“I supply them to His Majesty’s army,” Mr. Thornton called from in back.
“Quite.” It occurred to Emeline that Mr. Thornton might very well be rich. She had so little knowledge of the workings of the army, but she could imagine the piles of boots that would be ordered from Mr. Thornton.
“Are they made here in London?” Rebecca asked. She craned her neck a little to try to see him.
“Oh, yes. I have a workshop on Dover Street and employ thirty-two fellows there.”
“Then you do not make the boots yourself?” Emeline inquired sweetly.
Rebecca gasped, but Mr. Thornton replied cheerfully enough, “No, my lady. I’m afraid I wouldn’t even know where to start. Father used to, of course, when he began the business, but before long he’d hired other fellows to do the work for him. I might’ve learned when I was young, but I had a falling-out with Pater—”
“Is that why you joined the army?” Rebecca interrupted. She stopped and turned to face Mr. Thornton, and Emeline was forced to halt as well.
Mr. Thornton smiled, and Emeline realized that he was rather handsome in a bland sort of way. He wasn’t the type of man one would notice in a crowd, but perhaps that made him all the more dangerous.
“Yes, I’m afraid I took the king’s shilling in a fit of callow pique. Left Pater and my wife—”
“You’re married?” Emeline cut in.
“No.” Mr. Thornton’s expression sobered. “Poor Marie died not long after I returned home.”
“Oh! I am so sorry,” Rebecca murmured.
Emeline looked back down the path. Someone was coming.
“It was a terrible blow,” Mr. Thornton said. “She—”
“Emmie! Ah, there you are.” Jasper was striding up the path, his long, horsey face beaming.
Mr. Thornton stopped and turned at the sound of Jasper’s voice, his features going curiously blank. But Jasper wasn’t who she had expected. Confusion and a kind of disappointment shot through her, and then she saw him. Behind Jasper, Samuel followed, his eyes hooded, his expression sober.
Emeline held out her hands. “Why, Jasper, I did not expect you back until nightfall, if at all. Have you been successful in your investigations?”
Jasper took her hands and bent over them, brushing a kiss against her knuckles. “We lost the trail, alas, and went hunting Mr. Thornton instead. Except he wasn’t at his business, and we retired here in defeat only to find you have supplied the man we looked for.”
By this time, Samuel had caught up to Jasper. “Lady Emeline, Rebecca.” He nodded at them and then held out a hand to his guest. “Mr. Thornton, it is good to see you, although I confess some surprise at finding you at my house.”
Mr. Thornton grasped Samuel’s hand in both of his. “You are no more surprised than I, Mr. Hartley. I had not intended to presume upon your hospitality, but I was in the area, and my feet led me to your house whether I willed it so or not.”
“Indeed?” Samuel cocked his head, watching the other man.
“Yes. Maybe it was our reminiscences of the war the other day. I...” He hesitated a moment, looking down before raising his gaze to stare frankly in Samuel’s eyes. “You will think me an imaginative fellow, but I had the sensation when we talked that you did not think what happened at Spinner’s Falls occurred by happenstance.”
There was a silence as both men looked at each other. Samuel was fully a head taller than the other man, but there were certain similarities otherwise that were hard to overlook. They were both self-made men who worked in trade. They both carried themselves with a certain raw confidence, an ability to look a higher-born gentleman in the eye and dare him to make comment. And, Emeline sensed, to have succeeded in what they did, both men would have had to be daring. They were men who could see a chance and seize it, knowing the consequences might very well be dangerous.
At last, Samuel glanced sideways at her and Rebecca. He cleared his throat. “Perhaps if the ladies permit, we gentlemen should retire to my study inside to discuss this in private.”
Emeline arched an eyebrow. Did he really think she could be fobbed off that easily? “Oh, I’m most interested in what you have to say to Mr. Thornton. Please. Continue.”
“I say, Emmie,” Jasper began rather nervously.
She didn’t look at Jasper, her eyes holding Samuel’s gaze. “It’s the least you can do, don’t you think?”
She saw a muscle in his jaw flex, and he certainly didn’t look happy, but he nodded before turning to Mr. Thornton. “We were betrayed.”
Emeline felt a flicker of satisfaction. Samuel treated her as an equal, and that kind of trust was curiously heady.
Then Mr. Thornton blew out a breath. “I knew it.”