Lady X

“Right . The point being, the squire and I managed quite well until David met up with Bellingham.”

“Och aye! We have established Bellingham from the Home Office works with ye…”

“Hold on, I’m getting to it. Certes! Let a man work his way into it.” Swit grimaced at him and continued. “You see it wasn’t so simple at first. Bellingham came to David as a representative from the Home Office. They wanted us to run our messages to a courier for Wellington. French excisemen look the other way when their boys smuggle brandy out, you know.” He eyed him then. “It wasn’t until late in the game that I realized Bellingham was altering the messages that Wellington would receive. I came to understand that he was helping the Frogs, he was. I don’t hold with that. So, you have to consider how many men on Wellington’s immediate staff? One of them has to be the traitor. Find him, and you clear your brother. You don’t need my Frenchy.”

“Aye then, Jerry, your game is played,” his lordship cautioned.

“Mine yes, but you had better watch your back. Horwich wants you dead. Has a fancy for that pretty Radley chit and means to have her one way or another. He told me to try and push you overboard the other night.” He grinned. “I told him, you never gave me your back.” He

scratched his head. “I know I said that at one time, that I wanted to bed the lass. All this business. I don’t know. I’ve lost interest.”

“I will see him rot in hell before he ever touches a hair on Miss Radley’s head,” snapped his lordship.

Swit eyed him interestedly then and said, “Aye. Mayhap we’ll all be meeting in hell one day.”

~ Nineteen ~

SIR JACOB UNDID his cravat and threw it across the room, aiming poorly at the dresser table and missing it.

His companion eyed him thoughtfully and patted the bed. “Come Jacob, tell me what is wrong.”

“You know what is wrong, so don’t patronize me,” Jacob retorted irritably. “I can’t do it. I simply cannot offer her a life that would be a lie. I like Exerilla too much for that.”

“You would be saving her from a life of drudgery at the Horwich House. She can never hope to make a match with no dowry and no entre to the Haute Ton,” Lucas Osgood cajoled as he put both hands behind his head and moved into a reclining position against the large pillows against the headboard of his bed in the inn’s largest bedroom suite.

Sir Jacob removed his waistcoat and hung it over a chair. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Lucas and thought how devilishly attractive he was. “You always patronize me.”

“I am sorry, Jacob. I did not realize I was doing that, but think about it. You will give Exerilla Radley a good life.”

“No, I would be giving her an empty home. She deserves to have a man she can love and one who can love her back.” He sat on the bed beside Lucas and said on a groan, “I can’t do what you ask.”

Lucas’ expression turned ugly, “You are just a boy without sense. You need to prove your manhood to the world, produce an heir. You can do that much and we can proceed comfortably together without anyone wiser.” He took Jacob’s hand. “Don’t you want to move forward with me?”

“You have no cause to ask that,” Jacob answered quietly.

“I am some years older. It may be that you have had a change of heart, of taste?” Lucas said not quite meeting Jacob’s eye.

“You know very well how I feel about you,” Jacob looked steadily at him.

“Then it is settled. It is for your sake, after all. My life is something I long ago camouflaged in subterfuge. People think I am a hardened bachelor, a libertine that goes about ravishing women and breaking their hearts. It was my only safe way out, to make everyone think that of me. You, on the other hand, fair of face and nature will never be thought a heartbreaking rogue. You must marry and Exerilla Radley is in need. She likes you and you have developed an easy friendship.”

“But,” Sir Jacob said. “We are friends. I cannot do this to her.”

“Think about it, Jacob, my sweet love,” Lucas said as he tugged on the hand he held and pulled his lover closer.

“Yes, Lucas, for you, I will think about it,” Jacob said softly.

* * *

Baudali watched David accost the pretty human, Exerilla as she attempted to walk down to the Horwich stables. Everything about this human male seemed aggressive. Horwich would be of no use to him. He was flawed, off balanced and behaving erratically. In fact, Baudali thought him mad.

Baudali’s dark cold eyes perused Exerilla Radley. Something about her still disturbed him, yet he could not penetrate through to her thoughts and he could not see past the human glow that surrounded her.

“Ah, bah,” he said out loud. He didn’t have time for this.

He couldn’t dally over nuances, though his twin, his good wizard brother always cautioned that an entire story lived in the nuances.

June 18th was quickly approaching and he required a ready step by step to be inaugurated into his plan if it was to be implemented successfully.