“Montrose insulted me and disparaged my father,” he said, wanting to keep his friend apprised of the situation, but not wishing to revisit it. “He has no respect for me at all, and he implied that no one else does either.”
“But Joseph deported himself quite well in the face of all that,” Ellen said, surprising Joseph by coming to his defense. At least, until she added, “Even if he was behaving abominably just moments before.”
Instead of being angry, Joseph let out a breath and reached for the beer that had just been set in front of him. Ellen was not wrong, but he was still too frustrated to know how to react.
Long watched the two of them from the other side of the table, humming and nodding as he chewed his lunch. “Why did you approach Montrose in the first place?” Long asked Joseph at last.
“I witnessed him speaking to another man outside of the fashion house, and I wanted to discover who the man was in case he could assist in the efforts to bring Montrose down,” Joseph asked.
Long shrugged, gesturing with his fork. “Then why did you not follow that man? Why did you go after Montrose?”
Joseph frowned. “The man disappeared. I could still see Montrose.”
“And what did you hope to achieve by accosting Montrose?” Long asked on.
Joseph was beginning to feel as though he were sitting an exam, and that he wasn’t scoring top marks. “I…I suppose I wanted to trip him up and cause him to reveal something that would help our efforts to end his reign of terror against the nobility.”
Long kept nodding. He took another bite of pie, chewed it, and with his mouth still full said, “While I can appreciate your desire to confront the man, at this point, it’s useless.”
“Danny, dearest,” Mrs. Long said, resting a hand on his arm, “will you please stop behaving like a cretin and show some manners?” She grinned across the table at Joseph. “He’s only being this way to shock you. He can be quite civilized when he wants to.”
“You like me when I’m rough and crass,” Long growled to his wife, the wicked look back in his eyes.
Mrs. Long blushed and judiciously went back to eating her lunch.
Long laughed, then turned to Joseph, getting back to the matter at hand—but in a decidedly more gentlemanly way. He straightened his posture and cleared his throat, and when he spoke, it was with an accent closer to that of the upper classes.
“You received the information I sent you?” he asked.
“I did,” Joseph said.
Long nodded. “Then you’ve seen that it’s only a matter of time before Montrose puts a foot wrong and his house of cards comes tumbling down.”
Ellen sat up a bit straighter at the analogy. “If we’re dealing with cards here, then I am the expert,” she said.
“Are you?” Long asked with an interested smile.
“Oh, yes,” Ellen said. “My father was a professional card sharp. He taught me everything I know. I would routinely win tournaments all throughout Wyoming, and a few in Denver, when I was allowed to enter.” She sent Joseph a sideways look, then said, “I’ve amassed quite a fortune through playing cards and investing the winnings, though most people assume it’s a dowry my father bestowed upon me.”
Joseph’s eyes went wide. It seemed there was much he needed to learn about his bride.
“I would love to see your skills in action someday,” Long said with a laugh. “But for now, you’ve got other problems in front of you.”
“How close do you think Montrose is to undermining Westminster’s land development deal?” Joseph asked.
Long shrugged as he continued eating. “It’s hard to say. As I understand it, Montrose’s plan has two parts—invest successfully in the initial stages of the deal, then cause the second half to fail. That way, he earns his money, then damages Westminster’s reputation and his ability to do business in the future.”
“Does the Duke of Westminster know about this scheme?” Mrs. Mercer asked, seemingly alarmed by everything that was being discussed around her.
Joseph sighed. “I’ve tried to get close enough to tell the man, but I’ve been rebuffed at every turn. He does not take me seriously.”
No one took him seriously.
But no, that was not true. Long took him seriously. Joseph confirmed as much by meeting Long’s gaze across the table. It felt as though the man recognized that Joseph was new to schemes of the sort he was engaged in, but also as though Long were helping him to learn what he needed to know to win the day.
How different his life would have been had Long been his father, or rather, his older brother, since he wasn’t quite old enough to have sired him. Just because they had no connection by birth did not mean Joseph couldn’t learn from the man, though.
“What would you do?” he asked, leaning across the table slightly. “What would you do to make Westminster listen to you, and to bring Montrose down?”