Page 86 of Marriage Most Scandalous
“Pierre Poussin is in prison?” Giles cut in.
Sebastian nodded. “According to Denton, Juliette arranged that. We’ll all leave in the morning.”
“We?” Giles asked.
“You don’t think I’m letting you out of my sight until this is over, do you? My last option still remains with you.”
“Which is?”
“Why, your death, of course. Having already paid the price for killing you, there isn’t much incentive for me not to kill you a second time, is there?”
“Bloody hell,” Giles mumbled. “I can think of one. Your namesake. My son.”
Sebastian threw the now empty brandy glass at Giles’s head. “You named your son after me?! Why?”
“For the obvious reason. You may not like the way this has played out any more than I, but I still consider you my best—”
“Don’t say it, don’t think it. If we are going to get through tomorrow without any bloodshed, don’t ever mention it again.”
Chapter 51
THE PRISON LOOKED LIKE A MEDIEVAL FORTRESSin the middle of nowhere with a village grown up around it. As they rode closer, it merely looked like a dreary square stone edifice with no ornamentation, just two stories high. But high walls surrounded it, and guards stood at the only gate, barring entrance.
Finding out that Pierre Poussin had been sent here had been easy. Getting in to visit him proved to be more difficult. Not because visitors were allowed in only at certain times, but because Pierre was ill.
“You are welcome to wait,” the guard told them in a friendly manner. “There are rooms at the tavern. They will welcome the business. But, truthfully, the doctor does not expect Poussin to last the week.”
“What bloody rotten luck,” John said as they nursed ales at a table in the tavern that night. And then he asked Sebastian, “Will you employ stealth or brute force?”
“Eh?” Giles injected. “Did I miss something? Are we going to wait this out or not?”
“Not,” Sebastian said. “I’m not going to let the man die without talking to him first.”
“I see I did miss something,” Giles said. “If he doesn’t recover, how the deuce do you expect to get around that?”
“By getting him out of there, of course.”
“Oh, of course!” Giles exclaimed sarcastically. “Why didn’t I think of that? Perhaps because that implies—” Giles paused, abashed as he realized, “Oh, I see, stealth or force. You’re used to this sort of thing, are you?”
Sebastian didn’t reply. While Giles had been behaving as if the last eleven years had been erased from their memories, Sebastian had erased nothing. So he spoke to his ex-friend as little as possible. Every time he tried to get beyond his own anger, to consider all the other circumstances, he couldn’t get past one glaring point. Giles had suffered not at all for what he’d allowed to happen, while everyone else involved had suffered too much. Deep down he might be glad Giles was alive, but that emotion was behind his shell, remaining there unexamined.
John spoke up when it was apparent Sebastian wouldn’t. “We’ve done this a few times before, yes. Though those targets were able to assist in their own extraction.” And to Sebastian, “You’ve considered that? That you might have to carry Poussin out?”
“Yes. I noticed the mortuary at the end of the village, though. I’d say they need a few new employees.”
“Ahh, quite right. That will do it.”
“Do what?” Giles wanted to know but was ignored.
“We’ll wait until after the changing of the guard at midnight,” Sebastian continued. “That will give us the ‘notification’ that a body needs extracting, delivered by one of the guards on his way home, and the new watch won’t have heard yet that Pierre died.”
John nodded. “Much cleaner than bashing in heads on the way in.”
Giles sat back with a glower. “And what will I be doing while you two do whatever it is you’re talking about?”
“John is sitting this one out,” Sebastian replied. “You’ll be coming with me. There is risk involved. If we’re caught, John will know what to do, whereas you’d just sit out here crying in your cups.”
Giles flushed. “You really have a low opinion of me now, don’t you?”
