The Last Offer: The Dunn Family Series by Chasity Bowlin

Author:Chasity Bowlin
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 7

Burke sighed wearily as he surveyed the account books. He’d ridden for a full day and part of another to reach the estate. Bone tired and resentful at being pulled away from Olivia so soon, dealing with ledgers and accounts were the least appealing thing he could imagine. But it wasn’t about what he wanted to do. It was his duty after all to ensure that the estates in his care flourished and, in turn, the family coffers, as well.

It had been four long hours, going over column after column of figures that could only point to one possible answer. His steward had been stealing him blind, or would have had his misdeeds gone unchecked for much longer.

“He’s gotten away with it for months, Lindley,” Burke said to his man of affairs. “How is it possible that it is just now being discovered?”

“It’s been one quarter, my lord,” Lindley said apologetically. “The first month, there were excuses… tenants late with rent, repairs to the estate that never materialized. I needed more evidence and the only way to obtain it was to allow him to continue his perfidy.”

“Is he aware that you’ve been investigating this thievery?”

Lindley sighed. “I couldn’t say, my lord. I told him we were reviewing the ledgers and account books to look at ways of making the estate more profitable or to see what tenants needed to be cast off. Whether he believed that or not is anyone’s guess. I did set one of the grooms to watching his cottage in case he tried to get away.”

Burke leaned back in his chair and scrubbed his hands over his face. The damnedest part of it all was that he was more upset about the envisioned delay of his return to London than about whatever ill-gotten gains his steward had made off with. He was like any other lovesick pup—besotted, smitten, mad for her in a way that defied all logic and reason.

“Set another groom… one to track him and another to raise the alarm,” Burke ordered. “We’ll need to have all the facts before we confront him, and the magistrate…who is the magistrate here?”

“Sir John Bellows, my lord.”

At that name, Burke simply shook his head. John Bellows had attended Eton with him but they had not been friends. They would not be now, either. “If it’s Bellows, your evidence will need to be utterly irrefutable, Lindley. The man detests me.”

“I know, my lord. Sir John has made little effort to hide his animosity… something about an old feud from your school days, I believe?”

“That’s all for tonight, Lindley. We’ll take a fresh look at these tomorrow when I’m not so tired that the numbers all run together on me.”

“Yes, my lord. Good night then.”

When the man had gone, Burke pulled a sheaf of paper from the desk drawer and penned a letter to Olivia. It would take longer than four days, of that there was no doubt. But how much longer he could not say. “Damn it all,” he muttered as he set pen to page.

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