“Sorry, Till.” Harry ran a finger around his collar. “I’d like to get my hands on that money, but more than the money, I’d like to live to keep my handsome body and tarnished soul together. I can’t have my name in the papers, and that’s the whole truth. You could come to America with me. I’m sure his lordship would fund your passage if you asked him to.”

The man was either very foolish or very brave. Perhaps both.

“Be quiet, Harry,” Matilda said wearily. “Your stupid, selfish schemes nearly turned me into a streetwalker. Your dear friends condoled me with one breath and propositioned me with the next. Tremont offers me an honorable suit, but I can’t… I am so angry with you right now that those creditors and betrayed friends may not be the worst danger you face.”

Harry was quiet for a moment. “You aren’t violent,” he said. “I spotted that right off. You disdained your pa for raising his hand to you, and… I noticed that. You won’t kill me to clear your path to the altar, Till, and his lordship won’t either. You could pretend to die, maybe wait a year, use some henna, and study up on a Yorkshire accent. That one’s easy—”

“Hush,” Tremont said, when he wanted to bellow profanities. “Matilda is in an untenable situation because of your damned schemes and lies. We won’t solve the situation with more falsehoods and farce.”

“Harry Merridew is dead,” Harry said evenly, “and that suits me well enough. With a bit more coin, I can book passage from Bristol to Philadelphia, and then my situation will be as tenable as I need it to be. Give me the money, Tilly—sell the house, charm the blunt off his lordship—and I will leave you and the boy in peace. That’s the best I can do, and you know that’s more decent than I usually bother to be.”

Matilda gazed at him the same way the Almighty must have looked upon Lucifer after the war in heaven.

“You will leave me in peace,” she said, “until you need more coin. Then you will come back around, having escaped hanging in Pennsylvania, New York, and probably New Jersey for good measure. You will wreck my life at regular intervals, my very own remittance husband, and if I balk at your demands, you will threaten to take Tommie with you. I know you, Harry. You have better angels, but they gave up the fight years ago.”

Drees chose then to rap on the door. “Are we all through conferring? Glover, are you in there? Not the done thing to leave my client without the benefit of counsel.” He let himself in while a boy with a tea tray hovered behind him.