Read Online Celeste Bradley - [Heiress Brides 02] by The Duke Next Door - Free Book Online Page B

coin for it—in a manner of speaking, of course. He and Wolfe might be equal partners, but there was no illusion of who did the actual work. Why, without Stickley’s efforts the Pickering fortune would not have grown so vast over the last two decades—which meant that Wolfe’s portion of the retainer had grown as well, enabling the fellow to live out his days in the pursuit of pleasure instead of putting effort into the partnership.
    The least the bastard could do—since he insisted on darkening the office door at all—was to relieve Stickley’s boredom with some outrageous tales to be properly scandalized by.
    “Why are you here again?”
    Wolfe gusted a bored sigh and lifted his boot heels to rest on the blotter as if he could scarcely find the strength to do so. “Damned landlord locked me out again.”
    Stickley raised the superior brow of a man who owned his own proper little house in a respectable neighborhood. “Stinted on the rent again, did you? I paid out your share yesterday. Did you waste all of it?”
    Wolfe shrugged. “Waste?” He gave a bad-dog smile. “I wouldn’t say it was wasted … ”
    Stickley pricked up his ears, but Wolfe rumbled back to sleepy silence once again.
    At that moment, a tap came at the office door. “That’ll be the post.” Perhaps not a great leap of deduction, since no one else bothered to come to their office. Stickley
rose and dug into his waistcoat pocket for a penny to pay the postage as he crossed the room. Of course, Wolfe made no move toward paying for something.
    There was only one letter, a crisp costly envelope with the Brookhaven arms embossed on the flap. “Ah, her ladyship!”
    When Miss Deirdre Cantor had landed the marquis in a masterful play just after his lordship had given up his previous fiancée to his bastard half-brother in a ceremony that was still the talk of the town, Stickley had dusted off his hands, declared his meddling days over and had settled down to manage the vast fortune that the new Lady Brookhaven had promised to leave in his—their—capable hands.
    After all, what need had she for it, when Brookhaven’s own wealth outshone even old Pickering’s? The plan had worked nicely, even though it had been Wolfe’s idea. Together, they had made sure Brookhaven’s first engagement had failed.
    Of course, it was true that Wolfe’s information had been faulty and Brookhaven’s fortune was solid—and it was true that kidnapping Brookhaven had turned out to be a spectacularly bad idea, especially when it hadn’t been Brookhaven after all, but his brother—and it was true that Miss Phoebe Millbury probably wouldn’t have had any more use for her inheritance than did Miss Deirdre—er, the new Lady Brookhaven.
    Well, however they had arrived at this point, it was a good place to be. Stickley had not nurtured and tended the Pickering thousands all these years to be happy about them being frittered away on alleged female “needs.” Now he wouldn’t have to be.
    With relish, he opened the flap and withdrew the
thick, heavy paper within. He read aloud, although Wolfe didn’t seem interested.

    “‘To the firm of Stickley & Wolfe,
    Dear sirs,
I hope this letter finds you well.’”

    Stickley smiled, a brittle twist of his lips. “Lady Brookhaven is a most well-bred young woman, is she not?”
    Wolfe grunted. At least, Stickley preferred to hear it as a grunt and not as some other, less savory exudation. Ignoring his partner, he went on.
    “‘I have decided not to inform my husband of my incipient inheritance—’”
    “Well, that is her prerogative, I suppose,” Stickley said with a judgmental sniff. “Although I shouldn’t allow a wife of mine to keep such a thing from me .”
    He ignored Wolfe’s muttered slur on his possibility of ever being in such a position in the first place—really, just because a fellow took a bit of care with his appearance didn’t mean—
    He read on silently until he came to a sentence that made