“The money is for my mother,” Roarke began, but his cousin lifted his hand.
“I don’t give a damn about your mother,” he snapped. “She was not related to us through blood.” Roarke clenched his fists at his sides but managed not to react in any other way as his cousin continued, “You receive a sum from the family at our pleasure. Our discretion. I’ve never asked you for repayment, have I?”
“No.” Roarke managed the one word through clenched teeth. “You are very kind.”
“Do you feel you owe me?” Thomas pressed, his eyes lighting with further cruelty.
Roarke bent his head, his breath coming rough. “You are talking about repayment, I suppose. I don’t know how you expect such a thing when you are so keenly aware of my circumstances. I thought lording it over me would be enough for you, as it has always been a pleasure to you to do so.”
“Watch your tongue, cousin, or it might be watched for you,” Philip said, edging closer. “The duke is talking to you.”
Roarke forced himself to lift his gaze back to Thomas’s and held there. “What do you want?”
“Nothing dire,” Thomas said, his tone dripping with false reassurance. “Nothing financial, so it will not be a trial to you. I am only asking that you investigate our stepmother. She didn’t know you, so she wouldn’t suspect if you did a little snooping into her life.”
“Investigate what?” Roarke sputtered.
“She must be whoring herself out,” Gertrude spat.
Roarke jerked his attention toward her. Here he had been surprised at the blunt language of his male cousins in front of her, but she was just as vulgar when it came to her stepmother.
“She has to have a lover,” Gertrude continued. “She probably had one while she was watching my father die in the bed beside her. And now she hides his…or even their…existence just so she can milk a little more away from Papa’s estate where it belongs.”
Roarke pushed past his cousins at last, his distaste finally overriding any duty he felt here. “No,” he said, walking toward the door. “Absolutely not.”
“Five hundred pounds.”
Roarke stopped as Thomas said the sum. He stared at the door, his escape. He usually got three hundred pounds a year from this lot, barely enough to scrape by and cover his mother’s carer. With an extra five hundred he could make her more comfortable, even give her a few niceties.
He swallowed and turned back to stare at the vultures who called themselves his family. They were smiling at him now. They already knew the trap was sprung, and he hated them and himself for the fact that it was true.
“You cared for your uncle, didn’t you?” Thomas asked.
Roarke pursed his lips. “Yes,” he choked out, and it was true. As a child he’d been close to his uncle, who had always been kind to him. But once his aunt had died, all that had changed. Thanks in part, he believed, to the very cousins who he stood before now. They had pushed him out and he had lost the bond to his uncle, except for fleeting conversations when they found each other at the same club.
“Flora was a monster,” Thomas continued, his tone serious. “Whatever you think of us, know that to be true. She took advantage of him in his old age, she played him for a fool all for what she could gain from him after his death. If you do this, you would be defending his honor.”
Roarke drew in a long breath. He had to give it to his cousins, they were experts at manipulation. Yes, the money was a tantalizing carrot to dangle in front of him, but the idea that he could do the right thing was even more attractive. If they were even a fraction correct that his late uncle’s young wife was using the situation for her own gain, then perhaps she did deserve to have her schemes uncovered.
And if not…well, at least Roarke knew he wouldn’t lie about it. Not like some other investigators his cousins might hire if he refused them. He could be a dispassionate judge of the circumstances and either deliver the dowager from the lies her stepchildren told, or condemn her for being a mercenary and using his uncle.
Either way, when he told himself this, convinced himself, it made him feel a little less guilty. “When do I get the money?”
“I will put half in your account today,” Thomas said. “Along with the other amount we agreed to earlier in our meeting. And when you have given me your report, you’ll have the other half.”
Roarke folded his arms. “What if I find that the lady is innocent of the charge that she has taken a secret lover?”
All three of his cousins scrunched their faces as if in disbelief. “There is no way she isn’t,” Philip said. “Not with her beauty.”
Roarke’s stomach turned as Thomas flashed his brother a salacious grin. “What if it’s not true?” he insisted.
Thomas threw up his hands. “Then you get the rest, I swear it to you.”
Roarke wasn’t certain he believed that, but for now it would be enough. “Fine,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “I will do as you ask. I will look into the activities of the dowager.”
“Excellent,” Thomas said with a smug expression. “You will find her on Kent’s Row. At least she knew enough to deposit herself there with the other dried-up crones.”
Roarke sighed. First the woman was a flagrant whore with a siren’s beauty, now a dried-up crone. It seemed there was no consistency here except for their hatred of the woman. Which meant he had to be extra careful in any of his own judgements of her. That was the least he could do under the circumstances.
Out September 5!
ALSO BY JESS MICHAELS
The Kent’s Row Duchesses
No Dukes Allowed
Not Another Duke (Coming September 5)
Not the Duke You Marry (Coming November 14)
Theirs
Their Marchioness
Their Duchess
Their Countess
Regency Royals
To Protect a Princess
Earl’s Choice
Princes are Wild
To Kiss a King
The Queen’s Man
The Three Mrs
The Unexpected Wife
The Defiant Wife
The Duke’s Wife
The Duke’s By-Blows
The Love of a Libertine
The Heart of a Hellion
The Matter of a Marquess
The Redemption of a Rogue
The 1797 Club
The Daring Duke
Her Favorite Duke
The Broken Duke
The Silent Duke
The Duke of Nothing
The Undercover Duke
The Duke of Hearts
The Duke Who Lied
The Duke of Desire
The Last Duke
The Scandal Sheet
The Return of Lady Jane
Stealing the Duke
Lady No Says Yes
My Fair Viscount
Guarding the Countess
The House of Pleasure
Seasons
An Affair in Winter
A Spring Deception
One Summer of Surrender
Adored in Autumn
The Wicked Woodleys
Forbidden
Deceived
Tempted
Ruined
Seduced
Fascinated
To see a complete listing of Jess Michaels’ titles, please visit: