Eve sat up. “You didn’t say! With an offer?”
“No offer yet. Come to that, no apology for attempting to kill me, which I would have thought is the least—”
“Get over it,” Eve recommended. “What did he say?”
“He’s thinking about it. He’ll be in touch in a few days.”
Nico did not want Chilcott Baynes to get in touch. He would have strongly preferred never to go near the man again; he could still see the black void in the muzzle of Baynes’s duelling pistol as it was pointed at his face. He had no idea how he could arrange the transfer of Baynes’s money to his own pocket without risk.
But he would find a way, because if Baynes coughed up enough to settle Eve’s debt, it would solve everything. Eve would be avenged, Gaskin paid, Nico free. He would tell Titus about the lies, throw himself on his mercy, and start again clean. He could triumph in the teeth of all adversity, if Baynes just sodding paid up.
Eve wasn’t looking happy. “I don’t like it, Nic. He’s a lunatic. I ought to have cut my losses at the time, not dragged you across the Channel to score off him and nearly get you killed.”
“Yes, you should. But you didn’t, and if Rankin and Roud are out—”
“Iknow. I’m just saying, you ought to be snuggled up in bed with your boy friend, not running around with murderers and facing down Gaskin, and I’m so fucking sorry to be asking all this of you.”
Eve was using “ton copain” to avoid saying Titus’s name in a public place. It didn’t make it less irritating. “Could you not talk about him?”
“We’ve got to talk about him. You and I are living with a rich man, so we have access to money. Gaskin will expect us to rob the house if need be. I don’t know if I’d put it past him to have the place robbed himself.”
Nico clenched his hands till his manicured nails dug into his palms. “Why did you borrow money from this bastard again?”
“Who else was going to lend me that much?”
Many people would call Nico a reckless, feckless, impulsiveadventurer prone to ill-considered acts. Those people didn’t realise he was the sensible one in the family. “I can’t have this shit on—my copain’s doorstep. We need to think about what we’ll do if Baynes doesn’t come through.”
“Couldn’t you borrow the money?”
“No.”
“You could, though. He’s round your little finger. He all but drools when you walk in—”
“Shut up,” Nico snapped. “And I said no. It’s not fair.”
“Oh,fair. Sorry, I forgot aboutfairnesswhat with waiting to have my legs broken! Jesus Christ, Nico, he’s rich as Croesus! He can afford it; he’d barely notice it!”
Nico was fairly sure Titus would notice a quarter of his yearly income. And even if he did have it to spend, two thousand pounds was more money than most people saw in their lifetimes. It was a year’s running costs for an aristocratic household, far more than Nico would ever be able to repay.
Titus would still give it to him, he thought. If Nico told him what Jacky Gaskin would do to Eve, if he begged for help, Titus would come up with the money. He could have it for the asking, at the low, low cost of ruining everything between them.
Nico might get away with his lies to date if he found the money himself, or at least he was choosing to believe that was a possibility, but if he asked Titus for two thousand pounds, that would be the end—maybe not at once, but soon. He was absolutely sure of that. Titus had years of experience of people not giving a damn for him, plus a recent but intensive education in what they would do to get their hands on money. If Nico asked him for a vast sum, Titus would never again be able to believe he was wanted for himself.
“That’s a last resort,” he said. “We can surely think of something else.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Oh. What about when we go up to the Lake District for summer? Suppose I say we should go right away?”
“Why?”
“So you can flit, idiot. I suppose Gaskin’s men will follow us, but they should be easy enough to spot on our travels. I’ll deal with them; you sneak away and get a boat to France. Easy.”
Eve contemplated him. Nico said, “What?”
“Two things. First, what will you do when Gaskin learns I’ve cleared off and comes after you with a mallet?”
Nico had no idea. “I’ll work something out.”