one knew. I had told one person—my sister Lilith.”

A stunned silence hung in the air. The other two occupants of the room stared at Michael.

“Lilith!” Rachel exclaimed at last. “Michael, you cannot be serious! Lilith loves you, she admires you. She would never do anything to harm you!”

He smiled at her. “I agree. I do not think that Lilith is behind the crimes. However, she has a lover, and she might have told him.”

“Sir Robert?” Rachel gasped. “You think that Sir Robert is the mastermind behind these crimes?”

“Sir Robert Blount!” Perry echoed, looking as stunned as Rachel. “Michael, really, I think you—well, that’s absurd. You and he have been friends for years and years. How can you think that he would try to kill you? That he would do such things?”

“I know.” Michael looked weary. “Believe me, I did not want to believe it. I still don’t. But I could not overlook the facts. First of all, he is one of the few people who could have known about Anthony Birkshaw. Secondly, he has a mind capable of deviousness. He used it for good, mind you, when he and I were fighting Bonaparte’s spy ring. But if he turned his mind to crime, he would be able to think of something of this complexity and inventiveness.”

“But that doesn’t mean he has done so,” Rachel protested. “He is your friend. He loves your sister.”

“I know. I have to believe that in the beginning he had no intention of harming me. That he thought his scheme so clever it would escape detection. And it would have, if he had not overestimated my abilities. But I think when I was working on two cases that related to him, he began to get worried that I would figure it out. Then, when I started looking into Mrs. Birkshaw’s death, he decided he could not risk that I would put all the pieces together. I would like to think that the first time he shot at me, it was a warning shot, designed to make me give up the investigation. He is an excellent marksman, yet he hit only my shoulder. But then, the other night when I was attacked…I had just left Robert, and I had told him about the progress we had made on the case. I think he realized that he could not afford to let me live any longer.”

“Still…” Perry said, shaking his head.

“There’s more. There is the factor of money. His father left him nothing but a title and a house, which he had to sell to settle the estate’s debts. He worked for the government because he had to earn a wage in order to live. All through the time we worked together, he was always strapped for money. But now he has enough money that he is able to live quite nicely without working. He even purchased Lilith’s gaming establishment for her. He told me that he received a small inheritance from an aunt, which he subsequently built up through wise investing.”

“But such things do happen,” Perry pointed out. “That happened to me—not the wise investing, of course, but the inheritance. My grandfather left me money when he died.”

“Yes, it happens. But we don’t know that he really did inherit. It could have been a lie to explain away his sudden increase in funds. All we really know for certain is that he did not have money in the past and now he has a good deal. Also, because he is a member of the Ton, he knows all the gossip—who badly needs money and would receive it if an inconvenient relative dies, who has valuable objects to be stolen, what wife or husband would be glad to pay to get rid of a spouse. He has necessary knowledge that most members of the criminal class do not. And, unlike most aristocrats, he also has access to a large number of criminals through his years of working with the spy ring and then with Bow Street. He would know burglars, pickpockets, men who would murder for pay.”

Rachel frowned. “Yes, I can see how it would be possible for him to be the mastermind, but that doesn’t mean that he is. I mean, a number of those things apply to you, as well.”

Her response startled a laugh from Overhill. “A direct hit, Rachel!”

Michael smiled. “I know—although I think we can absolve me from having hired someone to kill me. The most damning thing is the knowledge the man obviously has about Anthony.”

“But even that is only a possibility. You don’t know that Lilith told him. You have no proof,” Rachel insisted.

“Quite right,” Perry agreed. “You can scarcely go about accusing the fellow.”

“I know. That is why I have decided to set a trap for him.”

“A trap!” Rachel narrowed her eyes. “What kind of trap? Is that why you want Perry to take me somewhere, to get me out of the way so that you can do something dangerous?”

“I will feel much better knowing that you are somewhere safe, yes,” Michael told her. “There is nothing wrong in that.”

“Only the fact that it means that where you are will not be safe,” Rachel retorted. “Michael, what are you planning?”

“It is simple, really. I shall tell Sir Robert that I plan to meet Anthony tonight at a certain place and time. If he is the man behind all this, I believe that he will get there before then and try to kill me so that he may lay the blame on Anthony.”

“Michael!” Rachel exclaimed, horrified. “Have you run mad? You are going to provide him with yourself as a target just so that you can prove that he is the man behind these crimes?”

“You might have a little faith in me, my dear,” Michael returned mildly. “I will get there earlier than Sir Robert does, and then when he arrives and hides, preparing to shoot me, I will have the proof I need.”

“You are mad,” Rachel said.

“She’s right,” Overhill agreed. “You cannot go there alone.”