Lady Avely's Guide to Guile and Peril by Rosalie Oaks

Author:Rosalie Oaks [Oaks, Rosalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: _B
Publisher: Parkerville Press
Published: 2025-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

In which a butler proves evasive

In times of great peril, one must act with cunning and decisiveness. Obviously, this is better done when not Bemused.

— from Lady Avely’s Guide to Guile and Peril

After her ignominious retreat and a fitful sleep, Judith awoke an hour later, groggy and hungry. Her first thought was for Dacian. He remembered her. And he was cuffed and trapped, a pawn in some game she didn’t understand. And poor Wooten was in danger too, laid low by his attempt to save his companion.

The curtains were open, showing a cloudy sky. A soft breeze floated into the room. It was not that which had woken her, however, but a tapping at the door.

“Yes?” she called blearily, sitting up. “Come in!”

The door opened a few inches, showing the anxious face of Miss Onslow. “My apologies, Lady Avely. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“No matter,” said Judith, though she could hear the bell of untruth in that declaration. “What is it? Have the captain and lieutenant left?”

“They have.” Miss Onslow edged into the room and shut the door, her usual ease of manner markedly absent, her shoulders tense. She didn’t even cast a curious glance around the Captain’s Room. “I have come to speak to you about something rather concerning.”

“Oh?” Judith rubbed her eyes. Wasn’t there enough to concern her already? “What is it now?”

“It regards the Duke of Sargen.”

Judith’s sleepiness vanished. “What about him?”

Miss Onslow gave a portentous pause. “His grace was in the latest dispatch that Captain Drumpellier wished me to memorise.”

“Sargen? In the dispatch to France? What does it say?”

Miss Onslow tentatively sat down on the wooden chair next to the bed. “Brace yourself, Lady Avely. I am afraid to tell you that Captain Drumpellier intends to send the duke into Austria. He has intelligence of Bonaparte’s whereabouts, and he means to send his grace to try an assassination.”

Judith’s draw dropped. “What?”

Miss Onslow nodded sombrely. “Apparently, Drumpellier thinks he has obtained a level of compliance from the duke, alongside a dosing of Lethe, and that makes him an ideal candidate to send into enemy territory. They intend for his grace to use raw Impact to kill Bonaparte. The reasoning is that even if he should be captured, his lack of memory should guard against any intelligence being lost.”

Rage clutched at Judith’s throat, making it difficult to breathe. “They are sending him on a suicide mission!”

“Yes,” agreed Miss Onslow. “They want someone who cannot be tortured for information, but I have little doubt that his grace will be captured and executed.” Her mouth turned down bitterly. “Like my brother.”

“Your brother?” Judith stared. “Was he an Impactor?”

“No, but he was sent on a similar mission by Drumpellier.”

Judith was quiet for a moment, in sympathy. “But how is the captain ferrying soldiers into Austria?”

“By Travel, of course,” Miss Onslow explained. “In stages—first from here to Jersey, and then to safe houses in France, across to Germany, and then into Austria. Though they may well use mundane forms of travel for some of it.

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