Merely the Groom (Free Fellows League 2)

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nbsp; The runner didn’t need to elaborate.

Baron Davies understood that his daughter had trusted a man who lied to her, married her under false pretenses, and abandoned her in a foreign land, leaving her to make her way home as best she could. If he lied about marrying her, then he’d most likely lied about everything else. “When is the meeting to take place?”

The Bow Street runner glanced up at the clock on the mantelshelf. “Lord Grantham should arrive any moment.”

“Good,” Baron Davies pronounced. “I’ll be interested to hear what the young viscount has to say.”

Colin entered Lord Davies’s study some ten minutes later. He extended his hand to the baron as Lord Davies’s butler announced him. “Good afternoon, Lord Davies.” Colin greeted the baron and then shook hands with the Bow Street runner. “Mr. Wickham. I’m Grantham. And before we begin, I must inform you that anything that’s discussed in this room must remain entirely confidential. We three”— Colin cast a sideways glance at the butler—“are the only participants, and if word of this meeting or any of the subjects we discuss leaves this room, I shall hold you entirely responsible.”

“Of course.” Lord Davies wasted no time on pleasantries. “Your warning is well taken and your threat quite unnecessary. I assure you that neither Mr. Wickham nor I wish to have the contents of this meeting divulged. We are all gentlemen and shall be held to the highest standard of behavior.”

Colin nodded his assent.

Davies motioned the younger man into the study before dismissing the butler. “That will be all, Saunders. I’ll ring if there’s anything we require. Otherwise, we are not to be disturbed for any reason.” Lord Davies waited until the butler withdrew from the study before turning his attention back to Colin. “So tell me, Lord Grantham, what do you and the War Office know about the man known as Colin Fox?”

Colin narrowed his gaze at the baron as the older man quickly dispensed with polite formalities and began demanding answers. Colin recognized a formidable opponent when he saw one. Baron Davies didn’t mince words.

But Colin wasn’t easily quelled. “I’ve come to ask you and your Bow Street detective the same questions.”

Lord Davies was momentarily taken aback. “Why would you ask us about the man we’ve been hunting?”

“I ask because you’ve been hunting the wrong man,” Colin answered.

“Impossible!” The Bow Street runner exclaimed. “I’ve been on Colin Fox’s trail from the moment Lord Davies’s daughter returned from Scotland.”

Colin felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He ground his teeth together to keep from giving voice to his sudden, acute disappointment. He hadn’t realized until that moment how much he had wanted Jarrod’s information to be incorrect. But Jarrod’s sources of information were impeccable, as always.

Colin didn’t believe in coincidence, and even if he did, he’d be hard pressed to believe that the reason for this meeting and Gillian Davies’s return from Scotland were unrelated. “You have been on the trail of one Colin Fox,” Colin informed the Bow Street runner. “Unfortunately, you’ve been on the trail of the wrong Colin Fox.”

Wickham looked skeptical. “Are you telling us there’s more than one?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Colin said.

“How do you know?” Lord Davies demanded.

His hopes of surviving the meeting with Baron Davies and the Bow Street runner with his secret identity intact were dwindling, but Colin followed Colonel Grant’s orders and did his best to stanch Lord Davies’s quest for information. “My position in the War Office makes me privy to information about Colin Fox of which ordinary citizens are unaware.” Colin paused before elaborating. “Of which you are unaware.”

“I am aware that the man is an unscrupulous criminal who should make his home in Old Bailey or aboard a transport ship,” the baron replied. “And I’m not going to rest until I see that he does.”

Colin inhaled. “And I’m here to ask that you suspend your search and allow the War Office to handle this matter.”

“I will do no such thing!” Lord Davies exclaimed. “That bounder eloped to Gretna Green with my daughter and abandoned her at a coaching inn after relieving her of her virtue.” The baron’s voice shook from the force of his anger. “He ruined my daughter, and I intend to see that he pays for it.”

“Your daughter must have been a willing participant in her elopement,” Colin said, playing devil’s advocate and baiting the hook to see if the baron would bite. “Eloping to Scotland is scandalous behavior, but it’s not insurmountable so long as your daughter’s paramour had the clergy or the authorities bless the union before he relieved her of her virtue. It may take a while, but marriage tends to soften attitudes, and your daughter should be able to recover her position in society.”

“That might be true if my daughter was legally wed,” Lord Davies snapped, “but the fact that the scoundrel with whom she eloped already had two wives makes her marriage redundant. If it becomes known that my daughter married a bigamist, I’m afraid it will cause a scandal from which she may never recover.”

“Does she know her marriage isn’t valid?” Colin asked suddenly.

“Of course not! We just discovered it ourselves.” Lord Davies raked his hand through his thinning hair. “And to think I sent her back into the ton last night to try to quash the rumors. If word of this gets out...” The baron glared at Colin. “If you or the War Office are protecting or harboring this scoundrel, I demand to know why!”

The knot in Colin’s stomach grew tighter as he recalled the look of betrayal on Gillian Davies’s face when they’d talked of honor and chivalry. Colin took a deep breath before carefully choosing his words. “The War Office is not protecting the man with whom your daughter eloped.”

“But it is protecting someone,” Mr. Wickham guessed, looking Colin in the eye. “Or you wouldn’t be here.”

“I came to find out how much you knew.”