Page 81 of An Extraordinary Lord

She slipped her arm away and hurried up the stairs before he could stop her.

Biting back a curse, he had no choice but to let her go. For now. But she couldn’t avoid him forever. One way or another, the battle they’d started the night they met would finally end.

“Miss Jones,” Clayton began casually, as if the two of them were discussing nothing more important than the weather, “why don’t you tell me about your relationship to Lord Malmesbury? He keeps you in very comfortable circumstances here.”

Pulling in a patient breath, Merritt walked into the adjoining parlor and began to search it. He looked for anything that would tie Charlotte Jones to Liggett, Smathers, the riots…Scepter. Every drawer and its underside was checked, every locked cabinet pried open with the tip of his knife and searched.

Meanwhile, Madame Noir helped herself to a cup of tea from the tray resting on the dining room table. Then she leaned back against the doorframe between the dining room and the parlor and settled in to observe.

That was Madame, all right. Merritt grimaced as he shut the door of the parlor closet after finding nothing of importance inside. Always her own sovereign. What he wouldn’t have paid at that moment to have her locked in a room with the prince regent. God only knew which one of them would come out alive.

Taking his lead from Madame, Clayton poured a cup of tea, then untied Miss Jones’s arms. If Merritt were a betting man, he’d have wagered in the book at White’s that one of Clayton’s men had tied her up just so Clayton could be the one who compassionately untied her. A twisted knight in shining armor, complete with sugared tea and biscuits.

Thank God Clayton was on their side.

“Here, Miss Jones.” Clayton’s expression softened with concern as he handed her the teacup. “I find that tea always makes things better.”

The woman hesitated, then gave a jerking nod. Her fingers trembled as she reached to accept the tea.

“I want to help you, I truly do,” Clayton cajoled in a soft voice. “But I need more information to prove your innocence.”

As Merritt stepped up beside Madame, she rolled her eyes at Clayton and muttered against the rim of her teacup, “And I thoughtyouwere the snake.”

Merritt’s lips twisted. “Clayton’s very good at getting the information he wants.”

“Hmm.” She lowered her cup and listened.

Clayton continued, “We know you’re involved with General Horatio Liggett, that you’ve been spending time with him.” He paused a beat. “Intimately.”

Miss Jones’s eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

Oh, hewasgood, Merritt reflected. Because Claytonhadn’tknown. The connection had been a wild guess until just now.

Her shoulders shook as she admitted, “The general and I have been…close.”

Merritt glanced at Madame, happy to be proved right about Clayton’s interrogation skills. But she kept her gaze pinned to Miss Jones.

A sob tore from the woman. Her cup clinked softly against the saucer as she set it down, as if afraid in her distress that her shaking hand might spill it.

“I-I only did…as Malmesbury…asked of me,” she choked out between sobs. Her slender shoulders hunched forward, her gaze guiltily fixed on her tea as it rested on her knee. “He asked me to…to take the general into my bed.”

That last was said so softly that Merritt could barely hear her. But Madame heard and frowned.

Miss Jones pulled in a shuddering breath. “To settle an old debt between them.”

“And that’s how you came to know the general?” Clayton asked understandingly. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.

She nodded and dabbed at her eyes. “When the general came to my door, he had a letter from Malmesbury instructing me to make him feel welcome.” She paused, holding the bit of linen against her nose. “I knew what Malmesbury meant.”

“Are you certain he meant that?”

“This is how I make my way through the world, sir.” She gave him an indignant look that he would doubt her. “Pleasing Malmesbury is what keeps me from starving on the streets.”

Madame’s frown sharpened.

“Has the general been staying here with you?” Clayton asked.

“Heavens no!”