Queen of Diamonds Read Online Free PDF Page A

to keep you from bumbling your way into jail.”
    Queenie’s face paled even further. “Jail?”
    â€œRighto. Jail, or transportation. Maybe hanging. They’d hang me first, which is why you ain’t going to say nothing to nobody, no matter the reward. You hear?”
    â€œNothing about what? Do you mean I am actually connected to this lady?”
    â€œConnected, but not on the right side of the blanket, so to speak. Molly never wanted you to know, she loved you that much, and she were ashamed.”
    â€œI was her brother’s by-blow?” Queenie guessed. At least that rogue was dead.
    Ize made a sound that might have been a laugh. “As if that no-account would have taken in a bastard of his. He’d of left his own get to starve in the gutter. But he did have big plans.”
    â€œFor the earl’s daughter?”
    â€œShe were already dead. He bungled the job and kilt the countess, the driver and the nursemaid too. He was going to hang for sure, except the bloke what hired him was just as guilty. That’s who was paying us off all these years. But before then old Godfrey had the knacky notion to hand back the dead heiress for the ransom.”
    â€œBut she was dead. You just said so.”
    Ize spit on the ground. “But a hundred orphans were just begging for a home. He picked a pretty one, one that looked like the little lady. Blond hair, blue eyes. Close enough from a distance. They would of paid, too, but the old earl died, and then Godfrey. And then Molly went and fell in love with you and wouldn’t hear of handing you over, ‘specially knowing they wouldn’t keep no foundling. Asides, she was already guilty of aiding and abetting her brother. And taking the blackmail money. She would of been convicted without a trial, mucking about with an earl.”
    Queenie set aside Molly’s guilt or innocence. “Then I am an orphan?”
    â€œTwict, now that Molly’s gone.”
    So Queenie was not even her mother’s daughter. She had no parents, no one at all. Her name was not Dennis. Neither was Molly’s, it appeared. She must have taken her brother’s first name, when Dennis Godfrey became a fugitive. Heaven knew where the Queenie came from. She supposed she had to be grateful to the wretched man for taking her from the orphanage. Foundlings had a poor survival rate in such institutions, living amid filth and poverty and disease, with no chance to improve their lots. Still, he was guilty of so many heinous crimes she was glad he was dead.
    She looked back at the poster. “Someone should tell the current earl and his brother. You see, it says information may be brought to Bow Street.”
    â€œSomeone should tell ’em what? That you’ve been living off their money for sixteen years? That you were meant to be the decoy? That your own mother was a blackmailer and your uncle was the murderer? Or maybe you’ll tell them that I helped, that I knew about the crimes all these years, too?”
    â€œNo, I wouldn’t.”
    He tossed the knife, with the point landing a scant inch from her shoe. “Damned right, you wouldn’t. I hear about you going near the earl or to Bow Street and you won’t have to worry about going to jail.”
    â€œI just thought they should know their sister was dead, that they should stop looking. They can bury their memories once and for all, instead of wondering forever.” As she would be forever wondering about her own background.
    â€œPshaw. Who cares about them? They’ve got their fortune. And we’re not getting any more unless we can think of a way of getting into the bank without being noticed.” He eyed her blond hair under the black bonnet. “Maybe a veil.”
    Queenie did not think that would work. If the earl had men watching the bank, surely they had notified the tellers. Besides, they did not know what name Molly used on her account. Molly Dennis,