Burning Bright (Brambridge Novel 2) (36 page)

“I haven’t the time for this foolery.” The voice floated towards the window. “Even though you are a delightful little morsel and I would so love to stay and play.”

Melissa squinted through scrunched up eyes. Although the curtains were drawn, the outline of a figure showed fleetingly against the material. “I’m not going to pay you. I told you once, and I tell you again, everything was paid.”

“Not her gambling debts to the Viper. And the sizeable interest accrued of course.”

Melissa tensed her hands in her skirts. “How much is it?”
Oh goodness
. Eliza and Edgar had already gambled away Melissa’s inheritance with anyone who would play. Why had she ever believed any of Eliza’s lies
? Because one doesn’t normally question a mother’s word.

“Thirty thousand pounds.”

She gasped. “Thirty thousand?”

That was more money than the house was worth, many times more. Pulling herself from the wall, she fled uncaring to the fireplace, and swept her hand along the mantel, grasping at the matchbox that skittered away from her fingers. Hands trembling, she fumbled with the box, striking at it twice with a match before lighting a taper.

The soft glow revealed a young man crouched by the windows. He turned to face her, standing sharply as the light reached him. With an oath, he swung lithely behind the curtains. “You have six months to find it!” he cried and with a splintering of glass he was gone.