“It’s perhaps unchristian of me, but I would like to throw Hugo in the Thames,” Lucien growled. “To r**e a woman?”
Godric slammed a balled fist onto the reading table he sat at. “And then threaten her child?”
“And then force her to work for him?” Cedric howled. “Villain!”
“So why did you stop being Tom?” Ashton asked, the calmest of them all. “I assume Hugo changed his orders?”
“Yes. He wished for me to secure Charles’s affections, with the intention of having me betray him just before—”
“Before the endgame,” Ashton finished for her.
“This man is the devil himself,” Jonathan muttered.
“Yes, but the devil is clever and not to be underestimated. Such a betrayal, revealed at a time of Hugo’s choosing, would have broken Charles, made him incapable of defending himself.” Ashton still sta
