“They were going to kill all three of us?” Suzette asked with a frown, wondering just how much she’d missed while she was in the parlor with Lisa. She’d already figured out Jeremy must be planning to kill her and her father once he’d forced her to marry him, but learning that Dicky’s grand scheme had been to force all three girls into marriage and then kill them seemed so cold. He must have planned it out before even meeting them, and then had the patience to wait until each of the girls could be forced into marriage before seeing the end of it. It had already been a year since Christiana had married Dicky. How long would it have taken for them to get her father drugged and drag him to the gaming hell again? It could be another year or more if he followed the same pattern he had after the incident leading to Christiana’s marriage. He’d spent most of the last year locked away in his office, hiding from his own shame and self-loathing for what he’d thought he’d done—gambling his daughter away. No doubt he would have done the same thing again after she was forced into marriage. Another year could easily have passed before they could trick him into thinking he’d gambled again, forcing Lisa to marry. The patience needed to carry out this plan was as frightening as the cold-bloodedness of it.

“All in one fell swoop,” her father said in answer to her question. “The three of you were going to die in a tragic carriage accident.”

“How do you know all that?” Jeremy asked with alarm.

“George’s valet, Freddy, told all,” Lord Madison announced, sounding pretty cold himself.

“Freddy,” Jeremy spat the name furiously. “He was to find the markers and bring them to me. I would have claimed the money and given him some coin for his trouble.” He scowled and asked, “How the devil did he get himself caught?”

“By being no brighter than you,” Suzette snapped before her father could answer.

“God, you are a fishwife,” Jeremy said with disgust and then muttered to himself, “It figures Dicky would marry sweet little mousy Christiana himself and stick me with the sister who was a harpy.”

“Oh, boo hoo, poor you, having to put up with my sharp tongue to get all my money. You—” Suzette paused and blinked as what he’d said about Freddy sunk in. He was to find the markers and bring them to me. That had to be what he had been looking for in the office when he took Christiana there. He’d just died before he could find them. Turning an amazed look on Jeremy she accused, “You don’t even have the markers.”