Page 14 of The Forbidden Lord
“Couldn’t Sophie’s maid tell you anything?”
“She too ran off on the night of the attempted elopement.” Lord Nesfield sat down on the other end of the settee. “If I find her, I will string her up by her sassy tongue, I will. Never did like that maid. She was a bad influence on my Sophie.”
Emily bit back a smile. She’d yet to see a single person whom Lord Nesfield regarded as agoodinfluence. Sophie’d had six different maids in the last five years, and this one had stayed longer than most, given Lord Nesfield’s temper.
Lady Dundee poured herself more tea. “About all we can determine is that Sophie met the man in London. How else could she have been put in the company of such a blackguard?”
“And we know he is a fortune hunter,” Lord Nesfield growled. “If he were respectable, he would have asked me for her hand.”
Emily stifled a retort. Lord Nesfield’s reputation might have cowed even a respectable man. Then again, elopements seldom occurred between people of equal wealth and station. Perhaps Lord Nesfield’s concern was justified.
“He’s probably a titled man without fortune, or some second son eager to snatch an heiress,” Lady Dundee said. “Such men would have enough family influence to keep their attempt secret from Bow-street-runners.”
Clearly, neither thought it was simply a man in love, who knew he’d never have a chance with Sophie otherwise. Given Sophie’s lack of experience, they could be right.
Lady Dundee leaned back, settling her skirts about her like an unfurling sail. “Now you see why we’re in a bind, Miss Fairchild. My niece is eager to return to her secret suitor. If we don’t discover him soon, I fear he’ll make a second attempt. And he just might succeed. We can’t keep the girl hidden in Scotland forever. People will talk. Her other suitors—and Randolph says there have been several—will want to know where she is. We must tell them something. But first we must unmask the scoundrel who started this.”
“Then I can deal with him—offer him money to be rid of him or threaten to discredit him,” Lord Nesfield put in. “But I cannot put an end to the scheme until I know who is behind it.”
Emily sighed. “I only wish I could help. But Sophie never spoke of being in love with any young man.”
“Ah, but youcanhelp,” Lady Dundee said. “We’re relying entirely on you.” Two pairs of eyes suddenly fixed on her, andthe weight of their combined power hit Emily with the same force as brilliant sunlight after the curtains are opened.
Oh, no. There was more to this than she’d realized.
Lady Dundee rose and moved to sit beside Emily. That in itself was alarming, but when the woman took her hand, Emily’s fears were confirmed. Something was afoot, something she wouldn’t like.
“You see, my dear, Randolph told me of your friendship with Sophie. When we set off for Willow Crossing, it was in hopes that you would know something. But in case you didn’t, we made a plan for discovering the identity of Sophie’s lover.”
“Involving me?”
“Yes. If you’re willing to help us. For the sake of your friend.”
Emily shifted uneasily on the settee and avoided looking at Lord Nesfield. Lady Dundee might at least pretend Emily had a choice. But Lord Nesfield wouldn’t give her one. He would command that she help them, knowing Emily daren’t refuse.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked warily.
Lady Dundee’s anxious expression softened. “We need a spy, dear, someone to circulate among Sophie’s friends and keep company with her suitors … someone whom this scoundrel of Sophie’s can approach to find out information about her.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Randolph has seen men watching the house in London, and Sophie seems convinced that her young man will pursue her until he succeeds. So we need a woman about Sophie’s age who can appear sympathetic to this man’s plight. If he confides in her, begs her for help in reaching Sophie, we’ll have the bounder.”
“That is why we need you,” Lord Nesfield said bluntly as he neared the settee. “We want you to be our spy.”
Emily looked wildly from Lady Dundee to Lord Nesfield, who was closing in on her. “Why, that’s absurd! Who of your setwould confide in a rector’s daughter? Who could possibly believe thatIcould help him get to Sophie?”
“You’re quite right, of course,” Lady Dundee said smoothly. “If we introduce you as Sophie’s friend—a rector’s daughter from Willow Crossing—it will look suspicious. Even if we continue with our current story that Sophie is too ill to attend the balls, people will find it odd that you’re attending balls instead of staying by your friend’s sickbed.”
Lord Nesfield leaned toward her with a dark gleam in his eye. “So we don’t want you to be a rector’s daughter. We want you to masquerade as Ophelia’s daughter.”
When Emily stared at him in slack-jawed amazement, he went on. “We’ll say you’re in London for your coming out. You look youthful enough to pass for eighteen. Both of Ophelia’s real daughters are too young yet to come out, and by the time they reach the proper age, most people will have forgotten all about you. All you need do is speak soulfully of your dear cousin Sophie and how distraught you are over her illness. A few balls, some breakfasts, and I’m sure our man will approach you.”
Forgetting she was just a nobody and they were two very important members of the nobility, she said, “You’re both mad! It cannot work! Be a spy? Try to entice some man to approach me on Sophie’s behalf? It’s insanity!”
When they merely stared at her as if waiting for her to finish a tantrum, she fumbled frantically for some argument to convince them. “No fortune hunter would come near me, and certainly not if I pretended to be one of the family! He’d be a fool to approach a supposed family member when he knows you’re all looking for him!”
“But unless you pretend to be a member of the family, he won’t believe you have the power to help him,” Lady Dundee said in a placating tone. “So this is what we propose. Once we reach London, we’ll make it known that you and your UncleRandolph dislike each other. We’ll portray you as a willful girl who ignores her elders. That will make you seem sympathetic to the lovers, and possibly gain you the man’s trust.”
