Page 99 of The Duke and Lady Scandal
“You know how to use a revolver, yes?” He reached into his pocket, considering whether to urge her to take it into the meeting with Holcroft.
“I...” She huffed in frustration. “I have held one, fired one. A long time ago. Why?”
“Do you have a roomy pocket in that skirt?”
“I don’t. Why? I wouldn’t want a revolver even if I had enormous pockets.”
Ben moved closer, and she took a single step back.
“The man you’ve come to meet isn’t Holcroft. Or at least, he’s not the kindly aristocrat you think he is.”
“How do you know?”
“Too much to explain. But he either works for M or...” The other possibility made his hand tremble against the revolver in his pocket. “Or heisM.”
Her mouth fell open. She snapped it shut. Then she set her jaw, and he could see the gears of her mind churning.
“If we go in together, there will be no subtlety to it, and he might do something drastic.” She glanced down the row of townhouses. “Let me go in and draw him out.”
“No.” He wanted her with him or away from this square entirely.
She sighed wearily. “It’s like with Grendel. I had to lure her with a bit of cream. I’ll see if I can draw him out of the house. Let me try.” She licked her lips as if assessing the risk. “You and Collier will be close if anything goes awry.”
“If I see you step into that house, I’m coming in after you.”
“Good,” she said in a breathy whisper. “If he’s what you say he is, I don’t relish being alone with that man.”
Ben took up a spot behind a tree, approaching as if he were merely a gentleman on a midday stroll.
Collier watched him from several feet away.
Ben scanned the area and gestured for the constable to proceed up the street, out of view of the front windows of number eight.
Allie shot one glance back at him before stepping up and lifting the door knocker.
Minutes ticked by, then she tried again.
An elderly lady in a mobcap opened to her a moment later.
“Hello, miss.”
“Hello, I’m here to see Lord Holcroft.”
“Who?” The gray-haired lady sounded genuinely confused.
“Lord Thomas Holcroft. I have his card.” Allie dug in her pocket and looked down at a crimson rectangle much like the one she’d brought to Ben. She stared down at the card in surprise, then rubbed her fingers together. “Does he not reside here?” she asked the woman.
“I’ve never heard that name in my life, and I’ve served the Denbys some fifteen years.”
Ben heard a man’s voice echo behind the woman but couldn’t make out what he was saying.
“Oh, Lord Denby. This young lady is seeking a Lord Holcroft and believes he lives here.”
The man strode forward, and the housekeeper receded.
“Is this some cruel joke?” He stuck his head out and scanned the square. “Who sent you?”
“Forgive me, Lord Denby. No joke is intended. I was given a card with this address on it by a man I believed to be Lord Holcroft.”
