Murder at the Serpentine Bridge by Andrea Penrose

Author:Andrea Penrose [Penrose, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

“Damn your eyes,” growled Wrexford, drawing back and dropping his guard. “It’s not only dangerous, but also supremely foolish to send your troops into battle without knowing who is friend or foe.”

“Surely you didn’t think that you were the only one we had looking for Willis’s invention,” retorted Pierson with a cynical chuckle. “It seemed to me that the paths we had you two following wouldn’t cross.”

“I would have thought you too experienced in the vagaries of espionage to make such smug assumptions,” he countered.

A shrug. “We were forced to cobble together our response to this crisis in a hurry.”

Left unsaid, thought Wrexford, was the fact that if something went wrong, he would pay the price for bad planning and the government would simply find someone else to take his place.

“Who overheard me in Hyde Park?” demanded Osborn. “I was careful to check the surroundings and saw no one around.”

“Never mind,” snapped the earl. To Pierson, he added, “Clearly, my network of eyes and ears is far more skilled than yours.”

“As to that—” began Pierson, only to be interrupted by a sudden shout.

“Osborn?” A pause, then the shout came again, this time even louder. “Osborn?”

“Hell’s teeth, that’s Colonel Duxbury,” muttered Osborn. “He must have seen me leave the royal enclosure.”

Pierson reacted without hesitation. “Strip off the dead man’s sash and pull out his pockets to make it look like a robbery . . . Tell him the two of you were having a smoke and saw a man fleeing the barn, so you decided to investigate.” He withdrew into the shadows of an empty stall. “Osborn, take the colonel away with you to find a race official and discreetly arrange for a local magistrate to come deal with the crime.”

To Wrexford, he added, “Stay here when they leave. I want a further word with you.”

“I’m here, Colonel!” Osborn called in response to a third hail.

Wrexford had already crouched down and arranged the corpse as ordered. As he did so, he spotted a small silver watch fob partially hidden in the straw. Catching it in his fingers, he quickly pocketed it as he rose.

The echo of hurried footsteps shivered through the gloom, and a moment later, Duxbury appeared, his scarlet tunic bright as a candle flame in the glow of his lantern.

“What happened?” demanded the colonel without preamble.

“It appears to have been a robbery,” replied Osborn. “Lord Wrexford and I were enjoying a smoke out of view of the ladies and saw a man fleeing the barn . . .” He gave a vague wave in the direction of the paddock area and the milling crowd of commoners on the far side of the racetrack. “So we decided to investigate.”

To Wrexford, he said, “Allow me to introduce Colonel Sir Atticus Duxbury, my superior at Horse Guards.”

“Milord,” acknowledged Duxbury curtly, but his gaze quickly returned to the dead man. “Any idea who he is?”

“No, sir,” replied Osborn. “But given the Prince Regent’s presence, and the number of extremely important royal guests, it would be wise for us to handle the situation very .

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