Page 73 of To Break the Rules

“Just so things are abundantly clear,” he said. “Those are details of every debt you have outstanding from everyone in the country. Every gambling club, every merchant, every private debt, they’re all there.”

“What of it?” Ulceby sneered, striving to look unconcerned, though Aashini could see he was sweating now, and breathing hard.

“I bought them,” Silas said, smiling and holding the man’s gaze as his meaning became clear.

Ulceby’s gasp of shock echoed Aashini’s. She hadn’t known that, hadn’t known that Silas had been working to ensure she was safe for… for how long? How long must it have taken to gather all that information and…?

Her throat grew tight.

“I own you,” Silas said, his voice hard and cold. “I need only call in these debts and your house of cards comes toppling down.” He put his hands on the desk once more and leaned over it. “Give me a reason,” he said, his voice low and threatening.

The Earl of Ulceby swallowed.

“We will be paying a visit to the late earl’s lawyers later this afternoon,” Silas carried on. “I expect there will be some papers to sign, but otherwise I don’t imagine there will be any impediment to my wife’s inheritance. Will there, my lord?”

Ulceby didn’t look at Silas, didn’t speak. Aashini wasn’t sure he could. He looked ill, but he shook his head.

“Excellent,” Silas replied, looking almost jovial now as he held his arm out to Aashini. “Come along, my lady. Unless you had anything further to add?”

Aashini turned back to look at the man who had destroyed so much of her life. He was grey and sweating, and she wondered who would mourn him when he was gone.

“No, my lord,” she said, looking now at Silas, smiling up at the man who had helped her find her place in the world, who had helped her find her home. “Nothing further.”

Silas escorted her back to their waiting carriage and, even after everyone was settled and the carriage in motion, it was several minutes before anyone spoke.

Naturally it was Dharani.

“I thought that went well.”

Mischief glittered in her eyes, and Aashini burst out laughing alongside everyone else, all of them grateful to her for breaking the tension.

“Aashini,” Silas said, taking her hand and raising it to his lips. “I was never so proud in my whole life. The way you faced him. You leave me breathless, love.”

“He’s right,” Dharani said, nodding with approval, her eyes so full of love that Aashini had to blink back tears. “I have always been proud of you, bhanvaraa, but never more so than today. Such dignity, and such strength of character. Kali was with you, as proud of you as I am.”

Aashini gave a shaky laugh, trying hard not to cry. She was grateful to Mr Davis, who leaned across the carriage and offered her his handkerchief.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, drying her eyes. “I can’t believe it’s over. It is over?” She looked to Silas, who nodded.

“He’s all but bankrupt. Even if I don’t call in those debts, he will have to sell everything that’s not entailed if he wants to survive.”

“But, Silas,” she said, staring at him in wonder. “How, when?”

Silas grinned and shook his head. “It’s Fred here who deserves your thanks. I set him to investigate the earl, not realising I’d released a bloodhound. He sniffed out every debt from here to Land’s End.”

Fred flushed scarlet as Aashini turned to look at him. “Only because his lordship asked me to,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and shrugging.

“When?” Aashini asked. “How long did this take?”

“It was after the Countess St Clair’s garden party,” Fred said, frowning a little. “I remember, ‘cause his lordship showed me up by arriving looking like he’d slept in a ditch.”

Aashini gave a startled laugh and turned to Silas, who just shrugged.

“But that was weeks ago,” she said, smiling at him. “All this time, you’ve been working on my behalf?”

Silas shook his head, humour glinting in his eyes. “On my own behalf, I assure you,” he said, squeezing her hand a little tighter.

Aashini beamed at him and stared about the carriage, at her husband, at Dharani, and even Fred, whom she barely knew, but who seemed to have accepted her and her grandmother as part of his household without so much as a blink.