Chapter 32

Nathaniel St. Pierre received a duplicate envelope with blackmail demands like Rebecca's, near the same time. He, however, had no friends to run to. He sat there, stunned, unable to accept what had been written about Rebecca. It was too absurd to consider. The indictment that he had become a traitor to his country recruited by her to give information to foreign powers, he considered rubbish. What Nathaniel had been helping Rebecca do might be unethical, but it wasn't illegal. Besides, that information went to domestic subscribers, not foreign ones. Further, not a thing he could recall being said had anything to do with state security.

Nathaniel was tempted to throw the folder in the fire but stopped himself. If someone was making up stories about Rebecca, he needed to find them and shut them up. Being on his way to asking the woman to marry him, Nathaniel could not allow a scandal to ruin her reputation.

Another thought intruded. If he had received this, might Rebecca have received demands, too? Rebecca had already been ruined and had just pulled herself out of it. She would have no resources to pay the leeches. Her cousin might pay it for her; but to St. Pierre's knowledge, the cousins had not made up yet. So, there was only one source for payment, and this demand times two would clean him out completely.

Nathaniel's older brother would be sympathetic, but Josh was not so generous as to give him money if he knew it would pay off blackmail. Josh would tell him to deny to the death and let the chips fall where they may. But that would be on the opposite pole of what their father would say. The Elder Joshua Thornborough did not like scandals. Nathaniel's only sister lived in war-torn America, where he had banished her and her lover when they had been caught.

Where would I end up?

Would Rebecca be shipped off with me?

Do I know how to do anything that would earn a living?

Nathaniel shuddered down to his shoes and sent an urgent note to Rebecca's home.

Rebecca came home from her meeting with Phileas and Chatsworth just in time to meet St. Pierre's messenger. She had a good idea what he wanted to talk about and decided a witness to the meeting might be in order. Phileas lived twenty minutes away. The evening call on her home by Nathaniel would occur in two hours. After sending the messenger away with her with her answer, she turned her hired carriage toward Savile Row.

Right on time, Nathaniel St. Pierre was shown into the parlor where Rebecca sat waiting. They made a subdued greeting and sat in front of the tea she had laid out. Rebecca poured Nathaniel a cup, which he accepted, but he touched nothing else.

"Rebecca," he said, "I received some distressing news today and I need you to help explain it to me." He produced the envelope and placed it in her hands. Nathaniel watched her closely as she looked down on it. She was not completely inscrutable. The woman knew what it contained.

"You have received something similar, I take it?"

Rebecca nodded her head but said nothing.

"Have you nothing to say about this?" he said.

Rebecca continued to look down at the envelope in her hands and refused to speak.

Nathaniel reached out, took her chin, and held her face up to look at him directly. Rebecca tried to pull away, but he clinched his hold.

Women, Nathaniel knew, did not like to be compelled. Being coaxed, cajoled, flattered, and teased into things was acceptable, and he had become a practiced master of all of it. This matter, however, was too serious for subtleties. He needed a direct answer to these charges, and he would accept no nonsense about his lack of faith in her for asking.

Rebecca looked back at him, perplexed. He was not making suggestions or promising to rescue me. Rebecca met his gaze squarely and saw in it but one question. He wanted to find out if she would confirm or deny the charges.

Nathaniel knew nothing.

Now what?

Nathaniel let go of her chin when the silence went too long. Rebecca was not making excuses or asking for help. He had picked up on a strong independent streak in her during their months together. His sister had been the same way. Charity had not asked her brothers for help in dealing with their hard-hearted father. Rebecca, apparently, was not going to for help either. Nathaniel now wanted to strangle both women for being so stubborn. He sat up, put the teacup down, and faced her.

"Rebecca, you may think you can deal with this on your own, but you are not on your own. I have become involved in this, and I do not plan to beggar myself by paying blackmail or get shipped off to some godforsaken corner of the world."

When Rebecca looked askance at that, he said, "My father does not like scandals. His idea of handling them is to remove the object of scorn, so out of sight, out of mind. If he finds out about this, I, and possibly you, will be shanghaied onto the first ship, heading far enough away to suit him. So, out with it. Is there any truth to this, and do you know who it came from?"

"The answer to both questions is no," came an answer. It had not come from Rebecca. The voice was male and had come from behind them.

Turning, Nathaniel saw Phileas Fogg standing in the door to the hall that had been left open. The two men stared at each other for a moment before St. Pierre stood and nodded a greeting to his old friend.

"The first answer is a relief. It was also expected. The second is disappointing," Nathaniel directed at Phileas. "I take it the two of you are on speaking terms again?"

"Yes," Phileas said.

"Then perhaps you can get your stubborn cousin to enlighten me on where these outlandish charges might have come from so I can help her run the blackguards to the ground!"

Phileas gave his friend from youth a slight smile at that description of Rebecca's temperament and bid him to be seated again. "We thought you might know more about it than us," he said as he seated himself in a chair next to Rebecca. "We appear to have been wrong."

"Me?" St. Pierre was too surprised to take the charge seriously.

"What did Isaac Jordan tell you of Rebecca's troubles?" Phileas said.

It seemed a completely different subject, but Nathaniel answered without hesitation. "Isaac told me she was coming into financial trouble of some sort. Later, he told me you had made some poor investments for her and had left her to pick up the pieces."

Nathaniel looked at Rebecca for a moment, a bit choked on what he would say next in her hearing. "Isaac told me of your falling out with Phileas, and he had suggested that you do some gleaning at court parties to pay your debts."

He turned to Rebecca. "Isaac knew of my interest in you and offered to let me come to your aid if I did him a favor later. I am no saint, Rebecca. I took advantage of the chance given and am not sorry for it."

That bald faced admission defied condemnation. The man deserved his reputation as an unrepentant rake.

"What did you give Jordan in return?" Rebecca said.

St. Pierre said, "Nothing as yet; Isaac has not decided on his reward. He is an ambitious sort and greedy for things he cannot have. He made some far-fetched requests at first, but I brought him back to earth with what he could reasonably get."

For all his irritation at having to let St. Pierre unofficially court his unannounced fiancé, Phileas was still impressed by his audacity. Nathaniel had not changed a bit. He freely admitted to manipulating Rebecca's troubles to his advantage. Then, once he had gained what he wanted, he tried to negotiate down the payment. Phileas did not see Jordan taking that lightly. The blackmail had been payback for arrogance.

"This blackmail… Are you capable of paying it?"

It had been delivered as a rhetorical question. Nathaniel saw what was going through Fogg's mind by this line of questioning and answered. "Are you suggesting Isaac is behind this and expects me to pay Rebecca's part?"

Phileas said, "Yes."

"It would clean me out and leave me dependent on the questionable generosity of my brother, but yes."

Rebecca turned from Phileas to Nathaniel. "Phileas did not make any investments that caused my problems. Jordan fabricated that. He blamed it on my cousin to cause our estrangement and put me in his power. When you came along later, Jordan must have thought he could get more from you than he could gain from me. When you refused his price, you became a target of his manipulations."

Nathaniel digested that and decided it was more than likely true. He was an arrogant man. He freely admitted it. But there was another arrogant man orchestrating this, a kindred soul in every aspect but honesty. What Nathaniel did in the open, Isaac did underhandedly. Isaac did not have the courage to go after what he wanted, honestly. The businessman preferred to pull strings and set traps. This time, he had gone after the wrong man's relative.

"Phil," Nathaniel said, "do you still have ties to Whitehall?"

Another thought came to him about the fiction concerning Rebecca. He amended his question, looking directly at her. "Do you?"

Both cousins looked uncomfortable at his unexpected question.

Nathaniel got his answer and smiled. Phileas should not have been surprised. After all, they had known each other well many years back. Nathaniel had been one of Fogg's cohorts and had watched him get dragged off by agents the night their fun had been interrupted. While he had gone to jail for a short time and been forced to face the wrath of his father, Phil had stood before his own and had entered his father's realm, assumingly, to force him to mend his ways.

Nathaniel's smile broadened. "You have my word as a gentleman, to be the soul of discretion, as long as I am allowed in on the kill."

Nathaniel turned and aimed his next comments at Rebecca. "I suspect I am going to lose your company when this is over; and after all the trouble I have gone to in gaining it. The least you can do is allow me the pleasure of helping you one last time." His voice was soft and slick as silk, showing not one ounce of shame.

Rebecca grinned at the man's audacity and was relieved of any worries that he had genuine feelings for her that would need to be put down later.

The three conspirators continued to talk long into the evening.