Merely the Groom (Free Fellows League 2)

“I’m sure we’re all pleased that you bathed and changed out of your travel clothes, but time is of the essence here.”

“I’m pleased to see you, too, Jarrod,” Colin retorted, meeting Jarrod’s unwavering gaze. “Henderson didn’t relay your message until after I’d begun my bath. And for your information, I needed a bath because I rode like bloody hell to get here.”

“When did you get in?” Griffin asked, deflecting a bit of the verbal sparring.

“A little over an hour ago,” Colin answered.

“From where?”

“Paris by way of Dover.”

Griffin gave a low whistle of admiration. He pulled out a chair and pushed it in Colin’s direction. “Sit down before you fall down.”

Colin sank down onto the chair and stretched his legs. “Pour the man a whisky.” Griffin nodded toward Sussex. “And you—” He stared pointedly at Jarrod. “Ease off and give the man a chance to catch his breath before we begin.” Accepting the whisky Sussex proffered, Colin sent Griffin a grateful smile before he downed a swallow of the warm, soothing liquor. Jarrod had always been the leader of the Free Fellows League. A year older than Colin and Griffin, he’d been a natural leader at ten and the one they had always admired and to whom they had looked for answers. Jarrod was older and richer, and as a marquess, he had been the highest-ranking Free Fellow. But Griffin had returned from the Peninsula as the hero of Fuentes de Oñoro, and the Prince Regent had elevated him from a viscount to a duke.

Now that he was the Duke of Avon, Griffin outranked Jarrod, and he enjoyed using his new status as leverage on occasion. But Griffin was careful not to abuse his newly acquired power. He didn’t have any intentions of taking over Jarrod’s position as leader of the Free Fellows League. He simply enjoyed lording it over Jarrod once in a while. It made up for all the years Jarrod had lorded it over him and Colin.

The Duke of Sussex was another matter. Technically, Daniel, Duke of Sussex, took precedence over all the other Free Fellows because his title was older and because he’d been born the son of a duke. But Daniel wasn’t an original member of the Free Fellows League. He hadn’t attended the Knightsguild School with Jarrod, Colin, and Griffin. Daniel had been educated at Eton. He had only learned about the secret Free Fellows League through happenstance and his cousin, Manners, who also attended Knightsguild and had occupied the cot next to Jarrod’s.

Sussex had only gained entry to their secret league because Jarrod and Colin had persuaded Griffin to allow him in on a probationary basis when Griffin returned from the Peninsula because the young duke had proven himself useful, loyal, eager, free, and readily available while Griffin was away serving with his cavalry regiment in Spain and Portugal.

Jarrod watched as Colin savored his whisky and exchanged a knowing look with the new Duke of Avon. “All rested and comfy now?” he asked, continuing the familiar verbal skirmishing he and Colin had established over the years.

“Quite, thanks,” Colin replied, taking another sip of his whisky.

“Then you won’t mind if we return to the purpose of this meeting and begin the briefing. I believe you’ll want to hear this, Colin,” Jarrod confided, “especially since you’re the primary topic.” Jarrod frowned, then glanced at each of the other Free Fellows to emphasize his point and the importance of the information he had to impart. “We’ve a problem with the current operation.”

“Go on,” Sussex prompted.

“Colonel Grant received information from one of his confidential sources that a prominent Bow Street runner has been investigating the movements of a gentleman known as Colin Fox.”

“What?” Colin sat up in his chair.

“You’ve attracted the attention of Bow Street,” Jarrod replied.

“Are you certain?” Sussex asked.

“Colonel Grant’s sources are extremely reliable,” Jarrod reminded them. “And I confirmed the information earlier today.”

“Is there any way to put them off Colin’s scent?” Griffin asked.

Jarrod shrugged. “This particular runner has a reputation for unimpeachable tenacity, and he’s being paid a handsome sum to investigate a very personal matter involving Colin Fox and a young woman of good family.”

Although they’d originally begun as a secret group of schoolboys, the Free Fellows League had grown and changed as its members had grown and changed. The members had put their secret league to work against Bonaparte, working very closely with the Foreign Office and the War Department. The covert work that Colin and Jarrod and Sussex did came under the auspices of a staff of graduates of the Royal Military College and Lieutenant Colonel Colquhoun Grant. While Grant gathered battlefield information on the Peninsula, Jarrod, Colin, and Sussex gathered information on a much larger field of battle, and all of it was analyzed, enciphered, deciphered, and included in the constant flow of military dispatches overseen by Griffin’s father, the Earl of Weymouth.

While Griffin’s role as a cavalry officer and a national hero had become public, the Free Fellows League and each member’s connection to it remained secret to all but a handful of close associates.

The Free Fellows used code names, aliases, and secret personas, and all the Free Fellows knew that Colin Fox and Colin McElreath, Viscount Grantham, were one and the same. As Viscount Grantham, Colin McElreath lived the life of a London gentleman, but he moved within the underbelly of London and traveled the width and breadth of England and Scotland as Colin Fox. He did the same in France, using his French mother’s family connections to move within French society as Viscomte Grantham, and assuming the persona of Colin Reynard in the seamier waterfront districts and in the French countryside.

Having Bow Street runners nosing around investigating one of their own was cause for alarm. Bow Street runners were investigators organized in 1750 by novelist Henry Fielding and his brother John to patrol the streets of London and keep the city safe. The runners’ office was located on Bow Street in London, but the investigators didn’t confine their activities to London. They worked for fees and rewards and were often hired by businessmen and members of the peerage to investigate private matters.

“Impossible!” Colin reached across the table and helped himself to the whisky decanter. After pouring two fingers of whisky into his glass and offering to refill Griff’s and Sussex’s glasses, Colin turned his attention back to Jarrod. “I haven’t been with a woman in over a month. Not since our last visit to Madame Theodora’s.” The color rose in Colin’s cheeks, and he gave Jarrod a meaningful look, reminding his friend and colleague that the last time he’d spent an evening with a female, Jarrod had accompanied him to the exclusive Portman Square town house Madame Theodora and her girls occupied. “Since that time, I certainly haven’t had the time, energy, or inclination to become involved in a very personal matter with a young woman of good family, whomever she might be.”

His curiosity piqued, the Duke of Sussex smiled at Colin’s reply and asked, “Have you any idea who the young woman is rumored to be or what Grantham was supposed to have done?”

“Colonel Grant didn’t reveal her name to me,” Jarrod said. “But my own sources suggest that she’s a member of the ton. At the moment, I don’t know who the young woman is.”

“Who hired the runner?” Griffin joined the discussion. “The girl’s father,” Jarrod answered. “But I don’t know which girl or which father. Apparently, there’s been a spate of elopements to Scotland recently. All involving daughters of minor peers.”