Page 28 of The Rogue's Last Scandal
Charley walked to the front window and looked out. The fog was lifting, and the day coming might prove to be sunny. Down the street, a boy lingered. He recognized him as one of Bink’s grooms, one of his father’s former men.
“What’s Shaldon got you up to, Charley? All this whoring around is a bit more than your usual. You’re walking a fine line with some of these diplomats. Bound to be called out sooner or later, or found with a stiletto in your gut.”
There’s a Spanish woman, wealthy and beautiful, with the key to a traitor. Newly arrived, exactly when, we don’t know. Where, we don’t know. Find her.
He tossed back his coffee and set down the cup. Kincaid had started him on this mission and handed it over to Farnsworth a few months ago, before he himself had disappeared on some errand of Father’s.
A familiar ache started in the back of his head, flooding him with grim memories, pictures of the rocky shore, of a broken carriage, and the dead…
He took a deep breath. Farnsworth had left, but not before Charley had heard the whispered discussion between him and Shaldon. Whoever this lady was, she might be linked to the traitor who’d sent Lady Shaldon over a cliff edge so many years before.
He’d flirted with ambassadors’ wives, paid calls on a visiting merchant’s daughter, bedded a lady’s maid. He’d thought the Contessa?wealthy, widowed, and well-connected?a likely prospect. Her wealth, however, had proved to be a fiction, and he’d had to duck and weave avoiding the parson’s trap.
And the Duquesa de San Sebastiano…between her powerful father and her treacherous husband, she was a walking pot of true danger; beautiful, impenetrable, and well-guarded.
And how she could possibly be the key to a Yorkshire murder years ago, he still couldn’t puzzle out.
“Charley? Charles.” Bink’s voice penetrated his thoughts and he turned. A beam of candlelight set Bink’s red hair afire. “Are you planning to wed the girl?”
His chest tightened as if the hand of a genie gripped it and pushed all the hot blood to his head.
Bink grinned.
Damnation.Agents of the Crown did not blush like schoolgirls.
“It’s your turn to be matched by our father, you know. You’re next.”
“No.” He shook his head. Father had managed the marriages of Bink and then Bakeley. “I’ll not play his marriage game.” He had plans. A murder to solve. A world to explore. Wives did not travel well.
Assignments were not to be shared, but of all the people in the world, he felt sure he could trust his brothers, who had both inadvertently found themselves battling villains to protect the ladies they married. The skin on his neck rippled. He swiped a hand over his face.Damnation.
“I have a mission. I’m looking for a Spanish woman, wealthy and beautiful. NotthisSpanish woman, Bink.”
“Are you sure? Father set you to this.”
He shook his head. “No. It was Kincaid, who handed me off to Farnsworth.” Lord Farnsworth was a long associate of Shaldon’s. “Who is now off to God-knows-where to check on Napoleon’s conspirators. Would that someone could drive a stake through the Corsican’s heart and be done with it.”
“And yet, I expect Shaldon will know all about this assignment.”
“Undoubtedly. But I met Miss Kingsley merely by chance. Perry dragged me off to a ball and the lady asked me for help.”
“You let yourself be dragged to a ball?”
“I thought someone I was hoping to meet would be in attendance.”
Was that it? He’d had more than one brandy after their dinner that night when Perry had persuaded him to accompany her.
“I see. Her husband had come back to town. So, what’s next? You’re not going to make this young lady Mrs. Everly. What will you do with her?”
He rubbed his face again. Taking her to Falmouth, turning her over to a sea captain to travel under the protection of only two servants was her wish. It was not something he would do.
“We’ve sent for Father.” Who might or might not be too ill to return immediately. Father was cagey. With Bink, he’d gone so far as to fake his own death. “Until then, I intend to hide her from her guardian. And speak with the solicitor managing her affairs. Lord Kingsley, I believe, is helping himself to her money.”
“As he may do.”
“For his new town coach?”
Bink’s forehead crinkled. “As he may do. Bakeley knows everyone in the City. Every damn solicitor and barrister and banker.”
