Page 76 of The Viscount's Seduction
“I don’t see him, and I believe he said he was going to the country for a few days, visiting a friend in Lancashire. What ho, strange is it not, him going into the Commons when he’s a lord?”
Charley frowned. “He gives up his lordly privileges, does he not?”
Bakeley stared at his drink, his vision clearing, an idea taking shape. “A risky business. He can be tried for crimes just like a commoner.”
Penderbrook laughed. “Good thing he’s a gentleman. Capital fellow, they say, else he wouldn’t be a member here, eh?”
“Yes,” Charley said. “No rogues here. Perhaps you should call on him, Bakeley, when he returns to town. Do you know where he’s lodging, Pender?”
“The Oxford Arms, I believe. He hasn’t taken rooms or found a friend or relation to impose on yet.”
Charley grimaced. “You must tell him, Bakeley, he’s not welcome at Shaldon House until after your honeymoon.”
Sterling Hollister wouldneverbe welcome. “He had no residence here?” Bakeley asked. “Where did he live before coming here?”
Penderbrook shook his head. “At his estate in Ireland, I presume. Though before that, I don’t know. An army man. Telling stories about Waterloo, I hear.”
“Indeed.” Charley’s face clouded.
Charley had been at Waterloo, though to hear him talk he’d got only as far as the Duchess of Devonshire’s ball.
“You must introduce him to Bakeley and me the next time, Pender.”
Penderbrook promised to send round a note when he heard Hollister was back in town.
Which would not be necessary. Bakeley’s next stop would be that inn, and with enough coin he could know everything he wanted to know about his new cousin’s stay there.
He said his goodbyes and settled into a hackney. Nothing would proceed on the Donegal matter until his father’s men returned from up north.
His hair rose and a ripple went through his skin. Hollister had gone north, just as Bink was attacked. Could the two facts be related?
He shook his head. The description of Donegal, rough and hairy, was not the description of a gentleman. No, they were two different men, and two different threats to Sirena. One threat to her person, the other to her person and reputation.
Perhaps he shouldn’t bother seeking the man out. Perhaps shutting him out of society and influence was a better tactic.
Hollister would call Sirena a liar. That was a given, so any legal dispute was his word against hers. The Glenmorrow servants might testify, but only if they hadn’t been terrorized already, only if Bakeley could protect them from Hollister’s wrath.
And then what? A trial that would drag her name through the London gutters? He wouldn’t put her through it.
There must be another way. If he were on better terms with his father, he’d mention it to him, but then he’d have to share with him what the man did to her.
Or perhaps his father knew it already. Would Shaldon have declared himself happy with the marriage if that were the case? He didn’t know his father well enough to answer that question.
At the inn, he tracked down the proprietor and greased the wheels of his plan. Hollister had indeed kept rooms there for himself and two servants, and was expected to return on the morrow. Yes, the innkeeper would send a message when the Earl of Glenmorrow arrived, and most importantly, the man promised to keep Bakeley’s inquiry secret from everyone, including the man he was tracking.
A promise that could easily be bought by a higher bidder.
He must make one more stop on his journey home.
It wasnear dark when Bakeley returned to the Shaldon residence. He sought out his father and found him in the library with Perry.
“She’s safe,” Shaldon said. “I’ve not locked her in the dungeons.”
The dry humor caught him up. It was not like his father to joke. “Good to hear. Where is she then?”
Perry smiled. “In your chamber.”
He should send Perry away so he could talk to Shaldon in private. Or...he could talk to him after he’d checked on Sirena. Yes, that would be better.
