Page 1 of A Lady's Heart Deceived
Chapter One
Office of Military Records
Horse Guards
City of Westminster
15th September 1817
Dear sir,
I refer to my letters of March and July this year, regarding the late Captain Robert Eustace Taylor who served with the First Regiment of Foot Guards, and who was mortally wounded during the battle of Waterloo.
As noted in my previous correspondence, I am seeking to have a statue of the captain erected in his home city of Coventry. In order to do so, I must furnish the city with a copy of a letter stating the details of his military record and any notes of his heroic efforts during the battle.
Since my other letters have gone unanswered, I must press upon you that this has now become a matter of urgency.
I request that you furnish me with this information forthwith.
Yours faithfully.
Miss Margaret Radley
Fulham Palace
London
By the time Captain Piers Denford got to Miss Radley’s letter late on a chilly Thursday afternoon, he was not in a particularly pleasant mood. His reply, unfortunately, reflected his less than generous frame of mind.
Miss Margaret Radley
Fulham Palace
London
2nd November 1817
Dear Miss Radley,
I am in receipt of your correspondence of the 15th of September and have also retrieved your previous letters from the bottom of one of the large piles which are currently cluttering the top of my desk. I apologize for not having replied earlier, but there are several hundred letters currently bidding for my attention.
I have looked into your request and can advise the following: There is no record of a Captain Robert Eustace Taylor having ever fought in His Majesty’s British Army. This is especially true of the regiment formerly known as the First Foot Guards, as I am a serving officer of that particular regiment.
Please cease and desist from any further correspondence regarding this matter as I will burn all future letters.
Captain P. Denford
His Majesty’s, Grenadier Guards
He didn’t bother withyours faithfullyorregards. Week after week, Piers had to deal with requests from the families of real soldiers, men who had fought in the bloody battle which had cost thousands of lives on both sides. His patience with women writing to him regarding imaginary war heroes was limited at best. Whoever this Robert Taylor chap was, he was more than likely a figment of Miss Radley’s mind, or some scoundrel who had lied to her. Either way, the man did not exist anywhere in the army records that Piers had wasted several hours searching.
It was only after he had sealed and sent the letter, and was well on his way home to Denford House, that a horrible thought struck Piers. The young woman’s name was Margaret Radley. The Radley family name rang loudly in Piers’s mind.
“Oh, no,” he muttered.
In his bad-tempered haste he had just sent a terse letter to the daughter of Lord Hugh Radley. The address, Fulham Palace, was the home of the Bishop of London. How the third most powerful man in the Church of England would react to having such a blunt missive delivered to his daughter Piers didn’t wish to consider.
He slipped his hat off his head and slapped it hard against his thigh. The way his luck was running these days, Piers was certain that there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that the letter wouldn’t return to bite him on the ass.
