The Last Days of Newgate - Andrew Pepper [147]
‘But you failed, Edmonton. Catholic emancipation passed through both Houses. Peel remains in office. Swift is dead. And I’m still here.’ Pyke walked across the room towards the four-poster bed. ‘And it will be my very great pleasure to take away everything you have left.’
‘How delightfully naive,’ Edmonton said, still waving the pistol. But he was perspiring like a hog.
‘I’m here to ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage.’
‘You’re here to ask me?’ Edmonton started to laugh. ‘That’s rich. Rather wonderful, actually. You’re quite the brigand, aren’t you?’ His feigned laughter subsided. ‘But did you actually imagine I would give you my blessing?’
‘Is that a yes or a no?’
‘By God, you’re certainly a man to admire, that’s for certain. A cad and a brigand. Obstinate. Quite obstinate.’ Edmonton’s rosy cheeks glowed in the candlelight.
Pyke nodded, as though Edmonton had given him the answer he had been expecting. ‘By the way, that pistol is quite useless. While you were preparing for bed, I found it under one of the pillows and disarmed it.’
Edmonton looked down at the pistol, then up at Pyke, cocked the trigger and fired it. Nothing happened.
‘Let me rephrase the question. I’m going to marry your daughter. There. No longer a question, was it?’ He smiled easily.
‘The two of you can do whatever you damn well like, but you won’t ever see a penny of my money.’ His eyes narrowed.
‘Not even when you’re dead?’
This drew a leering grin. ‘Especially when I’m dead.’
‘Oh?’ Pyke said, happy to play along with him for the moment.
‘If she should marry unwisely, she loses everything. The estate would pass to a distant cousin in America.’
‘Really? And how is this business of an “unwise marriage” characterised in your will?’
‘It’s not in my original will,’ Edmonton said, beginning to enjoy himself. ‘But I had the foresight to draw up a codicil.’
‘A codicil?’
‘An amendment to my original will which names you in person. It means that if she were ever to marry you, then she would lose the estate and any claim to it.’
‘Is that legal?’
‘Perfectly.’ Edmonton was grinning. ‘She also loses the estate if she uses any income accrued from it or from the sale of land to benefit that damn charity of hers.’
‘That will hurt her,’ Pyke said, digesting this news.
‘It will, won’t it?’
‘You put that in this codicil, too?’
‘I did indeed.’ Edmonton appeared relaxed. ‘At heart, my daughter is as self-interested as you or I. She won’t want to give up her inheritance either for you or her damn charity. So you see, this proposed marriage is nonsense.’
Pyke nodded amiably. ‘I discussed this with your lawyer earlier this afternoon.’
‘My lawyer?’
‘On Chancery Lane,’ Pyke said, nodding.
‘What business did you have with my lawyer?’
‘Well, I knew for a start you did not keep certain important documents here at the hall.’
‘Who told you that?’
Pyke shrugged as though it was not important. ‘Dammit, what did you say to my lawyer?’
‘I put a pistol to his head and told him that if he didn’t produce your will from inside his safe, I would blow his brains out.’
Edmonton stared at him, open-mouthed. ‘And did he?’
‘The will and the codicil. I looked at both. I told him to hold on to the will. I kept the codicil for myself.’
He produced the document from his pocket and tossed it on to the bed so Edmonton could see that it was the genuine article.
‘I’ll destroy it after I have killed you, of course,’ Pyke said, calmly.
‘But if you shoot me, there’ll be an investigation. My lawyer will talk. In which case, you will never get your hands on my money.’ There was a rushed, panicky tone in his voice.
Pyke picked up one of Edmonton’s pillows and plumped it with his fist. ‘But let’s just