Virtue's Reward by Jean R. Ewing

Author:Jean R. Ewing [Ewing, Jean R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1995-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Richard was out of bed by the time Dagonet returned, a little the worse for lack of sleep, in the early morning. Mr. Hardy had washed and bandaged his wounds. Then he sent the fellow to fetch him new clothes. It was too risky to have him go back to their lodging, so Hardy hurried off to Richard’s tailor in Bond Street and purchased anew everything that the viscount would need.

Time after that to send Mr. Hardy home with a fat purse. There was no use in endangering the man further and he had earned his retirement.

“Good God!” Dagonet said as he entered. “Apart from the interesting colors of your skin, you would seem to be arisen from the dead unscathed, like Lazarus.”

“And hungry.” Richard gave the other man a lazy smile. “I have taken the liberty of having my fellow fix us breakfast.”

“And then?”

“And then I think I must discover who so urgently wishes my untimely demise.”

The men sat down at the table. Mr. Hardy served them with coffee, fresh bread, and a selection of meat and egg dishes, before he took his purse, grinned widely at both gentlemen, and left for home.

“Then last night’s brawl was not an isolated incident?” Dagonet asked once Hardy had gone.

“It was the fourth attempt in the last ten days.”

“Good God! Have you any idea why?”

Richard had been looking in a rather abstracted way at his plate of eggs, but he leaned back and laughed.

“None at all! I thought my manners so impeccable that I had managed to scrape my way around the world without once giving offense. I swear I am innocent of enemies, Dagonet. I admit I have collected a rather motley crew of friends over the years, but—”

“Il est plus honteux de se défier de ses amis, que d’en être trompé?”

“Disgrace is more in suspecting a friend than being deceived by him—exactly!”

Dagonet sat back in his chair and surveyed his companion. “What about that business in Paris?”

“A handful of girls were rescued and brought back to England, only to be immediately replaced. My man there finds no pattern to their procurement, and I have no idea who’s behind it, but the villain can have no reason to kill me. Even if he knows that I have interfered, it has hardly put any serious dent in the operation.”

“No, it seems extremely farfetched that he would find your existence intolerable. You can’t have done more than mildly inconvenience him, and why wait until now?”

“Yet I can’t think of any other reason for these attacks.”

“If only what we found in Paris weren’t so blindly tolerated by the law! Did you talk with your father as you planned?”

Richard’s brutally suppressed his emotion.

“The Earl of Acton has no interest in changing the situation, though he admits his influence would go a long way toward so doing. He believes strenuously that government has no business interfering in the private affairs of gentlemen, or in regulating the working conditions of the less fortunate.”

“Even when those private affairs are with children?”

Dagonet’s face did not change, but his voice betrayed his disgust.

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.