Mysterious Lover (Crime & Passion Book 1) by Mary Lancaster

Author:Mary Lancaster [Lancaster, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2021-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

“What are you doing here?” she blurted.

“I was about to ask you the same question,” Horace drawled. “I am assuming you did not come alone.”

“Of course not,” she replied with dignity. “I came with Annabelle Worth.”

Horace’s gaze shifted at last to Dragan. “Won’t you introduce your companion?”

It was, she supposed, inevitable. After all, Azalea had already met him. “Mr. Tizsa,” she said resignedly. “My brother, Lord Horace Niven. Oh, and Mr. Gabriel,” she added, catching sight of Horace’s underling, hovering discreetly nearby.

Dragan, who was clearly never overwhelmed by rank or supercilious looks, bowed as distantly as Horace. “You don’t have wine, gentlemen,” he noted.

It might have been a hospitable offer or a request to go away.

Mr. Gabriel chose to take it as the former. “You will join me in a glass, Mr. Tizsa?”

After a quick interrogative glance at her, which Griz found rather touching, Dragan walked reluctantly away with Mr. Gabriel.

“What are you about, Griz?” Horace demanded, urging her to walk with him around the room. “I suppose this Tizsa is the same man you insisted on springing from police headquarters. What is he to you?”

“A friend.” She regarded him uneasily. “What is he to you?”

“Nothing, yet.”

“But you are working, aren’t you? This is a charitable event, Horace. Even Her Grace is happy to donate.”

He looked amused. “I donated, too. You don’t need to protect them from me, you know. Just keeping my ear to the ground, you might say. These people began a revolution, remember, one that very nearly succeeded. I wouldn’t like our people to be learning from them.”

“Our people already have what they were fighting for. A constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament.”

“A worthy aim,” Horace agreed. “But I think you already know some of them wanted a great deal more.”

Following his gaze, she saw he was looking at Lazar.

“I think you are being over careful,” she said quickly.

Horace smiled faintly. “So I believe. But at least I discovered one of your hideaways.”

“I’m not exactly hiding! Horace, that thief you arrested last week—Goddard.”

“What about him?” Horace asked distractedly.

Griz bit back her grin of triumph. “Are you sure he didn’t know Nancy?”

“Nancy?” His frowning gaze came back to her. “Of course not. Nancy was a respectable girl.”

“Then what was she doing in a back street at Covent Garden, with His Grace’s dagger?”

“That is a problem for the police,” Horace said severely. “It is not my area of expertise. Or yours.”

“You know Goddard can’t read, don’t you?” she threw at him.

His scowl deepened. “No, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Trust me, the documents he was distributing were barely literate.” His gaze moved suddenly from Gabriel and Dragan back to Griz. “Why do you even know that?”

“I heard from someone who knows him,” she said vaguely. “On one of my good works.”

“Is that fellow, Tizsa, also one of your good works?”

“I told you, Mr. Tizsa is a friend. What are you going to do here, Horace?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Nothing. Just donating and observing.”

“I’m sure Mrs. Cartwright is thrilled to have two of the duke’s children here.

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