21

“You are to go nowhere without me.” Dante set down that edict the moment they settled

into the carriage for their return trip home.

Lydia wanted to argue against his arrogance, but she was too frightened to do so. She had no intention of going anywhere without him. Her assignments with the Home Office had never been dangerous because translating languages didn’t exactly lead to murder.

Until now.

“We can’t live in fear the rest of our lives.” She tried in vain to stop her voice from shaking. “We have to find out who killed those two people and have them arrested and charged.”

Dante pointed his finger at her. “You will do nothing to find out who killed those people. I will visit with the Metropolitan Police first and then with whatever information I receive, hire an investigator to find the murderer for us.”

Sir Phillip had given them the names of the guards at the gaol who were responsible for the Home Office man’s mistress who’d been murdered, and the name and address of the traitor himself who’d been under house arrest. Sir Phillip had been reluctant to surrender the information, but when Dante had threatened to blow the whistle on the entire secret operation run by Sir Phillip, the man had relented.

Currently, Dante held the crumbled piece of paper with the names on it in his hand. “After some consideration, I believe the best place for me to start is probably not at the police department. Since this operation, like all of them with Sir Phillip, was surreptitious, he would have been unable to offer the information necessary to convince the police that the deaths were not accidents. Hence I doubt I would get any cooperation from them. What I will do is take a trip to Bath and visit with Mr. Nick Smith.”

Lydia frowned. “Who is he?”

“A former mudlark and cut-purse, raised in the East End of London, who rose above it all to own an extremely profitable and exclusive gaming club in Bath. From what I’ve heard he married the sister of an Earl—if you could believe it—and sold the gambling club. He is now the owner of numerous businesses and is an upstanding member of Bath society.”

“He sounds like an amazing man. But why contact him?”

“Because he’s kept his contacts and knows every criminal in London, as well as Bath, and can ferret out information for us faster than the entire Metropolitan Police Department.”

“How do you know him?”

“When Driscoll and I decided to start up a gaming club ourselves and Hunt agreed to finance it as a silent partner, we asked around and learned about Nick. We spent a couple of days with him, and he gave us great advice and helped to get our club up and running.”

“I shall go with you when you see Mr. Smith.” Until this was settled, she had no intention of letting him out of her sight.

He didn’t need time to answer that request, it seemed, since he immediately agreed. “I don’t want you in London with me in Bath. We’ll take the train and a hackney from the railway station to Smith’s house.”

She grinned. “You are so sure of his welcome?”

“Yes. He’s a friendly, open fellow. He owns two hotels so we will stay in one of them.”

Even though they were traveling to Bath to attempt to keep themselves from being murdered, she was excited by the trip. “I’ve only been in Bath a few times, but it has been years. I’d forgotten how much I like it.”

The carriage drew up to Hunt’s townhouse. “When will we go?”

Dante looked at his timepiece. “I believe there is a train to Bath at four-thirty.”

Her jaw dropped. “You mean to go right away. Now?”

He opened the door and turned to help her out. “There is no better time than now. I refuse to live under a threat; and getting us both out of London right now is a good idea.”

“What about the club?”

He took her arm and moved her forward. “It survived for the past few weeks while we were working on the assignment. It will do just fine with me gone again. Besides, Keniel can take over a lot of my duties like he did before.”

They walked up the steps to the house, the door opening before they reached the top. They greeted the butler and continued up the stairs to the drawing room.

“You two were off early today.” Diana spoke softly as she sat on the sofa with the Huntingtons’ pride and joy and heir, Master George Hanover Rose, settled on her lap, sound asleep.

“We had business with Sir Phillip. Is Hunt around?” Dante asked.

“Yes. I believe he’s in the library. Have you broken your fast?” She continued to speak in a low voice.

Tags: Callie Hutton The Rose Room Rogues Historical
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