Pleasure Garden 1 - Unmasking the Hero by Lancaster Mary

Author:Lancaster, Mary [Lancaster, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical
ISBN: 9781956003345
Google: FuGqzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Incorporated
Published: 2021-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Since coming home, it had begun to weigh upon the Earl of Wenning’s mind that not only had he behaved badly to his bride, but that he had got everything horribly wrong. Which meant, he suspected, someone malevolent had meant one or both of them ill. Tonight’s shooting certainly bore that out. Someone had tried to kill him or Grace.

The chilling events spun through his head, along with possible culprits, things he needed to discover, things he needed to do to ensure Grace’s safety. He began by lurking outside the gates of Maida Gardens to be sure she was traveling home with people who were safe. From behind the next carriage waiting in line, he stuffed his mask into his pocket, then rolled the domino cloak up and hid it inside his coat while he watched Leyton hand her and Bridget Arpington inside then climb in beside them. Phineas followed.

Safety, he thought with relief, in numbers. But he wouldn’t take the chance. Moving swiftly out of the shadows, he leapt onto the footman’s plate at the back of the carriage just as it began to roll forward. Having never traveled in this position before, it was something of a novelty.

It was also weirdly soothing, for he could hear the hum of voices from within. His wife did not say much, but more than once he heard her merry laughter, and that made him smile—a distraction in his scouring of the road for threats, for the area between the gardens and Mayfair was not all well populated.

However, if the attack at Maida had been deliberate, then the culprit knew who they were and where they lived. He remained watchful, skulking on the far side of the carriage as Bridget was deposited at her front door. After the carriage drew to a final halt in Mount Street, he stepped off his platform once more, scanning both sides of the street and the windows of surrounding houses.

Fortunately, the street was empty. The neighbors might have found the earl’s behavior odd in the extreme.

He waited until his wife was safely inside the house, then began to walk in the other direction to the carriage making its way to the mews. Five minutes later, he had doubled back and entered the house with his key before he made his way up to his lonely bedchamber.

Once, preparing for his marriage, he had made plans to change the apartments around so that his were next to his wife’s instead of at the other side of the house. That had been the only one of his intended improvements she had not carried out in his absence.

Instead, the rooms that had been his since he had inherited the title as a boy felt alien and cold because she was not in them. And because, it seemed, he had been thoroughly taken in by someone he thought of as a friend. The question was, who?

*

In the morning, he rose early and made a number of calls, beginning with the Bow Street magistrate’s house, and moving on to St.

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