Galahad,
Go wherever your quest takes you. Do what needs be done. But come home only to me.
Hurry. I’ll be waiting with open arms. Je t’aime.
Your lady fair,
Gillian
Jarrod winked at him. “You were right, my friend. The lady certainly knows how to cipher.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
“One for all, or all for one, we gage.”
—William Shakespeare, 1564-1616
The Rape of Lucrece
The Free Fellows League prepared to spring the trap on the elusive impostor Colin Fox two days hence. Colin, Viscount Grantham, wanted to spring it immediately, but the planning took a bit of care and Baron Davies’s cooperation, as well as the assistance of the two new candidates for admission into the Free Fellows League.
Part of the plan called for Colin to leave on his trip as planned and to leave his bride at home at Herrin House. Another part of the plan called for cooperation of a different sort.
It called for Alyssa, Duchess of Avon, and Miranda, Marchioness of St. Germaine, to pay a call on the new Viscountess Grantham.
Their mission was to convince Lady Grantham that her husband had asked them to help her get Herrin House in order. They were to focus her attention on decorating her house, to keep her out of trouble and out of danger. For Colin was very much afraid that his wife might decide to take matters into her own hands and approach her father, thereby alerting the fox they meant to trap.
Alyssa did as her husband asked and invited her close friend, Miranda, to accompany her as she paid a call on Lady Grantham on the second morning after Colin’s departure.
“What’s this all about?” Miranda asked as she and Alyssa drove from Alyssa’s town house to Number Twenty-one Park Lane.
“We’re paying a welcome call on Lady Grantham,” Alyssa answered.
Miranda chuckled. “I think that’s obvious. The question is why, Alyssa? In case you’ve forgotten, Grantham and his bride are still on their honeymoon. They won’t be receiving guests.” She blushed. “And we shouldn’t be calling.”
“Nonsense.” Alyssa brushed away Miranda’s concern. “She’ll see us.” She turned to her best friend. “She can’t refuse a duchess.”
Miranda rolled her eyes. “Being Duchess of Avon has finally gone to your head, Alyssa. I think I liked it better when you were Viscountess Abernathy.”
Alyssa laughed. “That’s because you outranked me then, and we had to do all the things you wanted to do.”
“True,” Miranda admitted. “But this…”
Alyssa leaned closer to her friend. “Colin’s away, and Griffin asked me to drop in on Gillian to make certain she’s all right.”
Miranda had learned not to ask too many questions when Alyssa mentioned Griffin or his friends’ names in the same sentence. There was something amiss with the four of them—Griffin, Jarrod, Colin, and Daniel—and Miranda knew that although Alyssa was privy to most of what went on, her lips were sealed. The Duchess of Avon would never betray her husband’s confidences. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”
“Say what?”
“That you’re on a mission for Griffin,” Miranda told her. “I didn’t know if you’d understand,” Alyssa admitted. “But Colin has to be away, and he’s worried about leaving his bride at home by herself, and well, you know how good he and Jarrod were to me when Griffin was on the Peninsula. You remember how they dropped by Abernathy Manor to see me every chance they got.”
“I remember.” She and Sussex had stopped by to see Alyssa every chance they had gotten, too. But both for very different reasons.
“I’m just returning the favor,” Alyssa said, gathering her basket of housewarming gifts as the coach turned into the drive at Number Twenty-one.
Alyssa rang the bell. “The Duchess of Avon and the Marchioness of St. Germaine to see Lady Grantham,” she announced when the door opened.
“Come in, Your Grace.” The butler took the cards Alyssa proffered, then stepped back and led them upstairs to the drawing room. “Lady St. Germaine. If you will wait here, I’ll inform Lady Grantham that you’ve arrived.”