Frost Fair by Edith Layton

Author:Edith Layton [Layton, Edith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romantic Mystery
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Published: 2018-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“Not just yet, my lord,” Spanish Will said.

Lucian cocked an eyebrow. He was ready to go out on inquiries with the runner again, but Spanish Will did not move from behind his desk. Instead, he leaned back, eyeing his visitor thoughtfully. “I’ve kept my end of the bargain. But now, as to yours….”

Lucian tilted his head to the side. “Behold me here before you, Mr. Corby. At nine in the morning, at Bow Street. An almost obscene hour of the morning, best viewed from the other side of night. I was up late last night because of the masquerade. Yet see? I make the sacrifice gladly. You said you were going to look into, ah…‘knocking shops’ next. I’m prepared to go with you. What part of the bargain could you be speaking of?”

“The part where I accompany you someplace I would feel as out of place in as you will in a ‘ah…knocking shop,’ my lord.”

Lucian nodded. “I see. No knocking shops today then?”

The runner’s expression grew serious. “I’ve been hearing rumors. Nothing I can act on, or believe me I would. No, what I keep hearing is the kind of rumor that’s floated from person to person so that by the time it gets to me it’s too watery to hold water, do you know what I mean? Enough to make me wonder, though. So what I’d like to do today, with your help, is interview a relative of yours.”

Lucian’s face grew still.

“I could take him on myself, of course,” Will said, “but I wouldn’t get far. I never do, not with the gentry or their servants. See, soon as I say ‘Bow Street,’ all know I work for His Majesty. But so does a hangman. And they’d no sooner invite me into their parlors than the Newgate hangman. I frighten the lower classes and shame the upper. I can talk to the lower fast and easier. All I have to do is make faces at them. The gentry have ways to hide from me, and when they do talk to me, it’s down. I don’t care about that. But I care about how much cooperation I can get from them. You could help just by standing at my side, my lord.”

“I said I’d help,” Lucian said coldly. “Is it too much to ask just who you’re talking about?”

“Did I not say it? Forgive me,” Will said amiably. “Your cousin, Sir James St. Cloud.”

Lucian relaxed, visibly. He shook his head. “Your sense of humor, Mr. Corby, is quite beyond me. I take it you enjoy terrifying your accomplices?”

”No. Why should I?” Will asked with interest. “Who were you afraid for? Oh. Your brother Arthur? No, I’ve only heard the usual rumors about motive there, and at that, they’re fewer than the ones I hear about yours. Your sisters haven’t got any motives I can see. Now, your Mama terrifies me. She could put down an earl fast as a sick cat, had she a reason to do it.

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