The Saint of Seven Dials: Collector's Edition by Brenda Hiatt

Author:Brenda Hiatt [Hiatt, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Brenda Hiatt
Published: 2011-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Noel Paxton signed his report, set his pen down on the battered oak writing desk and sighed. This had become the most frustrating investigation of his career, and not because he'd failed to apprehend the notorious Saint of Seven Dials. In fact, the legendary thief would be in prison now, had Noel chosen it, but that would have brought him no closer to his true goal—a goal his "superiors" at Bow Street knew nothing about.

"Will you be wanting anything else, sir?" Kemp, Noel's aide, manservant and confidante, refilled the empty teacup on the corner of the desk.

"A clue, Kemp. A clue. I can't help feeling we're missing something obvious."

Abandoning his proper servant pose, the wiry young man leaned against the mantelpiece, balancing the chipped teapot between his hands, handle in one, spout in the other. "Can't see how, sir. You've picked up on things Runners with years of experience missed. Had the Saint in the palm of your hand."

Noel wished he could share his henchman's unswerving faith in his abilities. "At least I've verified that the Saint— Saints, I should say—and the Bishop are not the same man. Which means those anonymous essays are again my only lead."

It was damnably frustrating. He'd been so certain the author of those essays was the Saint, as well as the soulless Black Bishop, that vile traitor who had cost so many English lives during the recent war.

Who had killed at least two men Noel had called friend.

Posing as a British agent in France, the Black Bishop had in fact sold information to Napoleon. His treason had endangered more than one true agent, including Noel himself. Twice, fellow agents had come close to identifying the man and both of those agents had died violently before revealing what they'd learned.

Based on certain evidence found on the battlefield, the Foreign Office had believed the Bishop perished at Waterloo. Noel reluctantly retired to his Derbyshire estate, his services as Puss in Boots, the Foreign Office's top spy, no longer required. He had finally accepted that the Bishop was beyond justice —until portions of a certain essay in the Political Register had struck him as eerily familiar.

Noel wrote to the Foreign Office of his suspicion that the Bishop was in fact alive and in England, only to learn that his superiors had already come to the same conclusion. Another agent, investigating the disappearance of certain Home Office documents pertaining to the Bishop, had recently died in an all-too-convenient accident. Noel was recalled to service to hunt down the traitor, a task he was more than willing to resume.

A visit to the offices of the Political Register revealed that the essay in question had been posted from Oakshire —and that the handwriting of the original bore striking similarities to the Bishop's letters to the Foreign Office during the war.

"Mr. R," the anonymous essayist, was so passionate in his defense of the Saint of Seven Dials that Noel had postulated a link. Noel had therefore offered his services to Bow Street to help apprehend the thief —an offer the Magistrate had eagerly accepted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.