Nicola Cornick Collection Read online

  ‘What can I do for you, Mr Kestrel?’ She assumed her most businesslike voice. She had already realised that this could not be a social call to follow up their meeting the previous night. No matter how brief and sweet their encounter had seemed at the time, something fundamental had changed. Now he was angry.

  ‘I think you must know perfectly well why I am here, Miss Bowes.’ Jack’s tone was clipped. ‘Had I known who you were last night, I would have broached the matter then. As it was, I realised your identity too late. But you must surely have known I would seek you out.’

  Sally got to her feet. It made her feel stronger and more capable. ‘I am sorry,’ she said politely, ‘but I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr Kestrel, nor why you are here, unless it is to enjoy the famous hospitality of the Blue Parrot.’

  She had heard that Jack Kestrel had once spent a thousand pounds on champagne alone in one sitting at the gambling tables in Monte Carlo. Sally wished that he would do the same at the Blue Parrot. But it seemed unlikely, given the hostile expression on his face.

  Jack’s mouth twisted with sarcastic appreciation at her words. ‘Legendary as I understand the Blue Parrot’s hospitality to be, Miss Bowes,’ he drawled, ‘that is not what I came for.’

  Sally shrugged. ‘Then if you could perhaps enlighten me?’ She gestured to the papers on the desk. ‘Stimulating as your company is, Mr Kestrel, I do not have the time to play guessing games with you. As I mentioned last night, my work is my passion and I am keen to return to it.’

  Some emotion flared behind his eyes, vivid as lightning. Sally could feel the anger and antagonism in him even more powerfully now, held under tight control, but almost tangible. She wished the lamps were turned up. In the semi-darkness she felt at a strong disadvantage.

  ‘I can quite believe that you have a passion for what you do, Miss Bowes,’ Jack said, through his teeth. ‘You must possess a great deal of nerve to pretend that you are unaware of my business with you.’

  Sally did not reply immediately. She moved out from behind the shelter of the desk, turned up one of the gas lamps, struck a match and lit the second and the third. She was pleased to see that her hands were quite steady, betraying none of the nervousness she was feeling inside. She could feel Jack Kestrel watching her, his dark eyes fixed on her face. She wished the room were a little bigger. His physical presence felt almost overwhelming.

  She turned to find that he was standing directly behind her. There was something close to a smile lurking in his eyes, but it was not a reassuring smile. Now that she was standing she found that her head reached only to his shoulder, and she was a tall woman. It was unusual for her to have to look up in order to look a man in the eyes.

  ‘Well?’ he said softly. ‘Have you changed your mind about this unconvincing little game of pretence that we are indulging in?’ His appraising dark gaze travelled over her. ‘I must confess that you are not quite as I imagined,’ he added slowly. He raised a hand and turned her face to the light. ‘When we met last night I thought your looks unusual, but when I found out who you were I was surprised. I was expecting someone a great deal more conventionally pretty. After all, they call you the Beautiful Miss Bowes, do they not—’

  Sally slapped his hand away. Despite her anger, his touch had made her skin prickle. His gaze made her acutely aware of her body beneath the plain brown shirt and skirt she was wearing. She felt very strange … She paused to think about the hot, melting feeling within her. She felt as though she was bursting out of her corset and coming unlaced. Not a single one of the gentlemen who frequented the Blue Parrot had ever made her feel that way, although plenty had tried.

  ‘Mr Kestrel …’ she kept her voice steady ‘… you speak in riddles. Worse, you are boring me. My good looks, or lack of them, are something about which I alone need be concerned. As for the rest, unless you explain yourself I shall have to call my staff to remove you.’

  He laughed and his hand fell to his side. ‘I’d like to see them try. But I will explain myself with pleasure, Miss Bowes.’ He spoke with deceptive gentleness. ‘I am here to take back the letters that my foolish cousin Bertie Basset wrote to you. The ones you are threatening to publish unless his dying father pays you off.’

  His words made no sense to Sally. She knew Bertie Basset, of course. He was a young sprig of the nobility, charming but not over-endowed with brains, who came to the Blue Parrot to play high and drink with the girls. When last she had seen him, her sister Connie had been sitting on his knee as he played poker in the Green Room.

  Connie … Of course …

  Sally rubbed her brow. Jack had called her the Beautiful Miss Bowes, but it was Connie, her youngest sister, who was known by that title. If she had not been so distracted by Jack Kestrel’s touch, she would have realised sooner that he must have confused her with Connie. Miss Constance Bowes was indeed so beautiful that the gentlemen wrote sonnets to her eyebrows and made extravagant promises that she was quick to capitalise upon. But Sally had never envied her sister’s looks, not when she had the brains of the family.

  Jack Kestrel was watching the expressions that chased across her face.

  ‘So,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘when I first mentioned the matter you had no idea what I was talking about, did you, Miss Bowes? And then, suddenly, you realised.’

  ‘How on earth do you know?’ Sally snapped. She was annoyed with herself for having given so much away.

  ‘You have a very expressive face.’ Jack sat down on the edge of her desk and swung his foot idly. ‘So you are not Bertie’s mistress. I might have guessed. He would be too young and unsubtle to be a match for you, Miss Bowes.’

  ‘Whereas you, Mr Kestrel,’ Sally said, very drily, ‘no doubt claim, quite truthfully, to be far more experienced.’

  Jack shot her a sinfully wicked grin. For a second it reminded her forcibly of their meeting the previous night. Sally’s knees weakened and her toes curled within her sensible shoes. ‘Naturally,’ he said. ‘And please call me Jack. I doubt that this place operates on formality.’

  It did not, of course, but Sally was not going to let Jack Kestrel tell her what to do in her own club.

  ‘Mr Kestrel,’ she said, ‘we digress. As you so perceptively pointed out, I am not your cousin’s mistress. I know nothing of this matter. I believe there must have been a misunderstanding.’

  Jack sighed. His expression hardened again. ‘There usually is in cases like this, Miss Bowes. The misunderstanding is that my uncle is going to part with a large sum of money.’

  This time the angry colour stung Sally’s face. ‘I am not attempting to blackmail anyone!’

  ‘Perhaps not.’ Jack came to his feet in a fluid movement. ‘But I also believe that you know who is.’

  Sally stared at him, her mind working feverishly. If her guess was correct, then her sister Connie, the toast of London, had done a monumentally foolish thing and was trying to blackmail a peer of the realm. Unfortunately it was all too easy to believe because, though Connie might be incredibly pretty, she was not over-endowed with intelligence. And she was spoilt. If she did not get what she wanted, she would stamp her foot. If she had wanted Bertie and the love affair had turned sour, she might well try to take him for what she could and the result of that madness was Jack Kestrel, standing in Sally’s office, looking both hostile and unyielding.

  ‘Perhaps it is your sister who is the culprit,’ Jack Kestrel said softly, and Sally jumped at how easily he read her mind. ‘I have not met her, but I have heard about her. She also works here, does she not?’

  Sally pressed her fingers to her temples in an effort to dispel the headache that was starting to pound there. She could not give Connie away—that felt too disloyal. She needed to speak with her sister first. Except that Connie never confided in her these days. They were not close—had not been since Connie’s last disastrous, broken love affair. Her sister had withdrawn into herself after that and barely spoke to Sally any more. But now Sally was going to have t
o make Connie talk.

  ‘Please leave the matter with me, Mr Kestrel,’ she said. ‘I will deal with it.’ She looked up. ‘I give you my word that your uncle will not be troubled further.’

  Jack sighed again. ‘I would like to trust you, Miss Bowes, but I do not. Do I look as though I came down in the last shower?’ He shook his head slightly. ‘You could easily be party to this affair and simply to accept your word would be very green of me.’ His contemptuous gaze swept over her, leaving Sally hot with anger and mortification. ‘You should know that my uncle is elderly and has been increasingly frail for some years,’ Jack added. ‘Recently we were told that he did not have long to live. A matter such as this will hasten his end. But perhaps you do not care about that.’

  ‘Perhaps you should speak to your cousin,’ Sally snapped back, ‘and persuade him not to write ill-considered love letters. There are, after all, two sides to every affair!’

  Jack smiled. ‘Indeed there are, Miss Bowes, and I will be speaking to Bertie and suggesting that he does not involve himself in future with good-time girls on the make.’

  ‘You are offensive, Mr Kestrel,’ Sally said. Her voice shook with anger and the strain of remaining civil.

  ‘I beg your pardon.’ Jack did not sound remotely apologetic. ‘I dislike blackmail and extortion, Miss Bowes. It tends to bring out the worst in me.’

  Sally shook her head irritably. ‘I do not believe that this is helping us progress the matter, Mr Kestrel.’

  ‘No, you are quite right,’ Jack said. ‘And until I can tell my uncle that I have destroyed those letters with my own hand, I cannot rest easy. Surely you would not expect me to do otherwise, Miss Bowes?’

  Sally would not have expected it. A forceful man like Jack Kestrel was not going to back down on a matter like this. Which left her with a huge problem. How could she protect Connie and yet ensure that the letters were either returned or destroyed? She had always defended Connie, it was a habit with her, even though she thought these days that her sister was as hard as nails and did not really need her protection.

  ‘Miss Bowes?’ Jack’s voice broke into her thoughts. ‘You seem to be having some difficulty making your decision. Perhaps it might concentrate your mind if I tell you that, if you do not hand over the letters, I shall call the police in.’

  Sally spun around on him, her eyes flashing. ‘You would not do that!’

  ‘Yes, I would.’ Although there was amusement in Jack Kestrel’s eyes, his tone was cold. ‘As I said, I don’t like blackmailers, Miss Bowes. It is only out of deference to my uncle that I did not go directly to the authorities.’ His expression hardened further. ‘Oh, and I will do everything I may to ruin the reputation of the Blue Parrot and to put you out of business. And you may be certain that my influence is extensive.’

  Sally stared at him, two bright spots of angry colour vivid in her cheeks. She had no doubt that he could put his threat into practice. He was rich and well connected, a member of King Edward’s exclusive, excessive circle of friends, able to turn the fickle monarch’s attention in other directions. At present the Blue Parrot was fashionable, but how long would that last if the gilded crowds who thronged its doors chose to take their business elsewhere? And she had just taken a huge loan from the bank in order to improve her business. She was dependent on her investors. It would be all too easy to ruin her financially …

  She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again. Jack Kestrel was standing looking at her with the same quizzical expression in his eyes that she had seen there before. Her heart thumped once, then settled to its normal beat.

  ‘You are harsh in your threats, Mr Kestrel,’ she said, as steadily as she could. ‘This is nothing to do with me and yet you seek to make me pay for it. It is not the behaviour of a gentleman.’

  Jack shrugged. ‘I play the game by the rules that are set for me, Miss Bowes. It was your sister who raised the stakes.’

  Sally pressed her hands together. She could see no point in arguing. She knew he would make no concessions. ‘Very well,’ she said. ‘If you would give me a couple of hours to deal with this matter—’

  ‘One hour. I will give you one hour only.’

  ‘But I need longer that that! I don’t know where Connie—’ Sally caught herself a moment too late.

  ‘So it is Connie who is the Beautiful Miss Bowes?’ Jack raised his brows. ‘Of course.’ He took a letter from the pocket of his coat and unfolded it. ‘I see that the initial in the signature is a C. How slow of me. I should have spotted that.’

  ‘You should certainly be surer of your ground before you make wild accusations,’ Sally said. ‘You are extremely discourteous, Mr Kestrel.’

  Jack laughed, refolded the letter and put it away. ‘I am direct, Sally. It is a quality of mine.’

  The warm tone in his voice, the way he said her name, made Sally’s heart turn over even as she deplored his familiarity.

  ‘I did not give you leave to use my name, Mr Kestrel,’ she snapped.

  ‘No?’ Jack gave her a mocking glance. ‘I must admit that you do seem given to formality. Do your clients have to address you as Miss Bowes as well?’ He looked thoughtful. ‘Actually, I suppose a touch of severity probably appeals to some of them, if it comes accompanied by a cane and some chastisement.’

  Sally felt the bright red colour sting her cheeks again. Jack Kestrel was not alone in assuming that the Blue Parrot Club was a high-class brothel; indeed, Sally herself often suspected that some of the girls made their own arrangements with their clients. In the early days her concern for their safety had made her try to stop them selling their bodies as well as their company, but in the end she knew they would go their own way and only stipulated that they made no such arrangements on the premises. Nevertheless she worried about them and she knew that, though they were touched at her concern, they thought her naïve. Sally sometimes thought so herself. She lived in a world of glittering sophistication and racy excitement and her sister maintained she had the morals of a Victorian maiden aunt.

  ‘You are labouring under several false assumptions, Mr Kestrel,’ she said icily. ‘On these premises the only expensive commodity that the customers can buy is the champagne. I have my licence to think of. I am the owner of the Blue Parrot, Mr Kestrel, which means that I am no more than a glorified office clerk.’ Once again she gestured to the pile of bills and orders on her desk. ‘As you see.’

  Jack Kestrel laughed sardonically. ‘I am more than happy to accept your protestations of virtue, Miss Bowes.’

  ‘You misunderstand me,’ Sally snapped. ‘I do not feel the need to justify myself to you, Mr Kestrel, merely to explain matters.’

  Jack inclined his head. ‘And your sister, Miss Bowes? Surely she cannot also work in the office?’

  ‘Connie is a hostess,’ Sally said. ‘Their task is to entertain the customers with their conversation, Mr Kestrel, and to help them to part with their money.’

  ‘A task which your sister seems eminently qualified for, given the evidence of her letter to my uncle,’ Jack said.

  Sally gritted her teeth. She could not really argue with that.

  ‘Is your sister working tonight?’ Jack asked. ‘I will go and speak with her immediately.’ He started to move towards the door.

  Panic flared within Sally. She knew he would go and demand answers from Connie and he was high-handed enough not to care whether he disrupted the business of the entire club in doing so. A public row would cause the sort of scene she could not really afford.

  ‘Wait!’ she said, hurrying after him. To her relief, he stopped. ‘I do not know,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if Connie is working tonight or not. I will go and find out.’

  She was very conscious of Jack at her shoulder as she walked up the stairs from the basement. One of the waiters passed them, a tray piled high with empty plates balanced on his arm. The Blue Parrot had a dining room to rival any gentleman’s club and a French chef as temperamental as any employed in the
great country houses. Tonight, however, Monsieur Claydon sounded to be relatively calm and Sally gave silent thanks for small mercies. She did not think she could bear a kitchen disaster on top of everything else.

  Jack held the green baize door open for her with scrupulous courtesy and Sally went out into the hall. The entrance to the Blue Parrot had been designed to be like a private house and had a black-and-white marble floor with potted palms and tastefully draped statuary. By the main door were two men in livery who, at first glance, might have been taken for footmen. A second glance, however, showed that they had the physique of prizefighters and the expressions to match. The elder of the two was Sally’s general manager, Dan O’Neill, who had in fact been an Irish champion boxer and now ran the Blue Parrot on a day-to-day basis and was in charge of the floor when the club was open. His pugilist qualifications were extremely useful. It was not unheard of for some of the clients at the Blue Parrot to have a little too much champagne, play a little too deep at chemin de fer and need to be encouraged to leave quietly.

  On seeing Sally, both men straightened up automatically.

  ‘Good evening, Miss Bowes,’ Dan said respectfully.

  ‘Good evening, Dan,’ Sally said, smiling. ‘Evening, Alfred.’

  ‘Miss Sally.’ The second man shuffled a little bashfully, blushing like a schoolboy with a crush.

  ‘Do either of you know whether Miss Connie is working this evening?’ Sally asked.

  The men exchanged glances. ‘She went out earlier,’ Alfred volunteered. ‘I called a hansom for her.’

  ‘Said it was her night off,’ Dan added.

  ‘Do you know where she went?’ Jack Kestrel asked. Sally was very aware of him beside her, could feel his tension and sense the way he was watching the other men very closely.

  Dan looked at Sally for guidance and then cleared his throat as she nodded. ‘I think she was dining with Mr Basset,’ he said.

  Sally heard Jack’s swift, indrawn breath. ‘Well, well,’ he said pleasantly, ‘how interesting. Perhaps she is hedging her bets in case her blackmail doesn’t work?’